Oregon Coast

We had to skip our annual Oregon coast trip last year because I was in Florida when we normally go. Now that we're all together again, everyone decided to take a few days of spring break and spend our time at Rockaway Beach.

There are several things that you need to know about our family before you fully understand this post and those to come. We have been going to the Oregon coast on vacation since I was around 7 years old (my parents even honeymooned there) so it's like our second home. On long road trips, my mom has recently adopted an "animal sightings for money" game. It starts with a list of random animals and their monetary values based on how likely you are to see them. They have to be living when you spot them and you also have to have a witness so that you can claim your money fair and square. The list for the trip went something like this:

Bear: $20

Donkey: $1

Baby goat (my mom calls them goatlettes): $1

Beaver: $10

Elk: $1

Fox: $10

This game is actually kind of fun because we usually see something on the list. It's also an upgrade from previous road trip games where my mom would just make the matching animal noise as we passed things. Does anyone know what an alpaca sounds like? Me neither, but she made up a "pak, pak, pak" whisper and now that's all I associate with alpacas. Very weird. You'll be glad to know that I made a whopping $12 this vacation because I saw a baby goat, a donkey, and one morning as I was running along the beach, I found a beaver. First of all, I never expected to encounter a live beaver in my life, and second, what is a beaver doing in the ocean? To be able to claim my ten dollars, I had to sprint back to the house and grab the camera to get photo evidence. Lucky for me, beavers are not fast.

We stopped by a surf shop in Seaside on the way down and everyone was gifted with wet suit upgrades. It turns out that a full wetsuit makes a world of difference when body boarding in the Pacific Ocean. In 55 degree water temperatures, we could stay for at least an hour. The only bad part is the first ten minutes when your feet feel like they've been put in an ice bucket.