September Sailing and Retreat

It's been a few weeks since I made a new entry, so here goes. This will be short - yeah yeah, heard THAT before!

This is the first weekend I've been home for both days in a month! Feels like a vacation!

Cassie and I joined my sister, Janet, and my mom for a retreat at Cannon Beach Christian Conference Center. It was very relaxing and totally fun. Been a long time since I've spent a good amount of time with my sister. As always, we still finish each other's sentences and have inside jokes foreign to everyone else. Pretty cool.

The first picture is of Cassie, Mom, and me at the whale statue that graces the courtyard near the beach.
















The first thing we do when we arrive at the Conference Center is to walk to Bruce's Candy Kitchen in downtown Cannon Beach, just a block away. Cassie and I made our purchases; treats for the family left behind. You can see Janet back there shopping.























Cassie on the beach with the beautiful sky and sunshine on the water surrounding her.














Janet and Cassie stop and pose after walking on the beach. That's the conference center behind them, in fact, it's the building where we stayed.
























Cassie had some time to practice her karate on the beach. That's Haystack Rock in the background which dominates the beach for miles. A gorgeous place! Cassie said the beach was an unusual surface for kata work - shifting sands.














This sign says, "Tsunami Evacuation Route" and we had some fun with it.

























Another weekend was spent helping Tom's mom, Nita, clear away some clutter from her garage. Tom did some household repairs for her as well. We filled up the back of her van with bagged and boxed garbage which we hauled to the dump. A widow for nearly two years, she is finding home maintenance to be a bit beyond her abilities. She lives 100 miles away from us, so depends on local friends and neighbors for help. We go down to lend a hand when our differing schedules permit. She's very busy with social crafts and activities, always on the go. Good that she is active!

Here Tom wearily tosses the contents of this tiny wooden box, the last thing in the van to throw into the dump. We kept the box for Nita as it was old and cool.









Rocky is Nita's little bat-faced, hyper-active, maniacally-licking, jumping-on-you yappy best friend. It took Tom and I about 10 tries to get the dog still enough to snap his picture. I ended up deleting several photos of his retreating hind end. Love digital cameras!














One Sunday afternoon was spent sailing with Ben and Sarah. Ben learned to sail a few years ago and LOVES it! He gave us a wonderful afternoon/evening. Tom, Cassie, Caroline, and I were taught the ropes, literally, by Ben and Sarah. A gorgeous autumn sunset kissed us good-night and we left the lake in the tranquilty that only a warm twilight can offer.

Here Caroline, Ben, and Cassie are at the helm steering us to a peaceful place........lovely day.......













This is Caroline relaxing to the sound of the water while on the bow.














Ben and some colleagues are starting up a photography business. Here he's craning his body around to get a good sunset photo. He's quite talented, if I do say so myself.













A pensive Tom completely relaxed after several hours of sailing and enjoying the day.














I've got a gazillion photos but will only put a few on here.

Enjoy!

Ducks play Arizona today - Go Ducks! (First game of the season that Tom and I get to watch together!)

More later!