Seal Rock, Oregon

Back in mid August, my family and I headed to the Oregon Coast for a week for vacation. Below are some photos and great memories we shared together.

Here is a panorama of the end of the beach.

Here is a little background on the photos below: We rented a beach house right with a 1 minute walk down a trail to get to the beach.

The time on vacation was spent hanging out with family, relaxing, exploring the beach, and for me: running on the beach!

The beach was beautiful when we went, most of the days we were there it was sunny and warm. Going down to explore the beach was something that never got old where we were there.

This was taken at the top of the stairs leading down to the beach.

This was taken on one of my beach runs at the very end of the beach, about 1.5 miles from where our house was.

This was also taken at the end of the beach on my run.

Another thing to note about the beach was the amazing sunsets we were able to watch. I didn’t get many photos of these, but they were beautiful. Full of orange, pink, purple, and every color in between.

This photo has a weird glare to it, as it was taken inside the house with the glass door in the way of me and the sunset.

This one was taken down on the beach before we headed to build a fire pit on the beach for a bon fire later that night.

I can’t remember the last time I had been around a real fire. With the burn bans normally in place when we go camping, it has probably been 3-5 years since sitting around a real fire. I forgot how warm and inviting they are. Waking up the next morning with my hair and clothes smelling like smoke was a great feeling.

Here are the embers before we put the fire out for good that night. Even from the embers, it was amazing how much heat was being given off.

This was the first time where we opted out of camping in Winthrop and switched it up with a beach house in Oregon. It was a bittersweet change. It was really nice having a bed to sleep on and a private bathroom down the hall. The one thing I did miss from camping was being forced to unplug from technology, as at the campground there is no service.

I think that unplugging from the world and just being surrounded by nature is a good reminder of what is important in life and what you can go without. Most for the time at the beach house, I would look around and everyone was either watching TV, on their phone, or IPad. This is something I was guilty of too, but I wish I would have taken more time to unplug and be with those most important in my life.

Fort Casey, Whidbey Island

Alex and I decided to take a day trip out to Whidbey Island on February 23rd, 2019 and ventured over to Fort Casey to walk around and learn more about the old military base.

Here is part of the base, you can see the watch towers and cement bunkers

Fort Casey is a historical state park that was once a military fort. It was constructed in the late 1800’s and had soldiers stationed here from 1899 to 1945. Follow this link to learn more about the history and area surrounding Fort Casey: https://parks.state.wa.us/505/Fort-Casey.

It took us about an hour and half to drive out to the fort. When we were there, it was overcast and very windy but well worth the trip. It was eerie getting to go into the bunkers and explore the rest of the base.

Some parts of the bunkers were very dark, cold, and damp. They freaked me out a little because of how deep they were and how much they echoed. I don’t think I would have gone into them alone, but Alex insisted that we explore… There were parts where we had to use the flashlights on our phone in order to figure out how to get out of the bunkers.

Not all the bunkers were open, but the ones that were contained old elevator shafts, showers, a switch board, and many other old rusted things that I couldn’t figure out what they were used for.

Below you will find some photos of Fort Casey and the different things we saw while we were there:

Taken from the watch tower over looking the water

These three photos above are my favorite from this trip. I love the blue of the water being contrasted with the grey and black color schemes of the old concrete walls.

Overall, our trip to Fort Casey was well worth the drive. I had never been here and it was really fun to be able to get out and explore, both inside the bunkers as well as on top of them. I would highly recommend it you are looking for a fun day trip. There were also many parents with their kids, as Fort Casey serves as a great place to explore and learn about some of the history behind the base.

Birch Bay

On January 20, 2019 my boyfriend and I decided to take a mini road trip up to Birch Bay, WA. Below are some photos I took while there, along with a little memo on our excursion.

Birch Bay is about 30 minutes northwest of Bellingham. After studying all afternoon with a friend from my marketing class, I had Alex pick me up from the library. Instead of heading straight back to the apartment, we decided to get on the freeway and head towards Birch Bay.

When we got there, there was a little public beach to walk on. It was fairly small, as it was gated off on both sides by private beach access, but still beautiful! It was really cold while we were there. I was able to snap a few pictures while standing outside before running back to the car to thaw out.

I apologize for the quality of the photos, as they are not my best work… I hope to start getting back to photography in my free time. It seems like I don’t have much free time to keep up with this part of my blog with trying to manage my classes and workout sessions. As the weather starts to get nicer I hope to start exploring places in and around Bellingham more as well as posting more of my adventures on here. For now, Birch Bay will suffice!

Overall, this little outing was a lot of fun. It was able to get out of Bellingham for a couple hours and not having to travel very far to do it. As the weather starts getting warmer in the spring, I really want to try and take a trip out to Mt. Baker and the Tulip Festival in Mt. Vernon.

One last note about this trip: all the public bathrooms on the beaches and in the state park are closed during the winter… so make sure you take care of this somewhere outside of Birch Bay. Also, none of the shops were open because it was a Sunday. I would take this into consideration if planning on going here anytime soon!!