Trip to the Coast

Our morning walk around the neighborhood took us to a nearby historical cemetery, Lone Fir Pioneer Cemetery. It's a lovely place with many old graves. Some of the more recent have flower gardens growing over them. Laser photographs of the deceased appear on the headstones of many Russian and Ukranian graves.

Many lovely trees grace the cemetery grounds.


Chris also pointed out for me some community gardens located along our walk--ones I would never have recognized. When he first pointed one out, I was totally unable to see what he was pointing to--it just wasn't what I was expecting. The tiny plots are located between the sidewalks and the street. Here's a bit of advice from the Community Gardens Toolkit:

The land between the sidewalk and the street, often called the parking strip or planting strip, is part of the public right-of-way and can also be used for gardening. Keep in mind that you will need to closely maintain this space so that your garden does not obstruct the sidewalk or the street.

Later, Chris and I took the bus and Max Redline train to the airport to pick up my rental car. When we got there, we were discouraged by the very long line at the Enterprise desk, since I had a reservation with Enterprise. After a few minutes, we noticed that the line was not really moving--and that the Dollar Rent a Car counter had almost no line. I decided to switch to Dollar and looked up the price on my Droid to see if it was comparable.

When I got to the desk, the clerk offered me a higher rate, but I showed him the online rate and he agreed to match it. Soon we were driving out of the airport in a Subaru Legacy.

We wanted to go to the big rummage sale near Rerun that we had seen signs for yesterday. It turned out to be not much more than toys and kids clothing, but Chris did pick up a rollaboard to use for his trip next week, so he can do some research and decide what kind of new luggage to buy. Next he ran into Rerun to pick up one thing. He came out with something else, but he was happy.

We loaded up the car and picked Annie up after school, on our way to the Oregon coast for the weekend. We had decided not to take the freeway. The route via Oregon Hwy 99 and Oregon Hwy 18 over to the coast and the US 101 south to Newport looked more scenic. It was, but we didn't appreciate it much. First we ran into lots of traffic heading out of Portland on a Friday afternoon. The weather was very overcast and rainy, so we couldn't see much, and the driving was stressful.

When we got to US 101 (at this point called the Oregon Coast Highway) and saw the Pacific Ocean, we cheered up. What a magnificent sight. The weather even cleared partially.

We got to our B & B in Newport only half an hour late and found cookies waiting for us and a fill-in couple to greet us. The proprietor was away welcoming a new grandchild, and she had let us know that her good friends would be filling in for her. The Vintage Cottage at the Grand Victorian has a view of the ocean from the sun porch and living room windows, but it was pretty much obscured by the overcast tonight.

We settled right in, after placing our breakfast order. Then we talked about our plans for the weekend over a glass of wine and some of the chocolates Shawn had given us as a present.

The cottage has two bedrooms. I slept in the front bedroom, which has a queen size bed and new deep carpeting. It was very comfortable. Chris and Annie shared a bedroom with a double and a twin bed. The setup was perfect for us.