The Lighthouse

On the second day of our Oregon trip, Seth and I decided to go check out one of the nearby lighthouses. We ended up at the Coquille River Lighthouse just outside of Bandon. We were going to go to the Cape Arago Lighthouse, but somebody pointed me in the wrong direction. I'm not sure who it was...SETH.

We were able to climb to the top of the lighthouse and check out the view with the tour guide. Apparently there was a family that lived there for a bit and took care of the place. The mother would row her kids across the river/inlet everyday to take them to school. Way cooler than riding the bus.

After the lighthouse tour we walked along the beach and dipped our feet in the freezing cold water.

Seth taking his shoes off...

Awe... look at Seth's cute toes!

After our walk on the beach, Seth showed me the trick to putting your shoes on without getting sand in them.

After our beach trip, per recommendation from the lighthouse lady, we drove into Bandon to check out the town. It was a cute little place with tons of touristy shops and a boardwalk. We bought some fancy chocolates and did a bit of window shopping then headed for home. It was a great day.

Oregon Trip: Tide Pools

I know you'll all be shocked to know that Seth and I took a break from all of our house junk and went camping on the Oregon coast for a week! It was a much needed vacation and we had such a great time with Seth's family.

On the first morning after our arrival, we decided to do a ranger guided tide pool tour. We were a bit skeptical of the "guided" part as it's usually kind of boring and too structured, but it ended up being our favorite part of the trip! We got to wander around the tide pools looking for different sea creatures and ask all the questions we wanted. The best part was, only four of us showed up so we got a private tour!

Looking at a small crab

We saw tons of these sea stars in all different colors. The white dot in the middle on top is it's butt. See! I learned something!

Group shot of the adventurers

We found one sunflower sea star... much bigger than the other sea stars and tons of legs!

The underside of the sea star with all its sucker feet

Seth with a half-dead crab

More to come!

And Then on the Third Day Which Was Technically Like the Seventh Day...

And thus there were a few days in amongst which the Holley family was separated into their own units and carried on in various activities. Some did play, others toiled, but then after some time went by they rejoined in one last celebration...

And there was much moisture received and they were grateful.

After which they were they even more joyous for the receipt of their ice cream. Which was as manna from the heavens.

Thus ended the Holley family summer vacation.

And it was good.

Hugh's Town

Ok, it's really Houston. I just had to change the title so you wouldn't immediately think "travel log" and click on someone else's blog. Although, there are pictures of other people in here besides ME, so that alone should suck you in.

So, this last weekend we flew to Houston to visit Seth's brother, Scott and his wife, Amanda and their beautiful new baby girl, Charlotte. This was the first time Seth and I had been on a big trip together so we were pretty excited. We got to stay Scott and Amanda and hang out with them the whole time so it was pretty cool.

I figure pictures speak louder than words (and are usually more exciting), so I'll let them do most of the talking...

Brudders at the Beach

The cute little family

I thought I'd put this one in my modeling portfolio.

What's a trip to the beach without a picture in front of a giant squid?

Scott & Amanda at Landry's on the boardwalk in Kemah

We watched the big tankers coming into port when we went to see..

The battleship Texas in La Porte!

Workin the big guns.

I told them there was a naked lady in there.

Another one for the portfolio. I'm so graceful!

Brudders on a battleship. They were really happy.

Seth trying to swab the deck. He got a little confused.

Scott with the really big guns.

And last, but not least... baby Charlotte with her favorite uncle.

Thanks guys! We had so much fun!

Pete's Hole

That's the name of a lake for those of you who are wondering what kind of crazy antics I'm up to now. More specifically, that's the name of the lake Seth and I went fishing at last weekend with Ramona and Gabe. It was just a quick overnighter, but it was fun and I have some pictures, so I'll post about it.

For the record, Seth and I got up at a decent time and made it all the way to Pete's Hole by early afternoon. That's pretty good for us. I drove the whole way and we didn't die or crash or anything! (not that I have a record for that sort of thing, I'm just sayin'). I even drove on bumpy dirt mountain roads and everything. Oh, for those of you who don't know where Pete's Hole is, it's up off of Skyline Drive. I can't go into any more details than that because Seth doesn't want me to give away all our good fishing spots.

Seth with a fish on his line... that's Ramona and Gabe laughing in the background

We lucked out and ended up getting a nice camping spot right on the lake. Of course Seth had to stalk a group of campers for the entire afternoon to make sure we got their spot when they left, but still.

Ramona and Gabe setting up their tent

Seth and I mainly caught Tiger trout with our flies and Ramona and Gabe mostly caught Rainbows with their bling. We could see a gigantic fish in the water which swam by us periodically, but sadly no one caught him. We'll have to go back another time to see if we can capture the elusive lake monster.

There were a lot of fish jumping and rising for almost the entire day. You'd think that would mean we caught a lot, but those little buggers were too smart! We did fool a few though.

Evening fish rising at Pete's Hole

On our way out of camp the next morning Seth and I stopped at a little lake called Soup Bowl, which is just below Pete's Hole. The fishing was actually pretty good and nobody else was there!

My Gigantic Birthday Celebration

Guess who's super cute and just turned 29!? ME! You wouldn't believe the huge birthday party I had. Even P. Diddy or some other really famous person would be incredibly jealous. The entire extended Hanson family came together in Huntington Canyon for a weekend of birthday celebration and camping all for me!!

Ok. So maybe it was the Hanson Family Reunion. And maybe it just happened to fall on my birthday weekend. But I still count it as a birthday party. I mean, we were camping and fishing all weekend... what could be better than that?

The festivities actually started on Thursday, but Seth wasn't able to get that much time off, so we went down Friday instead. I still took Thursday off because I have a policy that I don't work on my birthday. Oh, and I didn't run either. In fact I lounged around all day long and tied flies.

We got to the Old Folks Flat campground in the afternoon, at about which time it started raining. It rained on and off for the rest of the day but luckily we were able to get our tent set up during one of the breaks. The Loel and Kathy Hanson family was in charge of dinner that night so we cooked up some sloppy joes. Unfortunately most of the pictures I took over the weekend were during that dinner, but at least I took some.

Seth supervising Marty's sloppy joe delivery.

Collette supervising Marty's sloppy joe delivery (you really gotta watch this guy!)

Tim in line for some food

Ashley and Megan

(and another guy that I can't remember his name but he looks like Hal Holbrook )

The next day Seth and I got up pretty early and tried out the fishing situation on the Huntington River. I've always been told that the fishing is best early in the morning, but in my experience it never is. I think it's an old wives' tale.

This is a picture from when I meditated on a rock in the middle of the river & watched mayflies.

Early morning fishing

The rest of the day on Saturday was spent fishing. First we went to Mammoth Lake (aka Huntington Reservoir) which wasn't too good, so we went up to Miller's Flat Reservoir and spent the rest of the afternoon there. The fishing was slow, but we ended up catching a few Rainbows with some gold spoons in the late afternoon. That night we went to Cleveland Reservoir and tried our hand at fly fishing. Marty even gave Arielle a lesson in casting. She looked pretty good!

Cleveland Reservoir didn't work out so well, so most of us decided to go over to Miller's Flat again to see if the fishing was any better. We caught a bunch of really small 3-4" Rainbows and a handful of pan fryers before it got dark.

Arielle with her hand-crafted leather headband and t-shirt.

Mama Hanson & Seth in deep conversation. Or talking about how much they like the choice of a pink bandana for our family.

Calysta & Arielle eating some food

Cute Collette... spotted me stealing a picture!

Marty Jr. toasting himself on the big bonfire.

Daddy Hanson

The next morning everybody packed up and headed home. Seth and I stopped once more to fish on the Huntington River and caught a few Browns. On our way back to Layton we stopped at Cabelas and Seth finally got a new pair of Simms chestwaders. He's pretty excited to try them out. They look pretty fancy. I bought a pair of women's Simms chestwaders too but haven't gotten them yet (it's a long very sad story... stupid UPS and stupid neighbors who steal stuff...)