Grape Pickin'

Yesterday Mom called me at work and said, "Wanna go pick some grapes?"  Of course I said yes!  She'd been looking for concord grapes to pick ever since our friend took out his grapevines and had finally found some down in Wapato.  They were going to go through and harvest all the grapes left on  the 20th, so we only had a few days to get there.  After bringing a change of clothes for me (not gonna get grape juice on my nice clothes!) we drove down to Kreuger Pepper Gardens.  They have more than peppers, of course, including squash, garlic, onions, watermelons and right now concord grapes!  We had brought our own boxes and pruners, but we were informed the grapes around the U-Pick were all pretty well picked.  They directed us down to another vineyard they owned and we had to get past the security...

...but luckily we weren't hassled much.  (Sweetest dogs in the world, they just hung out while we picked.)  We had the whole vineyard to ourselves, there wasn't another soul around!

Isn't that beautiful?  Miles of vineyards with velvety Eastern Washington hills in the background?  This is why I love where we live.  The grapes were thick too!  Mom and I picked and picked and didn't make it three feet in either direction.

There may have been some pretending I was a nymph of Dionysus with all those grapes around...

Too bad I can't Photoshop a toga and some laurel leaves on that pic.  :)

When we'd filled our boxes to the top we trekked back out and drove back to get them weighed and pay.  I picked up some butternut squash, because ours didn't do so well this year, and also some garlic and peppers.  At the farm stand they told us about getting a steam juicer to process the grapes into juice to make jam or just drink.  My coworker had also mentioned getting one, so we bought a fairly nice one on Amazon with 1-day shipping.  Mom had spent all theses years doing it the centuries-old fashioned way with a potato masher and cheesecloth.  This should speed up her processing time greatly!  She figures one box for jam and the other box for juice.  Or possibly wine...she's already started research.  And speaking of spirits we had to pass field after field of hops.  If you never knew where all those Yakima hops were grown to make your favorite craft brew, then behold the majesty...

You know your from Eastern Washington when the smell of hops makes you instantly think of fall!

**I didn't have my nice camera, so I had to make with do with my iPod.  The pictures aren't too bad, but I know they could have been better.**

I go to the sea to breathe...

Do you feel like you leave a part of your soul in places that are special to you?  The place you go to relax, a place where you have an adventure that re-energizes your soul or a place where happy memories are made with the ones you love?  And when you go back to that place you can pick up that piece of your soul you left behind and feel whole again?  Okay, maybe that's a bit over dramatic. But I love Cannon Beach so much that I feel I live there all the time and that I live my life at home for a while and then go back and pick up that other life and it fits so well and I'm so happy I wonder which life I would be happier in.  We all know we are often happier on vacation than off, but really there would be no way to sustain it.  So I enjoy every moment I'm there but I'm also happy to come home.

This year my cousin Melinda and her two children visited us for a day at the beach.  The weather was fine and I finally had someone who wanted to splash in the waves as much as I did!  It's been so many years since I jumped waves, splashed around, let the incoming tide rush up my legs as I stand there letting it soak my pants.  So. Many. Years.  I also forgot how much I love it!

Sand...*sigh*

We had such a good day!  We ate at Morris' Fireside restaurant, which was always our eating place when all my cousins would go with Mom and Gram.  I got clam chowder and Melinda said that just looking at it she knew what it tasted like.  She tried some and was happy it did still taste the same!

Since I'd missed Number 1's birthday and Number 2's is coming up soon, we went over to the toy store and they each picked out something good.  We also went down to the candy store, of course!  There's no way you could go to Cannon Beach without stopping at Bruce's Candy Kitchen.  All sugared up and new toys acquired, Melinda got the lucky task of driving home two crazy kids.  One can only hope they fell asleep...20 minutes before she made it there.  :)

Later that day there was an amazing storm coming in over the water...

It got closer and closer...and then the rain started.  It got harder and harder until it was almost horizontal and then some tiny hail was added in.  It was quite a downpour outside.  And then it was a downpour inside!  Water started coming through the small accent light in the mini-kitchen in a small stream.  We ran over and rescued food and candy and then stuck the ice bucket underneath.  Disaster temporarily fixed we called the front desk and they said that the people above us had called too.  The water was coming in their room from the balcony because of a blocked drain.  About that time water started leaking from the ceiling in our room around the fire sprinkler!  A couple of dog bowls under that one and we waited out the storm.  It disappeared as quickly as it came it, though it took a little longer for our indoor waterfall to stop.  Maintenance went up and cleaned out the drain on the balcony above and then came down to see what they could do for us.  There was really nothing to do besides giving us a bunch of towels to soak up the water.  Eventually it stopped and the sun came back out.

Other than that adventure, our vacation was fairly calm.  We walked the beach down to our favorite coffee shop, Sea Level, every morning.  A caramel mocha and a maple pecan roll for each of us and then the walk back to the hotel was required to work it off.  The puppies love walking the beach and meeting new dogs or following their noses to some detritus they find terribly appealing.  But this year Ariel seemed to have a bit of arthritis.  She would walk only so far and then sit.  This made getting to the coffee shop difficult.  The very first day we only walked part of the way and then headed back and drove down.  It would've taken all day to walk there and back with her sitting.  So we did what all good (dog) parents do; we bought a stroller.  That's right she rode up and down the beach this year and she loved it.  I have to say it was pretty cute.

And the clouds were amazing this year!  I couldn't stop taking pictures of them!  Other than the one rainstorm they didn't sprinkle on us.  Just built these amazing clouds up everyday over the Coastal Range.

It was a wonderfully relaxing vacation.  There was knitting and donut eating, movies and coloring, porch sitting and sea shell finding, puppy petting and stuffing yourself with chocolate.  I managed to finish the top part of my Outlander shawl, so a photo shoot was required.

And then all too soon it was time to go home.  Until next time, my beloved beach...