Casa Grande 2013

Casa Grande is the same as it was last year.... and... the same snowbirds flew down here as well.
We arrived last Wednesday afternoon and it took all of a hour for Sharleen to "hit the pool".

Jack, Gail and Sharleen are doing the Casa Grande noodle. It takes a lot of energy to remain upright while sitting on a noodle.
The day was warm and the pool was great so I guess it was worth the trip.

Here's our home for the next two months. We have all we need and lots of friends to share stories with.
I'll blog occasionally as I get something blog worthy.
Till then stay warm up there in the north country.

More crabbing

We went crabbing again this morning. We caught a limit (12) in about two and a half hours, got them cooked and cleaned and then back to the trailer to crack them. Here's three short videos that will show you what crabbing in Bandon is all about.

That's me doing the work. You leave the ring in the water for about 10 minutes and then pull as fast as you can.

Once you get the little critters on the pier you have to deal with them. Be careful..... they bite.
Pinchers are the issue and you need to handle them with care or you will get pinched.

We have had a great time in Bandon as we always do. Tomorrow it's off to Redding, Ca and home on Sunday if all goes well. Tonight however, we feasted on crab fresh from the water. It doesn't get better than that. This is all for this trip so happy trails to all.

Another crummy day in Bandon

It's Thursday evening in Bandon and it was just another day at the beach.

We did some beach walking again today in addition to a visit to Coos Bay. A little windy but still a great day at the beach.

When we first got here we met some folks.... turns out they are friends of friends and now we consider them our friends. Ray and Marsha shared stories around the fire for four nights and what a unexpected blessing. Great folks to visit with!
We just sat by the fire and shared stories of kids and everything else. They live about 40 miles from us so we'll see more of the we hope.



Well, tomorrow we'll go crabbing again and Saturday it's head for home time. Again the trip has been too short but had it's ups and downs.  We'll be glad to get home to the usual routine. Maybe one more post ..... let's see how we do at crabbing tomorrow morning.

Crabbing in Bandon

Today was crabbing day so we hit the pier at 6:45 am.... too early for us retired folks.

This is the public pier in Bandon where we do the crabbing. We hit Tony's crab shack for a license, crab ring and bait ( a whole $20) and headed for the pier,





Here's me doing all the work again... We use a crab ring which is baited with chicken and allowed to sit on the bottom for about 15 minutes then is pulled to the pier with the crab in the ring.

After pulling the crab ring you size the crabs (must be at least 5 3/4 inches across the shell and must be male. One pull resulted in three nice crabs.

After two hours we had 12 crab (my limit) so off to the crab shack to get them cooked and cleaned.

Back at the trailer we set about cracking the crab. It took about a hour to get the job done and this is what we had when we were done.

We had almost three pounds of crab meat when we finished. We're eatin good in the neighborhood tonight!

Bandon

We made it to Bandon... a favorite place... yesterday and today was a walk the beach sunny day with temps in the high 60's. I did break the trailer a little yesterday.... no big deal .... just frustrating when I do something dumb. So today I got to fix it ..... and I did. We did a little over town thing this morning.

Sharleen found a buddy down on the water front (that's Sharleen on the left). I'm thinking a new pet like this is just the ticket to replace Patches.

The Coquille lighthouse was impressive across the harbor entrance. Lots of boats fishing for Salmon in the mouth of the harbor.

We were watching a guy clean crab and looked up and this is what we saw. This big Pelican was just sitting about 5 feet from us waiting for a handout. He chased the Seagulls away and just sat there waiting.

A walk  on the beach completed a spectacular day. Tomorrow is a do chores day and then Tuesday is..... well I don't know and I don't care.....it's beach time. Hope to eat crab one of these nights.

Tillamook Cheese

We spent a couple of days in Nehalem, Oregon just seeing the sights, shopping(gotta love that) and visiting old friends who live there. Tuesday we headed to Tillamook to look around and visit the Tillamook Cheese factory again. Seems we do it everytime we get close.

Since we eat lots of Tillamook Cheddar (Costco carries it) it's fun to see where it comes from. The large bricks of cheese come down the conveyor and are cut and packaged with minimal human intervention. It happens at a unbelievable rate of speed. We have a gallon of Tillamook ice cream that will go home with us. We think it's the best ice cream made anywhere.


Tonight we're in Bandon, Oregon and will be here for the next week. It's just a fun place with shops and lots of beaches to walk. Did I mention the fresh crab we find here? More down the road.

Westport, Washington

It's now Tuesday and today will be a "take it easy" day. Some errands to run before we head South tomorrow.

Grayland Beach State Park is a super place to camp. As you can see the sites are huge and lots of trees separate the sites. Wood for the campfire is available and there are full hookups so it's a great place.

Long walks on the beach are mandatory so off we went. Kris has her required shell bag with her. It was a pretty walk for about two miles.

 This is the only beach I have walked where the sand dollar shells are so prevalent that you just look at them and don't bother taking them home. We assumed that there was a sand dollar colony offshore and the shells wash in with the tide.

The Westport lighthouse is still there and is as pretty as ever. I take a picture of it every year and still love it.

After the beach hike we went to Brady's oyster farm and bought a dozen oysters, put them on the grill and this is the result. We cracked a crab and feasted on crab and oysters. What a day! We enjoyed our time with Kris but she had to head back to work yesterday so we are alone again. Tomorrow it's off to Nehalem, Oregon for a couple of days as we make our way toward home. More down the road.