vacay

This week we went camping in Pacific City for some desperately needed R&R.  Sarah took her friend Abby along.  Sarah and Abby had a 4 day weekend this week because of parent teacher conferences and we just couldn't let the opportunity to get away pass.   We have not had a true family vacation all year long so we needed this time, badly.  Pacific City is one of our favorite Thousand Trails campgrounds.  WE have a favorite spot *G5* and we were able to camp in it.  Our favorite spot is a very secluded, area under the cover of a beautiful canopy of evergreens.  This time when we checked in we were immediately made aware that there are bears in the campground. 

Evidently, they've always been there but have never really come out, but this year was such a bad year for the bears foodwise, that they're hungry so they've taken to raiding the garbage cans, dumpsters and camps within the campground.  It's a mommy, her baby and a grown male.  We fortunately/unfortunately never stumbled across them, although we may have been close one time when we came across an obviously looted dumpster, we were later informed that the bear was likely still inside the dumpster.  Most of the dumpsters in the park showed signs of bear tampering.  The mommy bear will sit on top of the dumpster and bounce up and down until the lid breaks, while the male bear is strong enough to simply repeatedly swipe at the lid until it gives way.  So, the bears were an exciting addition to our trip.  Another favorite aspect of this particular campground are all the bunnies it has.  According to what we've been told, somone at some point released a pet bunny or two at the park and they made many baby bunnies.  We always see a lot of bunnies when we go here.  Sarah and Abby purchased rabbit food at the camp store so that they could get close to the bunnies and feed them. 

This camping trip was full of our regularly scheduled activities, such as swimming at the swimming pool,

and playing miniature golf, John had the irritating (er, good luck) ability to have 3 holes in one while my ball bounced off of three holes that coulda *shoulda* been holes in one!!!  grrr....

but we also did other things...for instance, we went into Tillamook for a few hours, toured the Tillamook cheese factory

and ate ice cream, another day we went to Lincoln City to the Outlet Mall and went shopping for several hours, all of us came away with clothes and much lighter wallets than when we started.  We had dinner at the Pellican Brewery (in Cape Kiwanda) and saw a simply spectacular sunset over the Ocean. 

We also participated in activities at the family Center in our campground.  We had an opportunity to carve pumpkins and eat apples & caramel.  This was the camp's 'Halloween FEST".  Abby & Sarah were by far the youngest participants, as a matter of a fact, so was I. 

The other two participants in the 'fest' were in their 60's or 70's ( a very nice couple from Pennsylvania.  The girls got a kick out of the gentleman because he's a fan of old 20's and 30's horror and scary films. )  We also spent quite a bit of time at the family center putting together a 550 piece puzzle of puppies. 

We never quite finished it.  All and all we had a wonderful time.  The weather was WONDERFUL!!!   We had rain 2 nights and one day the rest of the time it was beautiful and mild, we even had a campfire one night (quite a surprise for October).