a bed I don't have to worry about...

A long, long time ago, Mary, Jennifer, and I made a road trip to Taos.  Our good friend Scotty offered us his parents' place for our accommodations, but didn't talk to them about it.  We arrived, and there was no hidden key.  There was, at that time, also no cell phone service, so we drove to a pay phone to verify that we were going to have to find a hotel, ie we got his voicemail.  Jennifer threatened that we would blame him if we got some disease from a cheap motel...which came to mind as Thomas and I have stayed at various lodging along Highway 101.  Not a particularly happy thought, but it makes me so grateful to be in Portland at my parents' home in the little room with the little bed just for me!    We made some oatmeal on the campstove at our hotel this morning...we can still pretend!  Our campout was great and dry.  It didn't appear, at first glance out the window, that the sky was crying down on us, but it was cloudy as cloudy can be.  Still no sunshine!  We packed up and moved on out earlier than we have all week.    Our first stop today was the Tillamook Naval Air Station Museum.  It is mostly comprised of a private collection of war planes, over half of which Thomas could identify just by looking at them.  We snapped some pictures sitting in a couple cockpits, but mostly just took it all in.  The whole collection is air-worthy (is that the equivalent for sea-worthy?), and the owner comes to town to fly them when the weather is clear.  Pretty amazing!   Our next stop was the Tillamook Cheese Factory.  Yum!  We wandered through the self-guided tour, watching the 2 lb cheddar loaf production line.  Pretty intriguing how it all works, and now I know why sometimes there is that extra little piece sandwiched across the top (because it was underweight).  The end of the tour is the tasting line.  There were six varieties for tasting, and I joked with Thomas about going through the line another time.  We didn't.  Instead we bought some garlic white cheddar and made our way to the car for lunch.  We got out the crackers and a pouch of tuna...hmm, hmmm good!  After our healthy lunch, we walked back across the parking lot for ice cream!  Truthfully, it was my first ice cream in a week (the ice cream bars his parents sent over our last Thursday in Miami after Thomas got a little sun-sick), which is pretty amazing considering all the signs for ice cream along the beach.  It was delicious - I do love how they get that crunchy icy thing going on in the root beer float ice cream.    Our stop after that was another walk on the beach at Gearhart, where we typically frequented on family beach trips.  (A somber moment: I thought of a family back in Denver that lost two children when a plane crashed into their beach house while on vacation.  It was almost two years ago in Gearhart that the family was torn apart.  They are close friends of my former boss, and I know that they are still grieving and healing.  I pray for them.)  There wasn't a good place to park the truck with a trailer in tow, so I drove right down onto the sandy beach...pretty cool!  We walked along the waterline, Thomas desperately searching for a whole sand dollar.  We snapped some pictures, I ran into the water.  There was a chilly wind on the beach pushing up kites further north.  We turned around and headed back.  Following Thomas with the camera, I tried to capture him squacking at some seagulls, his reflection in the wet sand, and then EUREKA!  He found a whole sand dollar for me (a personal story of God on the beach for me), and I told him it was a sign from God that I should go on following him!  Cheesy as cheesy can be!  With this I dared him back into the water, holding hands and running.  This was not one time to keep following, as he gave me a big hug and drug me further out and held me tight while the frigid water splashed all over my goose-bumped legs and numb toes.  Running back to the car at least got the blood circulating again!   We continued our journer through Astoria and on up to our eighth state - Washington!  We really just drove over this really cool, long bridge and then turned around to drive back, but we can safely say we drove the whole coast and didn't even leave off the curb at the end because we kept going!  We also picked up some salmon for the party after our nuptials.  That in itself was an ordeal, but we kept our eyes on the prize...Portland before dinner.   Mom, Tom, and I went for some sushi and then set about to wedding planning.  Tomorrow it will all begin again.  And for now, I need to go put my clothes in the dryer, so I have some fresh clothes for the morning.