Coastal weekend

Last weekend we caught this beautiful sunset at the Oregon coast. It was over 90F/32C in Portland (I know that's cool weather compared to other places right now!) so all trains were running behind because of the heat. D left work early that day, and we waited with a crowd of people at the MAX stop. The first train to arrive was so packed with people that I thought I was back in Ukraine for a minute :p

We met up with my parents in the suburbs and drove west, reaching the beach just as the sun was sinking below the sea.

D and I wandered around with Chili as the sun disappeared.

The moon came out.

When Chili gets near the water, she's ready to run and play. As is D ;)

The smores / campfire scene was strong that evening. Smores are definitely going on the to-do-next-time list!

The next evening we went to the county fair, which reinforced my desire to not live in a small town. Some of the animals were pretty cute, though.

We watched Pig-N-Ford, an annual event in which guys drive a Model T with one hand and hold a pig with another. Next up was a demolition derby. D had never heard of this, and I wasn't really sure what it was either. Having experienced one now, I'm pretty sure I know some people who drive this way in real life, haha.

One guy drove out with a huge "Trump 2016" flag. Any time his car was mentioned for the rest of the evening, it was "the Trump car" and the audience would respond with what seemed like 50% cheers and 50% boos. This will be an interesting November!

We took one final walk on the beach on Sunday. It had been foggy the previous day, but everything burned off by the next morning.

Lots of people were on the beach again, combing through rocks to see what had washed up. My dad is really good at finding unusual shells and sea glass. This is him, looking for new treasure-

There are often surfers out, which I think is crazy- cold water, logs in the surf, the possibility of sharks? No thanks! But the dangers don't stop these surfers. They just suit up and swim out to the waves. A few years ago, a shark even knocked one Oregon surfer off his board and onto the shark's back. Horrifying! The new popular coastal sport now is stand up paddlesurfing. At least with this sport you can try to push a shark away using the paddle, I guess.

What's been your best August weekend so far?
Tell me about it in the comments! :)



Read more: Oregon Coast Summer 2015