Flowing Along At The Oregon Coast

I think I'm a few behind on my sibling assignments, but I thought I would try to at least get the latest one done, which is Sibling Assignment #103, given to us by Raymond Pert.

Our family trip to Rockaway Beach has come to an end. Reflect upon what you enjoyed about being together as a family this past week.

Raymond Pert's post is here, and IEG's post is here.


What I enjoyed most about being at the coast, was being in FLOW.

People enter a flow state when they are fully absorbed in activity during which they lose their sense of time and have feelings of great satisfaction.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (pronounced chick-sent-me-high-ee) is chiefly renowned as the architect of the notion of flow in creativity.

Csikszentmihalyi describes flow as "being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz. Your whole being is involved, and you're using your skills to the utmost."

At the coast, we didn't have many schedules.

We could just get fully absorbed in daily activities and lose our sense of time and did indeed have great satisfaction.

Such as the morning walks with the dogs. We could get up, feed the dogs, then put on their leashes and head down the beach, not having to be back at any certain time.


Life just flowed along.

Playing games around the table.

Visiting tide pools at Hug Point State Park.

This picture cracks me up. It looks like the starfish
is in a somewhat seductive pose!!

Cooking and eating meals around the table.


Taking photographs of family, dogs, sunsets, tide pools, rock formations, seagulls, clouds.


Reading "The Gift of the Sea" by Anne Morrow Lindberg.

What a luxury it is, to not have every minute of your day scheduled. To just relax, and be in the moment...to flow in the moment.

And to have this experience surrounded by my mother, brother, sister, brother-in-law, husband, and three daughters made it even more special.

Living in a Gray World

Since arriving on the Oregon Coast on Monday, we have entered a world of gray.

The sky has been gray. It is foggy. The rain drizzles. The wind blows. The waves crash in various shades of gray.

Gray is a bit like being in limbo. There is no extremes in gray....it is a balance between black and white.

It feels good to be in this gray world at the moment. Just being. Just existing. Time doesn't exist in this gray world. No schedules. No appointments to keep.

I'm thankful today for this special gray world.

PKR and I in our special gray world, with Sadie along side.

Sadie and Peaches chasing seagulls.

PKR and Z2 looking for treasures.

The beautiful grayness of Rockaway Beach, Oregon.

PKR and the dogs.
Walking along the beach with the dogs is such a great way to start the day.

Sibling Assignment 101 Highlights Highway 101

For Sibling Assignment # 101, RP gave us this assignment:

Let's focus on US Route 101, the north/south route running from Olympia/Port Angeles to Los Angeles. Read more about the highway, here. We've all traveled different sections of this famous highway. Write about a specific experience you enjoyed or survived on U.S. Route 101.

I have traveled along this route numerous times in my life, but, as our family plans a trip to the Oregon coast in August to meet Raymond Pert, IEG and JEJ, and mom at Rockaway Beach, it reminded me of the last time we traveled along the Oregon coast as a family, in the summer of 2002.

Could it really have been seven years ago?

We traveled to Oregon because RP's stepdaughter was getting married in Eugene that summer, so we decided to make a vacation out of it, and take our time getting to Eugene.

We traveled to Portland, and spent the first night there.

Then we headed over to the coast. One of my favorite things to do is plan a vacation, and find interesting, out of the way places to stay when we vacation. I don't like staying at hotels or condos. I like places with a certain uniqueness about them.

After Portland, we traveled to the town of Wheeler, and stayed at a small motel in this town, called Wheeler on the Bay Lodge. There are three towns that kind of go together on the northern coast of Oregon, Wheeler, Nehalem and Manzanita. We explored this area, and spent some time crabbing here, if I remember correctly. This was before you needed a license to crab, which I believe is now the case. But, of course, we couldn't keep the crabs, because The Princess could not eat something with eyes that looks at her.

After a few days in this area, we headed south to Newport. Here our homebase was an interesting rental called Above the Schoolhouse Lodging, a small loft located above a Montessori Preschool. It is located about a block from Nye Beach, and was a perfect location.

While here, we visited the Aquarium in Newport, Ripley's Believe It Or Not, The Wax Museum, and the Undersea Gardens.

PKR's brother and his wife, KR and RR had just moved to Oregon and met us there. We look forward to going to visit them again on our trip in August, where they manage a motel in McKenzie Bridge.

I remember going and purchasing a fresh crab on the waterfront, and steaming it and having it for dinner one night. It was the best thing I have ever eaten in my life, and hope to have that experience again this summer.

From Newport we headed south to Eugene for the wedding.

Here are some pictures from our trip.
While in Portland, we visited OMSI, and took a tour of the USS Blueback (SS-581).
This submarine was used in the filming of the movie "The Hunt for Red October."

Here we are on the steps of the Above the Schoolhouse Lodge. We all have out Oregon Coast sweatshirts on in the picture.

Here the girls are goofing around with their aunt and uncle.
Here is IEG, RP and myself in Eugene.