In July we’re all going to the Oregon coast to meet up with Jaeger’s family. Since this is near where my family lives, relatively speaking, I was hoping to be able to see them at the same time. However, the timing didn’t work out so instead Calvin and I flew out to Washington for Memorial Weekend.

We left Wednesday right after breakfast and got to the airport 2 1/2 hrs early. However, since we weren’t in a dreadful hurry, I let Calvin walk a lot of the way and stop and gawk at every plane we passed. In addition, I decided to keep Calvin in training pants instead of diapers so we also had to make a couple of stops on our way at various bathrooms. By the time we got to our gate, I only had enough time to feed Calvin a small snack before it was time to board.

The flight was fairly uneventful. Thankfully, Calvin refrained crying, screaming, and joyful shrieking. He didn’t nap but neither did I expect him too. He was entertained a fair amount of the time by watching a couple of videos and playing with his new Duplo Motocycle that I had bought specifically for airplane entertainment.

Because Calvin didn’t nap, he was extremely hyper when we arrived. He literally ran in circles while Grandma watched in bemused fascination. Eventually we made it to the car and Calvin fell asleep on the way to my parent’s house.

That evening I was very tired so I decided to go to bed at the same time as Calvin. Now that Calvin is too big for the pack ‘n play (i.e. he climbs out) we weren’t sure what to do for his bed. Eventually, I decided to just have him sleep in the big bed with me. This turned out to be a very popular decision with Calvin. I laid down on the bed next to him. Calvin closed his eyes, then popped them open with a wide smile delighted that I was still next to him. He repeated this for about the next half hour. Eventually he did fall asleep. I had been worried about him falling off the other side of the bed. However, that turned out not to be an issue as he stuck to my side like a little magnet. In fact, several times during the night he felt the need to crawl over and sleep on top of me.

Thursday we left for the beach. On the way we visited the Columbia River Maritime Museum in Astoria. Calvin was getting cranky due to either hunger or sleepiness, sometimes it’s hard to figure out which, so we didn’t see much of the inside of the museum. However, he did seem to enjoy touring the Lightship Columbia. I also managed to buy a souvenir for Calvin in the form of a picture book titled A is for Astoria, by Karen L. Leedom and illustrated by Sally Bailey.

After the museum we ate pizza and then continued to the beach. I hoped Calvin would take a nap but that turned out to be too optimistic. Calvin has trouble falling asleep in the car now that he can point out all the different kinds of trucks on the road.

Once we settled in to our rooms at the hotel we went and explored the hotel pool. We lucked out in that there was a reasonable sized shallow area in the pool before the steps descended the rest of the way. The shallow area came up to Calvin’s thighs so offered a good area for him to play with some bath toys I had brought along. Every so often he’d ask me to take him and we bounce around in the deeper parts of the pool. Calvin especially enjoyed it when I twirled around with him making large waves.

The day must have really worn Calvin out as he fell asleep within 5 min of me putting him to bed. I don’t recall the last time that happened.

We started off the next morning by picking up pastries and then returned to the hotel to supplement them with scrambled tofu and strawberries. After breakfast we decided to venture out to the ocean. In case you haven’t visited the Oregon coast before, it’s not a very warm experience, particularly this early in summer. The weather was very windy and overcast. However, this didn’t stop Calvin from enjoying the ocean. Dad took Calvin out to the ocean and held him up when waves came letting them wash over his boots. Calvin also enjoyed shoveling sand into his sand sorter.

When the adults decided they had enough, we went inside. Calvin was completely soaked on his lower half so we gave him a warm bath and then 1/2 a cup of hot chocolate. I think this is the first time Calvin has had hot chocolate but he really enjoyed the experience.

We then decided to head to Seaside to check out the aquarium. However, Calvin looked like he might fall asleep so we took a long detour and to my surprise, he fell asleep. I don’t remember the last time he fell asleep before lunch. Maybe this means I don’t usually give him enough exercise in the morning . . . In any case, by the time he woke up it was time for lunch. After lunch we went to Seaside and Calvin got to ride a carousal. We then planned to walk to the aquarium but Calvin seemed much more interested in the beach. We hadn’t brought beach clothes with us (in this case, fleeces, boots, and rain coats) so we returned to the hotel before heading out for beach part 2. Like before, Calvin greatly enjoyed the beach and ended the experience with a bath and Hot Chocolate.

Unfortunately, Calvin didn’t go to bed as easy last night. I sat in his room for a long time waiting him to go to sleep while listening to A Civil Campaign by Bujold. By the time Calvin fell asleep I felt droopy so followed quickly afterwards. Unlike prior nights, Calvin didn’t insist on clinging to my side the entire night but I noticed that he always had a hand, a foot, or a head touching me.

We woke up this morning and squeezed in a bit more beach time before packing up and heading to Astoria for church. Mom was a little over-optimistic in how long cleaning Calvin up and packing would take so we got there just in time for the sermon. I didn’t hear most of it being preoccupied with helping Calvin put a puzzle together. The puzzle set I brought was unfortunately configured so you could easily put pieces together that didn’t belong. I got one puzzle finished before realizing I needed to swap two pieces.

After church we went to the Astoria Column for lunch. We ate at a picnic table there but didn’t actually climb the column. It’s very toddler unsafe. However, the hill itself still provides a spectacular view of the surrounding area.

Magically, Calvin actually napped on the rest of the way back to Longview. I think the beach trip was a success and I learned some pointers for our next beach trip with the Tramblie-Logan side in July. Specifically, I should make sure to take along wool socks so they can still keep his feet warm even when completely soaked.

In the next couple of days we’re going to attempt to see my grandparents and show off Calvin some more before going back home.