Crabbing

A few days into our trip, we were at the Oregon coast, Toledo and Newport area. It is a lovely part of the state. Toledo is a bit out there though. I had to tease Brad’s cousin, that even when Brad went to Yemen, he was able to use our mobile service to call us back in Egypt, but in Toledo… not a blip of a bar! Nevermind, the beautiful view and clean, fresh air made up for our lack of phone coverage!

It was good to meet Brad’s cousin’s kids. We’d heard about them in email, but this was the first time we’d met them in real life. Thanks for sharing them with us! Good to see his cousin, her parents, and boyfriend as well. Alana cooked up a beautiful Northwest style feast for us on the grill. Salmon … good for Brad, I don’t like the stuff, I know, I know, my loss… and venison steak, first time I ever tried venison and actually enjoyed it (quite a lot actually!) After dinner, the kids got to go out and learn to catch crabs. This was something of a tradition with my husband and his cousins, so it was very special to have my kids go out and try it too.

First, a lesson about the trap itself.

Honor and Alana throw in a trap.

The kids got a good lesson in how a trap works, and safety lessons too… like to stand away from the rope when you toss it in. Might seem obvious, but important!

The first trap is reeled in.

Honor is not so sure she wants to ‘hold hands’.

A crab missing its pinchers was in the same trap, and Honor felt safer with that one.

Brian quickly learned to pick them up and help return the little ones to the Bay.

I love this shot!

The kids got to help.

and they measured the crabs for ‘legal’ size and gender. Most of the ones caught were too small to eat.

Pulling crab traps out of the water, with bait and crabs, is heavy work.

Just carrying one takes a little teamwork.

Returning the little ones… a red rock crab on the left, and a dungeness on the right.

Crabs weren’t the only critters to watch on the bay. There were a lot of birds as well.

We were out about sunset, and the view was lovely… and not just the view, can’t you just feel that fresh air?? Seriously. Crystal clear.

While waiting for the traps to fill, Mitch took the kids down to explore the rocks and look at little crabs.

As we were packing up to leave, this boat was heading out to start work.

No, the kids didn’t actually eat any crabs, but this was an outing, thanks to Mitch and Alana, they won’t soon forget. Thanks!

Oregon

It had been a long time since we last visited Brad’s relations in Oregon, so for this R&R, we decided that not only were we due for some sightseeing, we really ought to do a little catching up. We sent out emails in advance, and managed to set up a pretty good schedule of meeting up with everyone as we roadtripped down the coast.

Our first stop this trip was in Portland. We landed at the airport, grabbed a one-way rental car plus GPS, and drove across town to stay overnight with one of Brad’s cousins and her family. Their older son and Honor hit it off quite well (how are the ‘pet’ water beetles doing?) and we all enjoyed ooh’ing and ah’ing over their twin baby girls – so adorable! Brian was thrilled to be introduced to Nerf machine guns… guess we’ll be searching for some of our own now. Kids, and cats, will be thrilled!

Next we moved on to Salem to visit an Uncle and Aunt, and more cousins … great timing to catch everyone there! We had a good couple days to visit and relax. Unfortunately, Brian had caught a cold on the way over to the US and that, plus a bit of jetlag, called for some quiet time. We had a nice visit, and it was so wonderful to have the time together.

Brian and his great-Aunt have a very similar smile! I have a photo (somewhere) of them together when he was very small and you could see it back then too.

 

Aunt Kathy took us to the Enchanted Forest in Salem. The kids are almost too old for it, as a lot of the theme is Fairy Tale and Story Book, but they’ve never been before and it was fun to run around, see the displays, and climb on things. It was all set in a gorgeous woods area and I think that us adults enjoyed the walking about as much as the kids did.

Look at the GREEN! The whole place was covered in this alien color!

The ‘Old West’ part of the site.

They even got to pan for gold (well, pretty rocks, which are almost as good as gold). And yes, jacket in July were very necessary!

Next stop. Toledo… Oregon that is… to visit more relations.

We’re home again

We had a lovely R&R back in the US. We got to visit a bunch of relatives in Oregon who we haven’t seen in ages ..literally… kids were so young last time we saw some of these relations it was like meeting them for the first time. And some we did meet for the first time, as some hadn’t been born the last time we were in the area! Wonderful to meet these new family members! We also had an awesome road trip, stopping at all of the fun tourist-y things we saw on the way, down HWY101 in Oregon and California. I’ll be posting some photos later… no way I could keep up with blogging while we were on the road, as we were constantly moving and busy. A good busy! But we had some wonderful, and very scenic, adventures and I’ll catch up when I can. We ended our trip by visiting with more relations, including 2 new adopted kids, in-laws, and grandparents in California, and my sister and her family in Oklahoma … CA and OK were so hot that it was a relief to get off the plane in Jordan last night and feel the cool night breeze here!

Our flights back were long, but all went smooth, even though there was a slight delay in England… easily forgiven because British Midlands upgraded us to Business Class (Thank you!). A driver was waiting to pick us up at the airport, and we came home to very excited kitties who had missed us very much. We missed them too. There was much cuddling. We arrived at night, and were all very tired, so we actually slept well. I’m hoping this bodes well against jet lag… we usually get hit worse on the way to the US, but still, the later flight arrival seems to be a good thing.

The house is clean (thanks to the maid), the fridge is empty, Brad’s off to work, and we’ve some unpacking and other work to do, but right now I’m enjoying a cup of coffee, and I’m heading off to my Google Reader to do a little catching up on what others have been up to these past few weeks!