Mother's Day beach trip 2023

Hi friends!

I'm finally taking a minute to post some pictures of my Mother's Day beach trip with my sisters and friend. I meant to post again in a week or so after my last post but life has just been too busy!

Our trip was to Lincoln City on the Oregon coast.

We had visited last Fall, 2022, and discovered the beautiful gardens there. Here are a few pictures from then.

This was Fall of 2022.

Fall of 2022.

Fall 2022.. I guess there were "some" flowers still blooming!

Fall, 2022.

 My "baby" sister had discovered the Connie Hansen Gardens a few years ago, and we walked through it in the Fall of 2022. Not too much was blooming then, but the brochure in the little gift shop told about the Mothers Day tea every May, so then and there we decided to go! 

Connie Hansen, a botanist, had bought the house and 1 acre right in the middle of a town, back in the 1990's. Over the years, she turned the 1 acre into a beautiful sanctuary right in the middle of the city. When she died, 20 years later, the neighborhood people wanted to keep it intact, so they went together and bought the property! It has been maintained and run by a neighborhood foundation for the gardens, ever since.

We had fun there last Fall too! We also went on a Haunted Halloween Walk in the little town if Taft. It was a perfectly spooky, foggy and misty night. The guy who led us told the group about several ghost stories and legends around Taft. 

Below - DB Cooper paid us a visit, dragging his parachute and suitcase full of money! Who is DB Cooper you ask?

D.B. Cooper hijacked Northwest Orient Flight 305 out of Portland (Oregon), demanded and received ransom money upon landing in Seattle, then parachuted into the woods and was never found again.

We ran into Sasquatch too!

 The legend is that Sasquatches live in the Pacific Northweset woods.

So.......that was last Fall. And as I said in my last post, we DID go to the Mother's Day tea this year at Connie Hansen's Gardens. What a fun treat!  Get ready for lots of photos!

Beautiful weather but a little windy....but warm!

The ocean view from our beach house. Gorgeous!

We caught stunning sunsets both nights. I took at least 100 photos of them!

My "baby" sister, Barbara. We all got to pick out vintage hats to wear! The lady who set up the tea is a hat collector.. she has at least 100.

My sister, Linda, who is 4 years younger than me. Our birthdays are on the same day, but 4  years apart!

Me of course!

Delectable foods, all made by the volunteers.

The gardens were just unbelievable! We just missed the big spring blooming of most everything, but the azaleas and rhododendrons were so gorgeous! You leave the little cottage, walk along little winding paths, over foot bridges, up and down slight hills, and end up back at the little guesthouse, which is where Connie lived. It has been remodeled and is now the area for the teas and other events, and it also has a little gift shop.

I made a pretty paper purse for each of my sisters, and our friend, Irene. Each one held some little pads that I made, some treats, a handmade card, and a candle.

And oh... the sunsets!

I stood in the yard of our beach house and watched the sun go down, down down, until it was gone. It was pretty amazing!

We arrived at the coast on Friday, May 12th and spent 2 nights. On Sunday, after we checked out, we were going to go have our Mother's Day lunch. The tea was on Saturday. But........... the town of Lincoln City, OR is a VERY popular town! And do you think we could even find a restaurant to eat at that didn't have lines of cars and people waiting to get in? Nope. The parking lots were all full, with cars lined up waiting to just get into the parking lot! Lines of people waiting, just everywhere. I should have taken pictures!

We ended up going through the drive-through at Dairy Queen, a national franchise you can find just about in every town in the U.S.!!! We have one in Madras, and that is my main "go to"... so I really didn't want my special Mother's Day lunch to be there! But we did go there, and it WAS our Mother's Day lunch. Sigh... oh well... we had other special times that weekend.. and the best part was.... I was with my two sisters.

Hugs....

Marilyn

ALL CONTENT © PINK PAPER COTTAGE.

PLEASE DO NOT COPY MY PHOTOS AND IMAGES INTO YOUR OWN POSTS WITHOUT FIRST LINKING TO THIS BLOG AND MY NAME.

Blogger and beaches......

Hello my friends and subscribers!

It's come to my attention recently that most of you are not getting notification of my blog posts in your email inbox. I've tried to remedy that! I use Mail Chimp to send out notifications.

I've been working with Linda, from Life and Linda, and she has helped me to figure things out. If many of your haven't received notices of my blog posts, then please go back to check out my previous posts.

My sisters and I, and a friend of one of my sisters, recently were able to 

Bits 'n Pieces of Life

Here it is April and I can't believe it's been Christmas since I last posted! So tonight, as I sit here on the edge of my bed, phone in hand because I can't sleep, I decided to look at my photos on my phone, and just "do it" (a post) and pop in a few photos of my life since Christmas! 

Better to start now than keep putting it off!

JANUARY:

New shoes shopping

Kitty cuddles on those 10 degree nights

More snow!

FEBRUARY:

My son came for a visit and we did a little mud bogging on the plains. Found one mud puddle!

Fresh air!

And fun was had.....

We spent all weekend cleaning out my messy garage so I could finally park my car inside!

Tight squeeze but at least can park inside during the bad weather.

Stacked kitties. 3 beds on the shelf!

Made some fancy Valentine's Day cards from Anna Griffin card kit and dies.

Took a drive towards the mountains on a rare sunny day to see Mt. Jefferson.

Got myself a Fitbit! I wanted to count my steps. Highest I've reached is 7500!

Cleaned a corner of my living room so my little antique desk can show off!

MARCH:

Travelled to the little Washington coast towns of Seaview and Longbeach. I just NEEDED some misty air and the sea mist!

Boardwalk along the beach.

County Park by Chinook, WA - view is looking over to Astoria where my son lives.

Visited my son and his fiance for a few days. Oh was so nice to enjoy the rainy and misty days! I miss it.

On the way home, I stopped at a campground where I would love to camp this summer with my van! A darling little creek!

Drove right into a big storm as I got closer to Madras! I thought it would just be a downpour of rain, but instead it was snow! and at 48 degrees! What a shock and not fun driving down a long steep grade in a whiteout!

Scary.....

Baked some comfort food-almond flour bread. Very yummy!

I'm trying to eat grain free, so experimenting with almond and coconut flour recipes.

I guess March was a busy month! With my back starting to feel better, I also started physical therapy twice a week. It's helping somewhat. It's a slow process as I tend not to be consistent with the exercises at home. 

I'll fill you in on my next post, about April goings-on! 

Take care lovelies! (That's my new favorite word!)

Marilyn