Travel Log June 5 2011

Well as I have left myself with four days to update at once, I think I'll work backwards (and drink a beer while I'm at it). I have just sat down after a lovely beach day at camp Manzanita which is the wonderful cabin we are staying in with John and Rosemary.

We familiarized ourselves with the town of Manzanita this morning with a beach stroll down to the main street and discovered there is a lot more going on here than any of us thought there would be. Great restaurants, a pub, quite a few shops and great grocery shopping. We have all become taken with this beautiful place without much effort. It is quiet, but not too quiet, stunningly beautiful and we are staying just a short walk from the beach in a homey and comfortable cottage.

Violet spent most of the day on the beach and can't wait to get back there tomorrow. She loves everything about this leg of our trip, her grandparents are here (she had been counting the days since we left Victoria), she is 'bunking' with them in the bunkhouse (6 luxury bunks stacked 3 high with private facilities, sitting area and flat screen) and we are at the beach - what more could a girl want?!

Greta has also discovered the joys of the beach and only took a few seconds to start throwing sand around and working it into every orifice of her body while also trying very hard to ensure that her mother is completely covered in sand from head to toe.

While I think of it (and since there is no dedicated and detailed blog to the life of Greta as there was for Violet - again little darling, it's not because we don't love and adore you, its just because there aren't enough hours in the day) I was reminded by Greta today that she really has great communication skills. She started saying uh-oh today - adorable with a high pitched 'uh'. She is quite a mimic and loves to try out sounds whereas Violet liked to absorb the information and wouldn't try it out until she had it pretty much mastered. She also says mama, daddy, doggy and lots of other 'sort of' words that we think mean things, like Violet and Greta. GG has been good at communicating from a young age, she stares intently at the object she wants while she is screaming for it etc. She is also keen on signing. So far she signs 'all done', 'more', 'dog' and waves hello and good bye. Her cute sound of the moment is barking like a dog which is sort of a muffled 'hm, hm, hm' in a deep voice - well done little lassie... oh and Greta now has 6 teeth. Three of them came in the last week - ouch for both babe and mom. She was pretty unhappy and uncomfortable last week so I am hoping she is done with the worst of it for a while.

Back to the trip. Yesterday turned out to be a great day even though we had to pack up our mountain of stuff,  (Jon) trek it down three flights of stairs and find a way to fit it all into the car and hang out in Portland with our carload of stuff until Greta was ready for a a nap so we could travel the two hours to the coast in relative peace. We were ready to go early so we took a walk, hit up the pearl bakery for some indulgent pastries and coffees as well as some yummy sammies for a picnic lunch and took Violet and Greta to a playground for an hour. Check out and a picnic at a wonderful playgournd in washington park completed, we headed out into the beautiful scenery or Oregon toward the coast. When our wee girl woke up we decided to stop for a small meal just before Manzanita (as we had been led to believe there wasn't much here) and ended up having a really enjoyable lunch at a cute little cafe in wheeler even though they were officially closed. We were treated so warmly and loved everything we ate there.

We were thrilled to see John and Rosemary at camp Manzanita and had a wonderful evening hanging out at the beach and settling into our new home for a week.

Our last two days in Portland were a lot of fun. We took a short road trip to Multanomah Falls which is the second highest falls in the US and a wonder also because the area around the falls is so totally developed into a tourist friendly spot and has been for many decades. We were all amazed at the power and beauty of the falls and decided that we should climb to the top. We almost made it but the trail started getting a little too treacherous for the Gleed parents to feel comfortable with so we turned around. Violet, who was very keen to get to the top, was disappointed and confused about the change of plans. Eventually she chalked it up to a dead path (dead end) and then questioned - "but who killed the path?".

We also had one last day in downtown Portland. A disappointing shopping trip to Nordstrom Rack (Seattle is much better), a long walk while the kids slept through the trendy pearl district and a picnic at Jamison Square water park where Violet delighted in the beach like puddle that recirculated with waterfalls from a stone wall every few minutes and Greta refused to dip her feet but was calmed by being carried by a wading parent watching the Portland kids not play with her big sister... :)