Surfing 
We've gone out surfing each morning so far. Wednesday started out poorly, but definitely go better. Thursday it was just choppy and gross out there, so we both ended up getting a bit of a beating. Today it started out really nice and progressively got messier. I couldn't really get past the bigger waves to get out where it was quieter (where you sit and wait for waves) so instead of fighting it, I just kept catching ones closer to shore and practicing standing up, of which I'm still not good at.

Joe ended up catching a wave in the perfect spot apparently and was riding it sideways and everything. After that, his board kept spinning out from underneath him and he couldn't figure out why. He eventually noticed that his fin was missing... It completely busted off! If we ever doubted how vital the fin is, we definitely don't anymore.

We went into Newport to see about either getting a fin or seeing how long and how much to fix it. We figured it would be probably a week or more, which it turned out to be, but it's not very expensive. So, Joe just bought a cheap fin and is going to JB Weld it in. That will hopefully last until we head home and then someone at home can fix it.

We're here for the night, but don't know if they'll have a spot for us tomorrow night. We'll see.
-Miranda

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Siuslaw National Forest 
We went for a hike on Saturday. We biked down the hill to the first trail. The first time here, we biked all the way down to the end of the road and went on the hike there. This time we didn't go down as far because we remembered there was an earlier hike. We went on that one and it was a very nice hike. The views were gorgeous.

We left our comfy spot on Monday. It would have been nice to wait until Tuesday, but we were out of sink water and running very low on drinking water, so doing dishes was getting to be a huge pain. We drove through Newport to the South Beach State Park campground and got through Thursday night there.

We were able to go surfing yesterday some. It was a bit painful, but the waves were a nice size. Joe got beat up pretty bad just because it's been so long. Hopefully we'll get some more surfing in while we're here.

Today we decided to drive into town to run some errands. Pickles' eye still hasn't been looking good. We found a vet that was nice enough to stay a little late into her lunch to see us. She recommended seeing an ophthalmologist, but we would have to go in to Corvallis or Eugene to see them. The other option was to try out new antibiotic drops for a week to see if they help. So, that's what we're trying. If her eye still looks bad in a week, we'll try to find an ophthalmologist.

-Miranda


Curly always rides in my lap while driving. Lucy, if it's cold, often rides in Joe's lap. For some reason, she came up in my lap and lay down next to Curly. This has never happened before and she normally doesn't like to be by anyone else, especially not touching them. We decided it was because my lap was in the sun and Joe's wasn't. :D

Another decent photo of Zoe!

An amusing sign during our hike.

A gorgeous view.

The very neat forest in that area. The forest we were in was amazing to walk through. The needles basically don't allow anything but these tiny plants to grow underneath them.

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Rockaway Beach 
It did stop raining, which was fortunate for the leaks and our power. We checked out the beach and the surf. The waves were really sloppy and there looked like an algae bloom. We basically just spent the day working instead since we had good internet. We went to the Mexican place that we liked so much across the highway. It was good again, but we ate way too much.

The waves were supposed to be better on Thursday. They were definitely cleaner, but the algae nastiness was still there, so we decided to pass since we would be in Newport in not too long and the surf is generally pretty good there. We took Betty out to eat at a cute restaurant where they had a vegetarian lasagna that was very good. Then we headed out. The plan was to get to the forest just north of Lincoln City and stay where we knew we had a good spot and good internet.

The first time we were here (three years ago) there was a large spruce across the road, so we could only get to one area. We just guessed that the road would be cleared, so we kept driving. It was. We are now parked in a very nice spot in the forest and have good internet. Our plan is to stay here over labor day weekend. We'll probably mostly just be working, but maybe go on a bike ride or hike. We'll see.

-Miranda

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Rain! 
We woke up in the middle of the night to very loud rain on the RV... The trees we were under were apparently catching the rain, then saving it up in order to drop very large, and loud, drops onto the top of the RV. Also, the vent right above the bed may have a leak. Uggg We have a towel there now to prevent the comforter from getting any wetter. The front window also leaks, but we already knew about that. Really frustrating.

We basically just drove today. We stopped at a Fred Meyer to pick up a few things. I found a cute hat in case we go an extended period of time without a shower again. :D I've never been much of a hat person, but it's pretty cute, so we'll see. Oh, and it's possible the guy that filled our gas (in Oregon you can't fill your own gas, an attendant -has- to do it) may have forgotten to put our gas cap back on.... I can't remember for sure if I did at the last place in Washington, but considering I was always the one that filled the gas, it was pretty automatic for me to put it back on, so I can't imagine that I forgot, but who knows. So, we have to go find an auto store to get a new one, again (Joe forgot to put it back on once).

The rest of the day was pretty boring. We stopped in Manzanita to go to a cute little natural foods shop that we remembered was there. We checked out a state park campground there, but they wanted $24 for it and we really didn't need anything, so couldn't justify paying that much. Especially since we would just be hanging out in the RV all day since it's raining.

We made it to Rockaway Beach and stopped to see Betty. She's the lady who had a parking spot that we stayed in the last time we were here. We chatted with her for quite a while and plan to stay a day or two here again. Hopefully it's supposed to stop raining tomorrow. We'll see.

-Miranda

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Busy Day 
Headed to Lake Quinault and took a quick Nature hike, and then another short hike to see the largest spruce in world. It was a biggin. 12' across?
Continuing on we looped back out onto the coast and in Moclips, we drove out onto the Beach sand for a nice view with lunch. Found a nice YMCA near Aberdeen for jog, weights and a swim (they even had a waterslide?). That was refreshing. Camped alongside 101 sneakily outside a lumberland gate.
-Joe

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