Four Part Harmony

It was another fun-filled, action-packed weekend once again. We’re back from our annual Westwind music/camping/cooking event out on the Oregon Coast. Here’s the post from last year. (Hey, what do you know, the blog is over a year old! 73 posts and counting. wow.)

It was all the usual fun we always have, with the added bonus that we’re starting to get to know many of the people who have been going to this event for years. There are also some kids that are around Anna’s age and each year it seems to get more fun for her.

This big smile came on a morning, low-tide walk on the beach to check out the tide pools.

We also got to do plenty of digging and playing in the sand.

Here’s a nice picture of Nicki and Anna on the front porch Saturday morning.

Here’s Nicki on our Sunday morning walk on the beach. To the right of the photo, at the north end of the beach is the mouth of the Salmon River, and in the background is Cascade Head. Westwind is located just south of the Salmon River estuary, which is just breathtakingly beautiful. There’s no public road access, so people have to take a ferry across the estuary and hike up the beach to get there. In the past we’ve taken the ferry or hiked the mile and a half or so up the muddy road to get there, but since we come in with the kitchen crew we actually drove all the way in this year. They didn’t want us to leave our car at the camp though, so Saturday morning I drove the car back down the road to the nearest parking area and ran back the mile and a half in the drizzling rain. There are some giant old-growth sitka spruce in that forest. The skunk cabbage and salmonberry are always in full bloom this time of year. It was a nice run.

Sunday was the nicest day by far. The sky was crystal clear and the sun was shining. Here I am breaking the guitar in in a jam that formed on the front porch. I actually got to play quite a fair bit over the weekend. Met and played with a couple other people who are making instruments too, which was great.

We didn’t get much rest Sunday. By the time we got home and got all the critters and plants taken care of, unpacked, mowed the lawn, got everyone bathed and whatnot, it took us well into the evening to get settled back in.

Monday, Nicki’s 36th birthday, was just as beautiful a day, and it was a shame I had to get up early and go to work. I worked through the morning, but Nicki called just after lunchtime and we both agreed that maybe I should leave early and we should go for a hike. So that’s what we did.

We headed out to Angel’s Rest in the gorge. It’s a really pretty hike, and one that’s always been a favorite of ours. It’s a steep climb, like most any of the gorge hikes, but we were in no hurry.

The wildflowers were blooming like crazy. These are delphinium.

A little higher up, the red-flowering currant were in full bloom also. We also saw chocolate lily, bleeding heart, wild strawberries, tons of others.

We made it most of the way to the top, and stopped to share an apple. Anna was getting a bit tired, and we were running up against dinnertime and our plan to get back in time to get the last tee-time at Edgefield, so we decided to head back rather than pressing on to the top. Here’s a view near the top, looking west, as we started to head down.

Anna fell asleep pretty quickly as we headed down, which caused me to have to sort of walk hunchback style the whole way down. We still made relatively good time coming down though, and made it to Edgefield in time to get everyone a quick bite to eat, and to get out on the last tee time.

It was late enough that no one was coming behind us, and we could take our time. Anna got in a lot of putting practice, though she usually found it much easier to just pick the ball up, walk over to the hole and just drop it in. Nicki and I both had our mix of good and bad shots, but all in all it was pretty good for the first outing of the year. The weather stayed nice all evening, not too warm, not too windy, just perfect.

We took a few pictures in the garden as we were finishing up our game. Most of them came out blurry, but we got a couple cute ones of Nicki and Anna.

This one got a little blurry but I like it anyway.

I can’t speak for Nicki, but it was a pretty nice weekend all in all. So long for now!