Day 21: Beach Life

 Last night, after catching way too many pokemon in our hotel room, conquering the hotel pokemon gym, and drifting off to sleep, Jen woke me up in the middle of the night to take a fussing Betty. She was crying loud enough to potentially bother other guests, so I bjorn'd her up, and we had some adventures. I asked at the lobby where the best place to pace would be, as it was pretty stormy outside. The night concierge suggested the upstairs restaurant. So, I paced around an empty restaurant with a very cute newborn. She was pretty fussy (not Edgar-level fussy... after that, I can handle ANYTHING). Anyway, she wasn't settling down, so I decided to try a walk on the beach. As soon as we stepped out into the night air, she quieted down, and was asleep about 3 breaths later. We walked on the beach, getting my feet wet (a very important ritual for Alex at the ocean), and went back to the restaurant to quietly snuggle and catch some pokemon

(pokemon aside: There are SO MANY pokemon here in Lincoln City. Makes me want to throw rocks at playing Pokemon Go in Salem. I've been having to ration my pokeballs, only catching pokemon I really, really want. It drives Edgar crazy for me to leave pokemon uncaught. I complained to our cashier at the grocery store, and he said that's the challenge here in Lincoln City.)

Abundant marine life, in all its varieties.

 Got up this morning, watched some more DVDs, and then went to the pool with the kiddos.

THIS pool.

 Now. I've never been to one of those fancy Tahiti or Mazatlan resorts where they have the infinity pool right next to the ocean, but this is as close as I've ever come. Pretty cool. Yes, the pool was outdoors, but it was nicely heated, and I think we were the first ones in it that morning. We splashed around for quite a long while. I'm glad the kids took swimming lessons this summer. They're still not great strong swimmers, and still a little timid in the water, but they used to be downright afraid of the water.

After swimming (and some serious rest for Jen, who didn't get a good night's sleep), we hit town for the pokestops and the grocery store. We managed to get enough pokeballs and enough provisions for us to make it through the next day and a half. Somehow the grocery store trip was really exhausting for tired Jen and tired Betty.

We returned to the hotel and had lunch at the restaurant on the top floor. The views were spectacular, and the food was pricey but worth it.

A teaching moment

Stuffed after lunch, we settled in for a long afternoon in the hotel room. Jen tried to get a nap in, and the kids watched some Toy Story on DVD. I wanted to get a walk on the beach in, so I headed down to walk on the beach.

As I got out on the sand, the sun came out, and revealed a gorgeous day. The waves were crashing, cormorants and pelicans playing in the surf, magikarp and psyducks and all kinds of imaginary animals were out, too:

So, a perfect day, really... I tried to call Jen from my cellphone, but she didn't answer. So, I walked back to the hotel, and turned off the TV and told the kids they were coming to the beach with me. I tried to get Jen to come, but she was way too sleepy, grumpy, and tired, so this ended up being a good way to get the kids out of her hair.

I made the mistake of leaving my phone and camera in the room, so I don't have any pictures of our beach adventures, but we had a blast. We had some pretend-pokemon-battling (Edgar's favorite sport), some digging in the consistency-of-coarse-brown-sugar sand, some playing and splashing in the waves, rock climbing, tidepool exploring, wildlife seeing, good old-fashioned fun. The kids actually thanked me for getting them outside on such a lovely day.

Towards the end of our beach adventures, I saw a man down the beach pulling yards and yards of cloth out of a bag. I knew what was going on, so I told the kids they ought to watch that man. Now, my kids are NOT shy... so instead of just watching the man, they walked over and introduced themselves and asked what he was doing.

He was (of course) getting out a massive kite. I held the string while he launched it. The kids asked him where he got it, and he told them he made it himself. They were impressed. Then, the kite man had the kids help him set up, launch, and stake down two more big kites. He was very patient and explained to them how the kites went together, and how they worked. He tried to encourage them to hold onto the strings, but they were a little afraid to. He was a sweet old man, and I wish I had some better pictures of the kids and him. Instead, I just have a picture taken from our hotel balcony afterwards:

Boy, our hotel room was high up.

Of the three kites pictured, he made the center one, and the one on the left is extra high, by Sabrina's request.

We returned to our room exhausted and happy to find a mama and baby waking up from a nap. We started another movie on the DVD player, and enjoyed the sun streaming through our hotel room window. Jen and I spotted a pod of whales from our room.

Pictured: a whale spout. can you see it?

Jen and I are aware, although I'm not sure many of our landlocked Utah relatives are, that despite their mystique, whales are not much to see from shore. We saw spouts, and the occasional whale back, but to anyone who is interested in planning a vacation to do whale watching from shore, this is all you see. To us, that was fun, but it's certainly not worth spending all day looking for it. Better to catch it from the corner of your eye while Toy Story is on, or something...

Afternoon sun, over the balcony.

After a round of chips-and-dip in front of a movie for dinner (still pretty full from lunch), the kids and I snuck down to the pool again. We swam for another really long time. At exactly the right time, Jen and baby paid us a visit. Jen got some good pictures of us in the pool.

Then, we moved the party to the hot tub.

Edgar was freezing from getting out of the outdoor pool, but thought the hot tub was WAY too hot to touch, so he whimpered at water's edge:

Meanwhile, Sabrina and I had some relaxing times, and Jen dipped her toes in as well.

Blue hair = pool camouflage

Our hotel also has a sauna. Sabrina wanted to try, but she was unimpressed.

I took a fussy baby for another walk while Jen and the kids got settled in for the night.

Edgar loves reading to Sabrina. Sabrina loves Edgar.

Baby and I walked on the beach. Again, she quieted down immediately in the night air, and went to sleep just as quick. I ended up walking quite a distance down the beach in the dark, strapped to a sleeping baby.

I returned the sleeper to the room, and went for a sauna of my own. Although I don't think I have finnish ancestors, I sure love sauna/reading time. I melted the binding of the paperback I'm reading, but it was totally worth it.