Vacation 2015, #15 - Whale Watching

On this fine day, only moments after trying, unsuccessfully, to experience some of the finest (according to the ratings) West coast clam chowder at Mo's West, we find our happy entourage back in Depot Bay Oregon getting ready to climb ourselves onto a fishing boat for some whale watching.  

This is where I would like to point out that EVERYBODY seems to be excited about this other than dear ol' Dad himself.  You see, every time I get on a boat, I have to set my resolve that I will soon be dead, and for better or worse, standing in front of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, facing judgement.  

I don't like boats.  I don't like water (other than for refreshment!).  I don't like swimming or other stuff that humans have to do in water like trying to survive!  It's just not my thing.

So we buy our tickets and all seems good.  The water looks fairly calm and people seem to be returning happily with all of their limbs intact, so, what could go wrong!?

I know that I will be queasy and hating life shortly after leaving the bay, but at this point, I am rejoicing over the poor service at Mo's West where we simply left after a while because of their utterly crappy service.  Otherwise, I, along with the rest of my party, would have eaten a large bowl of clam chowder and then found ourselves out on a boat with waves causing us to drop 10-12 feet per wave...  not a good combo.

This was crossing the Pacific Coast Scenic Byway and approaching the Depot Bay State Park OPRD Whale Watching Center.  If  you had not noticed, it's a beautiful day!!!

Skeletal remains of a harbor seal in the building that appears in the above photo.

Skeletal remains a sea lion.

Cool stuff.

Outside of the visitors center.  We will pass under this bridge in short time on our whale watching boat.

At water edge, preparing to board!

yep...

Two of my beloveds shortly after boarding our vessel.

Out at sea...

Shortly after hitting the "sea waves",  Caleb grabbed the front of my shirt with unbridled intensity and yelled, "WHY ARE WE DOING THIS!?!?".    He was not fond of the waves and was pretty determined that we were going to perish.  This photo was taken after he had settled down and decided to sit at the comfort of daddy's feet.

There's a whale out there somewhere...  Seriously.  It's hard to catch the buggers on camera because of the delay of digital camera's but we did see quite a few.

You see that light spot right near the middle of the picture?  That's a whale blowing mist up thru his/her blow hole!  Caught that one!

This was heading back to the bay when the waves were "in our favor"!   I spotted what I first thought was a snake but as we approached and eventually passed, determined was an octopus!  Very cool stuff.

Once we returned to the bay, to the happiness of all of the boats sea-sick city-slickers, we saw this happy little guy swimming around for our enjoyment.

Happy Birthday, Caleb!

It's late, I'm tired and needing the work week to be over. 

However, it is a fantastic day in the history of the world.  It is the day where 9 years ago, a little baby boy was born in the Jilin province of China, in a city named Changchun. He came to our family 4.5 years ago and provided a whole pile of what we never knew was missing!!

Happy Birthday, Caleb!  You are beautiful, and you are LOVED!!

Well, "Sun" of a Gun

This girl likes her some sunspots!!

Another Caleb Cute

Caleb is cute.  I think most everybody who knows the lad would agree with that, but I will admit, I am biased. 

He apparently does not care for the fact that Mom works.  Why?  Dunno...  You'd have to pry that out of the boy yourself.

So when Mom was compiling a list of things to do for the day, Calebber kept trying to get her to add "wrap mah birthday present" to the list.  She would not, stating that she did not need it on a list to get that done. It would be fun.  

So he added garlic and one other item to Mom's list that she did not see until she was at the store.

His last item:  "Stay home forever" with some creative spelling.

I love my boys!

Vacation 2015, #14 - Oregon Lighthouses

Back to last years vacation when I need this years the most!!

Well, maybe not the most, but I'm in need of one and while I plead with God that it's not a LONG vacation, I could certainly use a good one.

In this post, we find ourselves somewhere on the Oregon coast, I really can't remember where at this point, where it is beautiful.  I'm guessing there are few places on that coast where it isn't absolutely gorgeous.

Not sure that needs a caption...

This is up inside the lantern room at the top of the lighthouse.

One of my favorite pics thru the red glass in the lantern room.  That's Rob and Caleb just left of center and the overall reflection you see is me in the main glass holding my cel phone camera.   See it?

Little Calebber is on the other side of the red, if you can spot him.

That's the "wick" and respective spiral glass bottom, with a shot of a person heading down the spiral staircase in the background.

A shot from the walk-way around the base of the lighthouse...  obviously, a terrible place to live.

The hike back up to the parking lot where we find our exhausted van waiting for more driving!

This is, apparently, at Cape Meares.

A short walk from the parking lot to the lighthouse.

You'd swear it was penguins out on that rock but what looks like snow is this birds "output" and a bird guy/specialist who was taking photos told us what this bird is.  Hint:  "not penguins".   Oh, and I have no idea what the heck the feathered things are anymore...

Mobile Chaos Unit in various states of joy.

The second lighthouse that we visited without really visiting.  It was getting a bit late in the day and this photo is zoomed in quite a bit.  It was another LONG walk to get there and I believe the silly thing was closed for some reason.

and so it was...

Sickness, Sickness Everywhere!

In sickness and in health... ugh! 

We have been sick!  Caleb started the ball rolling with sniffles and a bit of a cough.  This is the boy who has never been sick in the time since we've brought him home!  Well, to be honest, that's not entirely true...  he has had the sniffles before with plugged sinuses that you could hear when he talked.  But that was only one time and lasted for about 2.5 days!

This time it got worse to the point of him ASKING for medicine!  Yikes.

So, on a fine Monday afternoon, Momma took him to the doctor and the boy had gotten the flu.  I was home with him Tuesday thru Friday of last week.  Thankfully, I have a job where I can work from home as needed and a boss who always says, "family first".

Then on Friday, Robby stayed home with us as he "produced" evidence that he wasn't right.  Double yikes!!

I have been in and out of this whole mess with lesser variations of everything the boys can drum up.  Sunday night, Robby gets a little worse while Caleb gets better.  Monday, we're all off to work and school and all seems okay with the world.  

Tuesday, Robby fights going to school and obviously has a sore throat, but plenty of energy to talk non-stop and be mouthy in his usual way.  He looks and feels BAD Tuesday afternoon when I picked up the boys.

Wednesday, Caleb is fantastic, Robby stays home but seems better than the previous day.

Thursday Robby seems fantastic, didn't even mention staying home even though Daddy clearly was.  Not too mention, I left work a bit early on Wednesday when I was sure I could get home without a stop at a gas station... if you know what I mean.

About 12:30 today (Thursday) I get a call from school.  It seems that Robby passed out in music class and in the process, hit his head.  Now rest easy, there are no signs of impact or lacerations or concussion or anything else.  That part is fine.   But he did hazard a trip to the urgent care clinic to find out that he does indeed have strep throat.  

Good for us all...   So, I'll be home again tomorrow with the lad.

On with the pictures, shall we?

The day prior to sickness befalling our place of dwelling.  This is how Robby and Juno the Beast watch tv together.  It's not very lady-like, but she must be comfortable because she always comes back for more.

There is sickness...  The boy on his second day of feeling absolutely miserable.  I took his picture and he said, "Daddy, no facebook.".   So, I'll put it on the family blog instead.

Sick boy and his dog that Friday evening after missing school.  This nap and the subsequent overnight rest seemed to be his turning point.

This is the boys and their new haircuts.  It was taken before school this morning and quite frankly, looking at it now, I can tell that Robby is a little pale, but the lips and eyes still have color unlike when he normally gets really sick.

Couple of hams...