It's been a year since our arrival to our new west coast home and here's my first update! I just found a draft from October where I vowed to myself I'd write a monthly update and here we are. And now I have the task of summarizing a whole YEAR. How to cover it all? "Plan some themes for a couple different posts? Organize your thoughts? ... Just start writing and figure it out?" Let's do this. You can click here to read about our roadtrip out here (also 1 year late), and you can check out Dylan's flickr for more pics.
On May 15th, 2020, we saw our first signs for Pacific City. We drove through national forests, by picturesque rivers, on one way bridges, until we spotted the big old ocean rock in the distance (Haystack Rock), and drove up to our little blue house. We were kind of skeptical before arriving about what the town and house would be like-- exploring Google maps before had given us some doubts, but both were better than expected. We enjoyed setting up our first house just the way we imagined- had to invest in a few more pieces of furniture after our studio living... hellooo, comfy couch.
Our "village" has only 1,000 people. When I drove passed a sign the other day that said "Population 15,000," I said, "Wow! This is a big town!" Pacific City's known for their Dory boats and Cape Kiwanda. The coast has seafood aplenty with crab, oysters, rockfish, cod, salmon, clams... We still haven't gone clamming yet, but you'll see people pulled over on the side of the road, walking with shovels and buckets in hand in the bay areas diggin up clams. The beaches, as we were just reminded on our anniverary hike yesterday, are so rugged and secluded. We don't always think about the uniqueness in being able to walk for miles on the beach and be the only people there with rugged dunes, cliffs, and capes all around.
Trekking along
Our first experience with Redwoods was in Jedidiah State Park where we camped with the tent top open to see the giant trees. Our blooper on this trip was not taking enough food on a hike and waiting for way too long at a thai restaurant, getting max hangry, opting for burritos instead... Dylan's sucked. Grumpy moods continued and hindered our stargazing views on the river. We had a much brighter, happier next day luckily.
Mosier Plateau in Columbia River Gorge
Work Life
Found my dream job. Speech-language therapy is fantastic. I get to work with kids from little tots to adults at 81 meeting in their homes, parks, and farms, and work on all kinds of speech and language difficulties. It has been so rewarding. Driving is exhausting, as I work mostly in Salem (1.5 hours away), but at least I get to drive through national forests along the river and one way bridges? My supervisor is fantastic and I couldn't ask for a better first job as an SLP.
Dylan's job has been an interesting change from Mayo, with more "west coast" style emergencies it seems- fish hooks in hands and eyebrows, gaff hooks, logging injuries... also lots of alcoholism apparently. But pretty good gig for the most part it sounds.
Visitors
Two neighbors from Neptune were actually our first visitors last June. Then we had brother Chris an fam, the Krupka family, Mom and Dad, and Joe and Sarah from my crossfit gang 2x... Mom and Dad gave us good luck with a giant gray whale spotting in Depoe Bay. Chris and Liesl brought the whale sightings at Cape Kiwanda, and Adaleigh brought me camping adventures in our backyard. Christina and Evan brought our elk friends on our Cascade Head hike. Dana and Martin brought us wildfires... thanks guys! ;) (Also obviously fun times with this crew). Joe and Sarah brought us no animal sightings I don't think, but good hikes and tasty seafood delights.
Bend
We've gone to Bend two times now, once for Thanksgiving weekend and once to Our blooper on our second Bend trip was that Dylan sleepily told me he would grab my hiking boots while I had my hands full. Once we got there, we discoverd no hiking boots, only my All Birds. Now I had already been in a bad mood for other reasons (dog stresses), so this was like the haystack/needle/insert appropriate idiom. But we got to snowshoeing and my spirit returned. Dylan found it was more comfortable to just hike in his boots.
Colorado
Social Life
...is lacking. I think I've actually developed some social anxiety, folks. I used to easily walk myself into a bar, cafe or wherever alone and chit chat with whoever. Now I think things like, "Should I ask if they're comfortable with me joining their group?... what will I talk about? It's already been a year since we moved so I can't use "I just moved from Florida" as an easy talking point... That's old news... What do people talk about with other humans?" I think moving to this small of a town would've already had a its own bit of apprehension with joining people's friend groups, but with the added weirdness of spreading a virus?
Going from the lively Neptune Beach to here has also been quite a change as well where I may go a couple days without even seeing neighbors on walks.
Tide Pool Haiku (this makes sense to put right here, right?)
What's this all about?
Purple spikes, green goo, starfish
Tidepools are legit!
Motorcycle Ridin'
"But it's so cold and rainy!" so many people said when they heard our plans of moving out here. Well that's only kinda accurate. I guess depends on who you ask. But here's your weather report comin' at ya from the Oregon coast.
Spring:
- The blooms! It's blooming here! Our backyard has bright yellow trees, purple bottle brushes, and red blooms aroud the fence with purple _____, piece lillies, and a fig tree next to the house.
- Salem has certainly been a beaut to enjoy the colorful parks. Between sessions I've been squeezing in walks/jogs at Bush's Pasture Park to run through foresty meadows surrounded by purple camas flowers.
- Wonderful sunny, cool weather (40-65)
- Cherry blossoms in Salem and Portland
Summer:
- Berries on all the trails. Blueberries, raspberries, salal, huckleberries, cloud berries...
- Green green green
- Bonfires on the beach every night
- Perfect temps only up to like 70
- Horse poop all over the beaches :(
- Our first summer was a wacksadoodle summer with bizarre weather patterns with super dryness, extra wind, wildfired spreading. The Krupkas had come all the way to visit for a whole week, but wound up cutting it short so they could find somewhere cleaner to breathe. What a glitch in their trip! Our skies turned foggy orange, our skin felt tingly walking outside, surfers still went out...
Fall
- Leaves actually do their thing here! The coast didn't have as much colorful foliage, but driving into work in Salem was always a head turner. Streets lined with all fall's glory, views from patients' hilltop windows of all the colors...
Winter
- Sunsets at 4pm made us laaazy.
- Storm watching
- Took advantage of the cozy weather with candles, decorations, warm beverages...
- A lot of restaurants shut down for winter breaks (double whammy with Covid)
- Probably more fun with friends.
- It snowed on the beach! Dylan was actually surfing when it started to snow...
Weather Conclusions:
- Winter didn't get so cold here, but it certainly stays a good amount of chilly and windy.
- Socks, sweatpants and sweaters are pretty much always cozy in the house.
- "Always. bring. the rain jacket," we repeated numerous times before heading out for hikes.
- We don't burn our feet and paws in the summer! Big win.
- "Let it rise in a warm place" means "get out the space heater."
- "Room temperature" does not mean the same thing as Florida's room temp- we can leave the butter out and it doesn't melt away! Coconut milk turns into coconut cream.
The wiiiind... This is at old Bob
Another great read. Thanks Abby, loved the photos and the perspective you have from someone who is seeing the areas I do with new eyes.
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