Prepare for a holiday adventure on the Oregon Coast!
Waterfalls, waves, cliff edges and landscapes...
Dinner, Christmas lights and a tree named Frank...
Your eyes shall drink of my basic photo editing skills!
Your mind, tantalized by the brief but exhilarating story surrounding the images!
Okay... it was just a regular trip but it was fun for us! And hopefully for you too!!!😅
Let's go!
In the beginning - there was a 2 hour drive...
Yes... my dad lives two hours away.
Not miles. Not kilomeeeeters.
Hours.
I've heard that, for some of you in the UK and European folk, time is not something you measure with a ruler or a map.
But in the US, time isn't just money - it's also distance. 😅
My wife 
When there is a weekend trip coming up, my tail wags with increased vigor starting Monday and reaching a climactic, seizure-like pace by Friday.
image source: Giffy.com
We could be going 15 minutes away, 2 hours away, or 10 hours away... we love it!
*Sidenote: I'll admit, this whole "minutes to miles thing" loses its effectiveness once you get on a plane.
Nevertheless, we love taking trips - whether we take them in minutes or miles. 😉 And this trip was in our car, a Christmas trip of sorts, and I'm pleased to share the photos and journey with you!
All images taken with my iPhone 14 Pro Max using RAW - or Audie's Galaxy A54 - and edited using open source GIMP.
Frantic morning. Green fields. Coffee.
The day we left, our morning was a bit frantic.
Audie's mom has Alzheimer's and has needed increased levels of support in the last couple of years. She has an amazing full time caregiver now (which is good), and we're all waiting for a spot to open up in assisted living... but nothing's opened yet.
This means that Audie is constantly feeling stressed when we leave.
Her mom needs to feel reassured that she's not being left alone, medication needs to be counted, cats need to be checked on and food needs to be delivered among other things.
She often forgets how to use the phone now and can't answer, so we have to call someone else to get in contact with her. It's tough on her.
Meanwhile, my dad likes to have dinner done at 5:30.
He's very, shall I say, punctual about when his dinner is done - as well was when he expects people to be there for dinner. So all this adds to my sweet wife's stress who wants to make everyone happy.
She is an angel. She really cares about others.
Once we finished our morning errands (I also knocked out a little work), we stopped to get some hot coffee, and catapulted onto the winding Oregon Coast Highway 101 journey.
About an hour in, we saw the field of sheep (below).
The sun was hitting the landscape like Shakina glory, and I wish I could have gotten a better picture of it through our grimy window.
After getting to my dad's we had dinner, hung out and went to bed. I remember going to bed feeling that 'Christmas excitement'. Also, the bed in my dad's guestroom is UBER comfortable, so that's always nice. ;)
Soon, we would wake up and be off for a hike on the coast...
Don't look down.
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That weekend, we went for a hike up on the bluffs of the Oregon coast, just north of Brookings, Oregon.
I don't think I really captured how far down it is (in the picture above) - but suffice it to say, it's a loooooong way down.
The spot where I'm standing in the photo can be found by taking one of two different routes on Secret Beach Trail (the other route goes down to a secret cove with a beautiful rock arch you can see only at low tide.
What you can't see in the picture is that there's another sheer cliff that drops down the same distance behind me. In this spot, the trail narrows to a harrowing bridge which gives you access to a large rocky platform with some amazing views.
If you're afraid of heights, this might not be the spot for you... ;)
That's no problem for Audie. She can fly.
She'll probably be mad I posted this picture of her, but she's so beautiful - and I'm so proud of the woman she is.
Not just her external beauty, but WHO she is. She's the sweetest, most loving, caring and God-fearing woman I've ever met.
I really have no idea how I got so lucky.
And here's me... giving you my best underwear model look.
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Here's
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And here's me... taking pictures like I'm trying to defuse a bomb.
Hey... 🤷♂️ I guess was really trying to get that shot... 😅
But hey... when you're capturing beautiful things like this island below, it deserves intense focus.
You can see this beautiful rock formation as you look from the Oregon Coast Trail while you listen to the roar of the waves, smell the sea life below, and feel the brush of salty wind on your face.
This thing is massive, and the picture doesn't really do it justice. Don't you wonder how those trees got up there???
Nature is so resilient.
Audie took a picture of me, my dad and his wife together.
I'm really appreciative of this pic and all the pics of my dad outdoors.
As I talked about in another post, Parkinson's Warrior (my dad's journey into the unknown), I don't know how long my dad and I will be able to enjoy these walks together.
I savor each moment (as I know he also does), walking together and reminiscing all the times we've walked in the mountains together yelling "HEY BEAR!!!" to make noise and hopefully scare off bears so we didn't surprise them.
...and, of course, remembering all the brown, black and grizzly bears who didn't listen. 😅
After walking on these trails, we went home to eat Christmas dinner.
Chateaubriand and Potato-bake.
The meat above is a tenderloin dish of French origin.
My dad is an amazing chef and a grill master. I believe he used his Traeger to prepare this succulent, smokey, melt-in-your-mouth meat bonanza.
It was delish...
And then we have, what I can only describe as, sour cream potato bake topped with crispy corn flakes.
I have no idea where this dish originated, except that my Aunt Sheryl used to make it while she was alive. It's a bit like Au Gratin on steroids.
The smoothness of the sour cream, the light 'tang', the crispiness of the cornflakes, and the perfectly cheesy hash-brown-style potatoes earn this dish the 'difficult to stop eating' award. 🏅
Dinner was wonderful - a great warmup for what was next for me and Audie.
A spectacular lightshow.
*Entrance to Azalea Park lightshow (above)
Around 7pm, Audra and I broke ranks to have some fun at the Azalea Park lightshow in Brookings, Oregon.
This light show is famous. Hundreds of thousands of lights, blazing up the night, dancing to Christmas music with all manner of effects.
It's a beautiful site that's pretty difficult to catch with a camera.
Below,
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And here, the trees had animated hanging icicles which glisten and appeared to drip down over the grass.
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And don't forget Santa's workshop.
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We also found this archway which made for a cool photo opp...
Here's my best underwear model look #2.
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Was it snowing on the Oregon coast??
It sure looks like it was!
But this (above) is actually
The little 'snack shack' blows these soap bubbles out of a machine that look like snow (since it seldom snows here). There was a young boy jumping around in the mud and snow (soap) -- so we decided to join him.
Lots of fun. :)
And then, we saw Frank.
This is Frank (or at least that's what we named him)...
Can you see his grumpy Scrooge-like face?
His mouth is right at the bottom of the centered branch. The centered branch is a very long nose slanted upwards (like he's snoring). His eyes are on either side of it - and he has one big, cucumber-like ear shooting off the right side of his head.
We think they should start putting eyes on it so other people can meet Frank, too. I imagine an ancient human buried there from centuries ago who regrew as a tree.
Frank looks like a sleepy grave-man to me.
What does he look like to you? Do you see him?
Going home.
The rest of our stay was full of warmth and closeness. We had lots of smiles, sang Christmas music together and went to a church potluck where I ate lots of food (and cookies).
Speaking of cookies, we ate lots of those at home too. What's a holiday without shameless eating???
No holiday at all - that's what.
We packed up, gave hugs and started on the journey home (getting more coffee in the next town).
Bandon, Oregon.
On our way back, we stopped in Bandon, Oregon.
There is a beach on the south side of the small coastal town that has some amazing views. The ocean was churning that day as if Poseidon was having an afternoon swim.
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You can see the water exploding from inside the center of the rock below.
The front of the rock (where we're looking) has two big holes where waves erupt and burst out from the other side. If you look closely, it actually looks like an elephant smashing it's trunk down into the water.
Do you see it?
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Here you can see the 'coastal vibe' in Oregon.
You can't live much closer to the beach than these guys and gals.
Wouldn't want to be them during a tsunami though.
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I thought this weird-looking log was an interesting shot.
What do you think?
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I like to save the best for last - and for me, these last two shots were my favorite.
There's something about this rail shot that transports me to another time... a time when life was simpler.
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And I really love this shot too. It feels like freedom.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but this landscape looks a bit like Norway - and I imagine the Vikings of old traversing this terrain, living off the land and fighting fearlessly.
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Home + a cat named Stella
Finally arriving home, our first stop was to check on Audie's mom and have a 2nd Christmas dinner with her.
We brought presents and a meal and spent the whole afternoon and evening with her (which she really enjoyed).
Here is her cat, Stella, sitting in my lap and trying to avoid my camera lens before I finally caught her looking at me.
Internet posts just aren't complete without little cat faces.
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I hope you've enjoyed this journey on the Oregon Coast!
If you enjoyed the photos, the commentary, or anything else about this -- follow me (
I hope you had an amazing holiday season full of warmth, family and adventures, too!!!
See ya' in the next one.