When Elizabeth offered Grandma an opportunity to join the Explorer's Club, she demurred. "Mom," I whispered, "say 'yes.'" (I think she was thinking that she would have to shoulder a rucksack, lace up some hiking boots, and hit the trail with us.)
She said, "Yes."
So now we are five!
And the Explorers Club explored the heck out of Depoe Bay, or at least Fogarty Creek beach, near Depoe Bay and the condo where we stayed for the weekend and where Grandma acted as our base of operations, our anchor, while we ventured into the chilly winds and sudden squalls one would expect at the Oregon coast at this time of year.
As it turned out, our exploring wasn't as energetic as it might have been. I thought it was due to the weather. Barb thought it might be a lack of enthusiasm. Turned out to be a virus, percolating in both girls, and resulting in some nasty... outcomes, the details of which we won't get into here.
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| Suzanne on the trail of Mom and Sister. |
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| Examining the treasures cast up by the tide. |
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| Elizabeth in Fogarty Creek. The kids had rubber boots. The adults wished they had, especially Daddy after he stepped onto creekside sand and sank ankle deep into it, flooding his shoe with icy water. |
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| Intrepid Elizabeth checking out a cave. |
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| Suzanne found a stick! |
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| A mysterious machine embedded in concrete and washed onto the beach. Seriously, what the heck is this thing?! (Don't forget you can click on a picture to enlarge it.) |
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| Barb examining a bird, which later research revealed to be an Oystercatcher. |
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| Tidepooling. We got trapped on the rocks by incoming waves. This is a potentially dangerous situation for any tidepooler, so I'm not making light of it, but really the waves were only large enough to wash over our shoes. It was actually fun to stand there (even though our shoes got soaked) holding the girls and waiting for the water to recede. |
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Ocher Sea Star. Elizabeth had just read a book about how these guys send their stomachs out of their bodies and into, for instance, a mussel shell. The stomach then dissolves the mussel tissue and sucks the yummy mess into the sea star. She was really excited to see this happening, but when they're exposed to air they don't do anything except wait patiently for the tide to come in while humans poke them.
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After a hard day's exploring, Elizabeth and Grandma enjoy some reading time. Plus, check out that sunset!
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If my memory serves, this building was the home of (among other things) what was alleged to be the World's Largest Insect. We went to check it out, but the aforementioned virus stopped us in a most unpleasant manner.
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