Rockaway Beach, Oregon

As you know if you have read here more than a couple years, my family takes a trip to Oregon every Summer to enjoy 4 days on the gorgeous Oregon Pacific coast.


Really it's better than Washington's beaches, and California too, unless you like warm beaches. We just wear jackets against the wind, but we always go into the waves, even if just a little. Oregon's beaches are so awesome. One of the best things is no one seems to agree with us because we have practically the entire beach to ourselves as far as the eye can see. Germany's North Sea is the extreme opposite of this; it's more like a cold Waikiki minus the waves. I'm talking about beachgoer density.

If you take my advice and bring a German person to Oregon's coast, please warn him or her about the deafening sound of the crashing waves. As I've said before it was shocking to my man, who'd never heard the ear numbing white-noise of countless huge waves crashing simultaneously, always.

You'll see in my photos what I mean.

We always stay in this hotel directly on the beach, we rent several suites. It's not fancy, it's more like Rockaway's best kept secret.

As is tradition, I drove down to Garibaldi and bought 3 dozen medium live Oysters. It's my job to grill them on the propane grill I have on my deck. As soon as they are cooked and open, I dump them in a pot of melted butter/lemon/garlic. They are so amazing!

This year I also bought a big crab and ate it for breakfast with my mom. It turns out one Tillamook Bay-caught crab fills up two people.

I have to tell you my husband (as well as my mom's) was appalled that we ate a crab for breakfast. It was scrumptious. Imagine living in a place where fresh-caught seafood, and crabs, especially, are not available. Or, imagine being from the Pacific Coast and then moving away to a place where fresh seafood is not a vital part of the culture.

I asked my man to take a photo of me eating my crab and he stood very, very far back. Then he set the camera down next to me and ran away, and I ended up getting crab juice on the camera as I dug the meat out. My mom insisted we dip it in hot butter, and unbelievably, that made it better!

My niece flew her dragon kite, her father let loose with his stunt kite, which actually did blow him off his feet once, dangerously.


These photos are of my immediate family, including my dear niece and nephew, playing with us on the beach. I spent a lot of time with these two on this trip, letting them remember who their aunt is in Germany before they grow up wondering why.

We dug in sand, they flew kites, my mom and Joel too, and their standard Poodle Jasper watched us carefully.

Funnily, my man and I decided to take another tour of the Tillamook cheese factory and we ran into my sister, husband and kids there, just at the right moment to catch them and share the tour, unlimited cheese samples, and ice cream. I was in heaven and went thru the Aged Cheddar line 3 times. How I miss cheddar!

Later we ran into them again, unplanned at a Fred Meyer, south of Tillamook. I'll never forget my nephew's eyes when he saw us suddenly. How could we possibly meet up accidentally, twice, in one day!? As usual, the kids asked to hold my hand so they could chat with me as my husband determined the extent of the MnMs section. He loves the variety of MnMs in America - did you know there are coconut and mint MnMs now? I thought the dark chocolate variety was as good as it could get!

Then we went on our ways from the kids, geocaching the coast.

That photo of me hanging on a tree above the camera was a 4 star difficulty geocache up a freaking horrible hill from hell on the water. I've included a photo of that awful hill. It was an "all-fours" climb up and down, but also blackberry thorns on both sides, the entire ascent/descent. I was so scared and didn't know if I'd make it up, nor down. I did, and told my man, "No more 4 star terrain caches this trip!" The photo of that hill on the water is the danger cache of doom I suffered through.

In the photos you'll see my man jumping back from 50F water, and if you're astute, you'll see how people who live in the PNW carry their dog's waste around with them until they find a receptable. This would be revolutionary in most of Germany.

I'd found a few huge hills of oyster shells, and then found out that people seed the shells with new young oysters..so...maybe in 2015... I'll eat you!

I hope that Kacy reads this post, because I tried to hook up with her in Oregon, and left a message on her machine, but I never got a reply.

She's sooooooo blessed to live in Oregon!