Mon. July 8, 2013 - Happy Birthday to me!

July 8th. What a beautiful day:)

We took the day off and explored our local neighborhood. First stop was the Lodge at Cleawox Lake in Honeyman State Park.   There are about 6 camp hosts assigned to take turns working there running the small store and renting  paddle boats, canoes and Kayaks.  Mike rented a kayak while I took my first swim of the season in the lake.

It was warm and clean - a little smaller than Lake of the Pines and surrounded on two sides by sand dunes.   Very nice and the swim felt great!!

After the swim I called to talk to Dad. Connie was with him and facilitated the connection, but once we were talking, we both enjoyed the reference to it being July 8th and a special day in both our lives.

Next we went to check out the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area - South Jetty Day Use Area.

The ODNRA covers 40 miles of central Oregon coastline, so we only saw a tiny bit, bit it was nice. The hike over the dunes from one of the parking areas to the ocean is doable - maybe 1/4 to 1/3 mile,

but it was very windy, so we choose to find a sheltered low spot along the way to the beach and rest for a while and have our picnic.

 

 

While there I got a happy birthday call from both Eric and Curt. Curt is making plans to return to the US from Guatemala at the beginning of August.

We had a simple and delicious grilled steak dinner back home tonight. Thanks, Mike - you are a great cook, traveling companion and husband. Thanks for sharing my birthday with me.  I love you:)