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In the Rain Forest

The Pacific Northwest has a reputation as a rainy place. I think it’s a fairly earned reputation. For about the past week, it has done nothing but rain, with temperatures in the high 50s or low 60s. Hardly seems like summer over here on the coast, although they have heat waves across the coastal mountains in the Willamette Valley. But for us, just a lot of cool moisture.

My sister Amy and her husband Rob came over to visit for a couple of days, I guess they wanted to escape the heat in Salem, and that they did. We had a nice evening after they arrived, with dinner in and then a walk along the coast of Depoe Bay. Not too much of a sunset because of the cloud cover. After the hike we watched a movie in the theatre room. I’ve talked about that in the past, but it’s a great feature of their house, with recliners, bean bag chairs, and usually an assortment of movie theatre candy, too. Plus there are several stores in town where they sell caramel corn. So we were all set to enjoy a showing of a silly 90s movie, Airheads.


Hiking at North Point in Depoe Bay, and Cy contemplating the vast Pacific

The next morning, Cy and Amanda both had work, but Amy, Rob, and I went to Pirate Coffee on the Pacific Coast Highway for breakfast (Mike had already eaten his muesli). Then Amy and I went to Newport to wander around the shops in the Nye Beach area. There are gift shops and boutiques and art galleries that kept our interest, even in a light drizzle. We had a funny thing happen, we were just walking into a little shop when a passing tourist, noting several dispensaries in the area, announced in a British accent (and a loud voice), “These Oregonians are all a bunch of druggies, aren’t they?” All the ladies in the shop burst out laughing when they heard that.

We each had a bowl of chowder at the aptly named Chowder Bowl to warm up, along with some delicious cheese bread, then headed back north to Depoe Bay. For dinner, since Cy was at the harbor on gas pumping duty and Amanda was working, we decided that the four of us would go to Pelican Brewery, where Amanda works, to sort of have dinner with her. At least she brought us our delicious dinners and gave us her whole “specials” routine too.


The Chowder Bowl in Newport

Then Amy and Rob headed back to Salem and we went back to the house in Depoe Bay, and when Cy and Amanda came home, we watched some World Cup soccer followed by another movie.

The next day, Cy, Amanda, and I went to Newport, to the library and on some other errands. The library has an interesting staircase, painted to look like a stack of books. There was also a kids’ program going on, with someone from the Aquarium talking about the reptiles (I saw a turtle and a snake) they had brought with them.


Stack of books staircase and reptile program at the Newport library

The rain kept up for several days; one night we had a veritable downpour overnight. Everything was damp and drippy but there would be a bit of sunshine, just to tease us, in the late afternoon. I tried to give Chloe the dog a walk during the moments of sunshine, but we did get drizzled on too.

Then after a week of relentless rain, it cleared up and the sun shone brightly and warmed up the temperatures quite a bit. So we did yard work! Not the most exciting week of the summer, but we are hoping that now we are in July, the weather will stay warm and sunny. It could happen.


Cleaning up the side yard


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