Sentinel and shoes

I must report that Sentinel is really into feet smells.  This causes him to spend a lot of time rubbing up against shoes.

He particularly loves stinky summer sandals.

Day at the beach.

"We're going to the beach for the day.  Where should we go?" I posted this query on Facebook and Kelly said we should do the hike at Cascade Head.  And so that's how we started our day.

A picture of our map so we could refer to it during our hike, if necessary.

View at the trailhead.

We found this Bearing Tree, which was kind of cool.

From the trail.

Our view from the lower stopping point. 

Self-portrait at the upper stopping point.  This was a hearty and fun hike.  Good suggestion, Kelly!

For part of the way down it looked like I could fall and roll all the way down to the ocean.

On the way to our next beach adventure, we stopped for some food.  I had oyster stew and a beet/kale salad and they were both superb.  Too bad I can't remember where we stopped.

Another suggestion, this one by Angele, was Short Sands Beach, which is located in Oswald West State Park and required a short, easy hike in from the parking lot.  Here's our obligatory feet-in-the-sea photo.

And a couple of self-portraits.

We looked in a few tide pools.

This is a very big surfing beach.

View from the rock on which we perched to take a short nap.

What a great beach.  We shall return someday.

We then opted to drive home instead of continuing on to Seaside.  The drive was eventful. We were re-routed off of Highway 26 to detour around a fire at Manning.  Thankfully, the windy road was easily traversed and kicked us back on to 26 right before a Dairy Queen so we could have a snack before continuing home.

Hooray for a day at the beach!

Cat report

Someone gave us a pomegranate in a pot and I put it on the back porch to see if it would live.  One day when I had the catio up, I watered it and Sentinel ran--actually lept off the bed and ran--to drink the water out of the dirty lid that is catching the excess water.  Because I want him to drink more water, I tried filling a baking dish with water and putting in it one of the pots I keep potting soil in.  He was not at all fooled and didn't drink any of this water.

Antares still loves his heated mat.  Even in the middle of the summer.

Various things at Elk Lake

When looking for kindling for the fire, I found this clip-on light.  It proved to be very bright.

This is the trip we've decided to give up our tent.  We still like staying in yurts and state-park-style cabins, but neither one of us loves tent camping enough to keep a tent around.  So if you are interested, let me know and I'll give you my tent.

Remains of last night's fire.

The thing I enjoy about camping is the snacks.  Including these peanut butter M&Ms.

Overall it was a fun camping trip, with lots of reading from the read-aloud books.

Elk Lake: canoeing and hiking and stuff.

We went canoeing in the morning, my first time in a canoe.  I didn't bring my camera because I wasn't sure how good I would be at canoeing and didn't want to ruin this camera in the first month, just like I did the last one. I wasn't sure if I wouldn't accidentally drop it in the water, or flip the canoe or some such thing. So there are no pictures, but it was fun.  After eating lunch and Matt spending three hours procuring a shower, we went for a short hike at the end of the day.

Matt on a cool bridge.

Matt by a waterfall.

Just the waterfall.

Self portrait by the waterfall.

Elk Lake: on the way and arrival.

We're headed to Elk Lake, one of the Cascade Lakes, which are located outside of Bend.  On our way, we saw a lot of the drought.  This is Detroit Lake, or, I guess, "Lake". It's a reservoir that has been drained down to nothing.  The stumps from the trees they removed before they flooded the lake, could be seen easily.  They are usually far under water.

Another view of the "Lake" which had me wondering how our lake was going to fare.

Thanks to the fact that I had AM & PM switched on my camera, we've now moved on to the next day.  And here's the obligatory picture of Matt sleeping.

Here's our campsite.  It was more primitive than the usual State Park camping we do.  The toilets were pit toilets and if you wanted a shower it cost $5.00.  This is because Elk Lake is on the Pacific Crest Trail and gets a lot of thru-hikers. 

A place to tie up your horses.

A vehicle for use during the snowy season.

First view of the lake.

It was low, you can see those sailboats are beached.  But it was still a lake, so that was nice.

Back at the tent, Matt is still sleeping.