Life in Fukuoka, Japan: Astoria and more

Astoria...

I have been to Astoria for the past three weekends. It will be so odd not to drive up there this weekend. The first weekend I already wrote about. I had gone there to watch my little Ella Bell's dance recital and to bring her back to Salem with me for a week. The following Sunday Mark and I drove my mom and Ella to my brother's house. I had a great time with my mom and Ella, well, except when Ella was sick for a couple of days. It is so hard to see the little ones when they don't feel well and you can only do so much to try and make them feel better. When we arrived on Sunday we all decided to go to The Wet Dog Cafe for lunch, and then afterwards Mark and I would head off to Cannon Beach for the night. The Wet Dog Cafe is a place Mark and I enjoy going to eat. They have a great view of the Columbia River. Since there were so many of us we did not get seated in the large room with the great view. That is OK though, we had a delicious lunch and we all got to talk and catch up. After lunch we said goodbye and Mark and I headed down the coast.

Cannon Beach is a very popular destination for tourist and locals alike. Whenever I have visited Astoria in the past I have always gone to Cannon Beach for a day trip. They have really nice little stores. Yes, they are somewhat touristy, but I like them. This time Mark and I were staying in Cannon Beach a little bit farther down the beach from the “touristy center” of town. Our hotel was called the Tolovana Inn (you can see it: www.tolovanainn.com/). It is very good sized hotel. There were rooms with ocean views that I am sure were amazing, but we didn't have one of those. Our room was nice and the sink was made locally. It was beautiful. We changed into shorts and walked down to the beach. It had been pretty cloudy, cold and rainy in Astoria. For any of you who know Astoria then you know that is the normal weather for that area.

We walked for hours on the beach. It wasn't very crowded and the sun was coming out. There is a large rock called The Haystack that was in between our hotel and the city center. The Haystack has puffins that live on it. They are such unusual looking birds. They are one of my mom's favorite birds For those of you who have not been to a beach lately--- you really have to go. Cannon Beach is the best of both worlds for me. It is has forest all around and the beach. To me that is the perfect location! I would be happy to live in or around that area.

After walking and exploring for several hours we went to Mo's for a little snack and a cool drink. Mo's is right on the beach and is always crowded. We got lucky when we went in because we only had about a 5 minutes wait. When we were leaving the line was all the way out the door. I didn't have a meal so I couldn't see if all the fuss about Mo's was worth it. We had a nice time though and our appetizer was delicious!

The next day we got up and went to a little bakery for a small breakfast and some hot tea/coffee. It was a packed full little place. I do mean little...it had maybe 3 or 4 tables that sat two to three people. The counter to order from was at the back and surrounded by people. Our drinks took forever. We were planning on getting our muffins to go, but we had eaten them and sat for awhile before our drinks were even ready. It was no Starbucks!! (Speaking of that, one thing that is nice about Cannon Beach is that they have NO big food chains in there town.)

After leaving Cannon Beach we headed down the coast. There are so many little towns that you pass through. Some are a good size while others seem like they only have a store or two and then the town would be gone.

We stopped in Tillamook to see the Tillamook Cheese Factory. I have been there many times, but I always enjoy going through the store and of course having an ice cream cone. Mark and I really don't eat ice cream (we usually have dairy free desserts) but when I go to Tillamook for a visit I have a cone. Yum!! Mark obviously didn't see how big of scoops they were giving out. I knew to only order one scoop while Mark ordered two scoops. That was a lot of ice cream.

After our ice cream break we headed back down the coast. The next place we stopped was Lincoln City which is a beach town. It is a really nice little town or city. We stopped to look at the hotels that were along the beach. We may go up for a night or two. The beach area is long and there are several hotels that would be right on the beach. One of the hotels has a large lighthouse painted on the side.

Going down the coast the next area we came to was Newport Beach. Mark and I climbed the lighthouse and went down to the tide pools while the tide was out. We didn't arrive there until the tide was beginning to come in so we missed the lowest tide and we could only explore in a limited area. There are seals that live there out on the rocks. They were many seals swimming around. The baby seal pups were waiting on the rocks for their moms to return. We were told at the lowest tide time you can get out almost to the seals. That would be something to see. I would love to stay the night there in order to have the opportunity to explore more of the tide pools. As we were leaving the lighthouse we saw Agate beach down below. We were able to get a few pictures of the dock that washed up on the beach from the Japanese Tsunami. It is about a 60 foot dock that washed ashore several weeks back. It is costing $84,000 to have it dismantled and hauled away. They are going to use a portion of the dock to make a memorial for the tsunami.

We really lucked out with the weather. It was overcast but it didn't rain very much. The temperature was cooler, but I loved it.

This past weekend we drove to Astoria on Saturday morning to celebrate Ella's 7^th birthday. She was having a party with all of her friends and then 5 would stay for a sleepover. My mom was at my brothers and she was going to tough it out and stay in the guest room where she had been staying. We offered to get her a room at the hotel we were staying, but no luck. I am sure she was second guessing that decisions since most of the girls stayed up until the wee hours in the morning. I heard that some girls were up after 2:00 AM. Yikers!! Oh, before I forget I wanted to let you know that Ella designed the dress she was wearing. She had it all sketched out and Michelle had it made. She actually has many outfits sketched out. One of her gifts was that Michelle put all of Ella's sketches in a book with the plastic sleeves over them. She has a great eye for fashion at a very young age. Who knows, she might one day end up on Project Runway.

The party was a lot of fun. It is amazing how busy little girls are. When everyone arrived we had a BBQ with all the scrumptious side dishes. My mom makes the world's best potato salad and deviled eggs. At our family gatherings we always have more than enough food to feed an army and this was no exception. Mmmmmmmmmm...

Following lunch the girls all got into their party tote bags and put their “party” masks on. I have a picture of the girls before their masks were on and with their masks on. You will all see how adorable they looked.

Presents were next on the agenda. Ella got such great presents. Her friends were very excited to see everything. I took photos of Ella and the girl who gave her the present. It became a joke because all of the girls wanted to be in all of the photos. It is so different from the last party I went to because it was so difficult to get Ella to pose for a photo. Not any more. She is great at posing and she looks so cute!

Michelle, my sister-in-law, bought a flower candle. When you light the candle the fire gets bigger and brighter. It starts to play music and sparks while the flame burns down. Well, the girls did not know what to think. This was something new for everyone. I will say that it started out with everyone wondering if it was going to do anything to girls freaking out that it was going to explode. It was all very amusing, although at the end we wondered if anything would catch on fire. Not the safest candle, but we will never forget it.

Craft time was up next. The girls were all going to make their own placemats. They had paint, flowers, bugs and animals to use to create any design they could think of. Most of the girls really got into making their mats. Others started out strong but fizzled out. Following the craft activity the girls were able to make their own cotton candy using only two hard pieces of candy. I have to say that I really enjoyed watching this. Who would have thought how much cotton candy two Lifesavers would make.

Many of the girls were picked up and when we had the last 6 including Ella we got ready to head to the movies. We were going to see Brave. Now, something you should know is that my mom, Ella and I had already seen it the week before in Salem. The funny thing about this is that my mom does NOT enjoy going to movies. She rarely goes to any movie for any reason, but here she was seeing Brave for the second time in a week. She was a good sport though. The girls got to relax and eat popcorn while they watched the movie. After the movie everyone went back to Ella's and pizza was ordered. This is when Mark and I said goodnight and headed to our hotel. Mark had escaped from the party earlier in order to go to the hotel and check in. Once we got to the hotel we took a nice walk along the riverside. The weather was beautiful and the sun going down made for some good photos.

Mark and I went to “Pig and Pancake” for breakfast. This was an interesting experience. Nothing fancy. I think it probably is about the same as a Denny's. We hit the cash machine and were off to get my mom. We were headed to the Sunday Market of Astoria. The Sunday Market has such fresh and local berries, tomatoes, asparagus, apricots, cherries, green beans and so much more. We bought a bunch to have for the week.

When we got back to my brother's house we saw he was BBQ-ing for the girls. The party was still going strong. Most of the girls were being picked up at 1:00 PM. That was one long sleepover. It did make for an easy get away. With Ella so distracted she just said a fast goodbye. I knew that if it would have been just me and the family I probably would have cried since I may not see her again before I leave for Japan. My brother did say they would see me. I will have to see how it all works out.

We tried a new route back to Salem. We took a road through the forest that looked like a glorified forest service road. It was beautiful. We saw every shade of green that anyone could see. The woods are so dense. It was easy to see how someone could think the shadows were something moving in the woods. I didn't see Big Foot though just in case you were wondering. As we continued on we stopped in McMinnville at the Space and Air Museum. Don't get all crazy thinking I was looking at all of the planes. I am not saying there is anything wrong with looking at old planes (the Spruce Goose is at this place), but it is just not “my” thing. We did however go to the gift shop and bought many different packages of hazelnuts. Here is a little fact that I did not know. All of the hazelnuts, or the majority of them, that are used in the Nutella from the states are grown right here in Oregon. I learned something new. Who would have thought?

I was happy to get home so I could relax a little. Sometimes being on the go and sitting in the car for hours can really take a lot out of you.

The bonus good news was when I was about 30 minutes away from Salem Jessica sent me a text to let me know she was going into labor. She didn't have Raegan until the next day, but I was so happy for her. It was difficult to wait for the news. Well, probably not as difficult as it was for Jess to deliver Raegan. I guess it is all about how you look at things.

Stay tuned for more. I am still trying to get up to date.