summer at the beach

I'm not a summer person. Last weekend, it was so hot that Andrew and I really wanted to escape to the beach to celebrate our Ava-versary but it was too short of notice so I booked a house for this weekend instead. It ended up being absolutely perfect.

On Friday, we made it through a three hour drive to arrive in Walport at a new-to-us beach house. Ava was delighted and ran herself silly. Dean liked the beach but Ava derives so much pleasure from running into the water and digging in the sand. It's really a delight to take her here. It's been years since I was here last. As much as I enjoyed it back then, I really like having Andrew here with me this time around.

 On Saturday, we walked across the Alsea Bay Bridge to the downtown part of Waldport. While on the bridge, looking out west, I spotted two sea lions swimming! The water was so clear that you could actually see how quickly they glide while swimming. We walked around quite a bit. Ava found a yellow lab to play with and they switched back and forth between wanting the lab's stick or Ava's ball. On the walk back, we took the east side of the bridge where we could see the bridge's shadow in the water. Within the shadow, there was almost a solid line of sea lions and then another 40 or so on a sand bar. I've never seen wild sea lions that close (even though I was on the bridge) or observed them without a telescope in their natural habitat. It was beautiful.

On Sunday, we headed back. One of the things I love about vacationing with Andrew is that he doesn't linger around in the morning. We get packed up quick so we can get on the road but first, we got brunch. As luck would have it, we ended up stopping randomly in Newport at the Nye Beach Cafe which was delicious.

Really when I want to head to the beach, I want to make it an extended weekend but I will still take this any day. I feel so content right now that I can even handle the hellish weather that is approaching this week.