This journal was a real trick to put all together. It may seem a little scrambled chronologically, and I do slip back and forth between what happen a few days before, a minute before, and that very minute, but believe me this is far easier to read then the origional manustcript. My origional journal was a regular full-sized notpad, with the first page already ripped off, (thought thankfully still with it) and bits and pieces of the story were marked of by numbers, (1,2,3, etc.) because they were in the wrong place, and I was determined to someday go back and rearange them in the correct order... well, I've attempted to do so here, changing as little of the origional text, spelling, grammar, and punctiation as I had to. While typing it up, I remembered a few things, so anything you see brackated like [this], is something I wrote just today. I hope you enjoy reading it!
3/22/04
10:40?
Wahoo - look out beach -we're comin down! Today has been *not only* totally awesome, and sunny-cool, but I have a really nice pen for writing in my journal as well! In convoy with the Olsons van, we are momentarily stopped at the gas station, and looking back, I can still see the house. Tata, housey!
10:46
As guardian of the secret stash of cookie loot, I think it my humble duty to refrain from munching. "We're off!" Mama has declared! We leave the gas station, and head off down the sun-lit road. I need H2O. My Bible reading will suffice me for now.
10:51
"Sugar high", Clint claims, as we set off from a short stop at McDonalds.
12:23
I've read one chapter so far in my Bible reading. Clint and Jeremy changed cars, and lucky us, we got Clint + Whoppers. 3 Whops. (Chocolate! YUM!) Water and a chicken hamburger were enough to satiate me, but I still can't bring myself to eat a cookie. A little "too" much sugar in those cookies. Note: Clint had his wisdom teeth pulled just before the trip. The airplanes are out on parade today, having quite the holdiday flying about in the lovely blue sky. :) *Feels sunburn coming on, from arm baking in sunshine through window. * Cough, cough, cough* I have a little cough assailing me.
12:35
2 Whops/Reading Tolkien. Listening to car conversation.
1:05
Roller coaster car!
1 Whop. Working on crosstich. Listening to Ben and Clint jokes. *Groan* (in advance) "Aha! A bridge!" Mama exclaims, as up through the looming fog a large bridge materielates. The beach beckons... the coast is near... The spray I feel... the crash I hear... Reads aloud journal-Ahh! *Someone read that?* *Not that anyone wants to read this*
2:13
Yes, we're getting close!
2:23
We made it! COOL!
3/24/04
11:30?
That was a LOT of fun! Let's see, where to begin? Well, I'll fill things in later, at the moment I feel more in the mood for writing a running commentary. I didn't actually take any pictures with my camera, but the others did. I'm looking foreward to seeing them all together. Ahh! Ben is driving! Joy and Josh have switched cars, so I can't bug her (Joy) to fetch me things from the front seat. We had a very
good time at the house and down at the beach. The first day, after getting things settled, we went down to the beach to play frisbee. I liked that, and actually did okay at it. The girls (Joy, Elizabeth, Joanna) just had to run down and splash in the waves. It was overcast, windy, and cold. So, I played 
frisbee, and decided to keep my feet dry. It was funny when the frisbee would go rolling up on end down the beach, driven by the wind. "Sunny, Sunny, Wednesday!" - Ruth. The path to and from the beach made for a short, but fun, sort of hike. The stairs down to the beach had a locked gate in the middle, and a rather pricy key went to it. To lose that key would not be good. -- ADD3
good time at the house and down at the beach. The first day, after getting things settled, we went down to the beach to play frisbee. I liked that, and actually did okay at it. The girls (Joy, Elizabeth, Joanna) just had to run down and splash in the waves. It was overcast, windy, and cold. So, I played 
frisbee, and decided to keep my feet dry. It was funny when the frisbee would go rolling up on end down the beach, driven by the wind. "Sunny, Sunny, Wednesday!" - Ruth. 12:57
Remember: This is Newport, not Portland. We just pulled in to the Oregon Coast Aquarium, after stopping by a few fun stores. We saw glass-blowing,
and Joy bought a glass triangle with shells and sand in it. (Molly LaFayette bought one too, and also two little pink glass pigs) Then we walked over to a store called "Pirates Plunder" were we had fun walking around "oohing" and "aahing" over everything. Joy bought some shells. (The girls-LaFayettes-got some too)
1:04We just found a spot. Err, to park, that is. :) Hehe. After finding a spot to park, we met up with the others at a bunch of covered picnic tables. The wind was blowing, and we were cold, so we huddled by one of the table and broke out the sandwiches, apple chips, and pop. Clint wanted to sit out in the sun, but it was still windy and cold out there. Charlie managed to find a nice spot out of the wind, so after we finished eating, we all huddled over to join him. Mr. Olson went to move his van closer to the entrance, were we all went to wait for him. When everyone was a last present, we went inside and bought our tickets.
4:06
Dragging ourselves from the Aquarium. Having car troubles. We got well rained on as we were walking out. My sweater is very moist. Yah! The van lives! Low gas for the Olsons, but Ben says we're okay. We're going to a gas station anyway. Aahh! *Frantic taffy search!* Aha! *Found!* Yum. *Munch, scrunch* The Aquarium was a lot of fun, and very fascinating. (minus many millions of mythical years of exagerated evolution) We saw, however, lots of cool ocean-going creatures. The seahorses came first, and were very impressive. *Fascinating.* The baby 
seahorses were very tiny and cute. Going 'round we found most the fish from "Finding Nemo": Nemo + Marlin*, Dory wanna be*
, Bloat, Peach* and many large relations*, Gil-also known as Dorry wanna be*, more like Gil, though. Anchor, Chum, and Bruce, were probably in with the sharks in the big shark tank. In-between seeing "Gil", and seeing Chum, we saw many other
creatures, and a small octopus in a jar, some seals, and puffins apleanty. *They were so cool 
to watch as they flapped their wings underwater, while eating fish.* Joanna and Elizabeth had fun near the start *Note: their flashing flip-flops made quite the display in the dim lighting.* with the alligator tank. I'd like to see the
picture of their heads popping up into the bubble that came up from under the tank into it's middle. I think it was more entertaining to watch little kids push, shove, jostle, and squash, as found would try to fit into the bubble. The kids seemed the main attraction. *The small alligators didn't move much.* Near the end, the two girls (Joanna and Elizabeth) were getting pretty anxious to see the sharks.
seahorses were very tiny and cute. Going 'round we found most the fish from "Finding Nemo": Nemo + Marlin*, Dory wanna be*
, Bloat, Peach* and many large relations*, Gil-also known as Dorry wanna be*, more like Gil, though. Anchor, Chum, and Bruce, were probably in with the sharks in the big shark tank. In-between seeing "Gil", and seeing Chum, we saw many other
creatures, and a small octopus in a jar, some seals, and puffins apleanty. *They were so cool 
to watch as they flapped their wings underwater, while eating fish.* Joanna and Elizabeth had fun near the start *Note: their flashing flip-flops made quite the display in the dim lighting.* with the alligator tank. I'd like to see the
picture of their heads popping up into the bubble that came up from under the tank into it's middle. I think it was more entertaining to watch little kids push, shove, jostle, and squash, as found would try to fit into the bubble. The kids seemed the main attraction. *The small alligators didn't move much.* Near the end, the two girls (Joanna and Elizabeth) were getting pretty anxious to see the sharks. 5:00
Digital camera dudes = Mr. LaFayette and Mr. Olson. A bunch of the kids, and earlier the girls, posed in a model of a giant open shark jaw. 
The digital camera dudes took pictures. :) When we finally got to the shark tank, it was rather crowded, but still 
very fun. The tunnel went through the middle of the tank, and the way the windows were, we could watch sharks swim over and below us. They were small-ish, but a few were fairly good size. While enjoying the serenity of light shining down through the water, and stingrays swimming overhead, I became aware of a rather ominous reverbrating hum that echoed and filled the tunnel, and grew in volume. (The boys were having fun humming at a certain frequency, that gave the odd effect, so-for fun I joined in.) The crescendo built, with harmony and stifled grins, until Clint gave it a climactic movie-music touch, then we all burst into laughter and moved on. We stopped by the gift shop to make a few-that is, squash a few-pennies. Ben even squashed a quarter. Joy and Robert had seals on their pennies, but Ben's quarter had a shark. *Cool, very* Peter's had an otter I think, and the others I didn't see. That was all, and we ran-walked-hurried through the rain to our cars. (Clint reported hail at one point) At the moment we're on the road, in the vans, in our seats, going home. (Well, okay, Bible study first I think, but home sounds and feels soo much better.) *Sigh*
The digital camera dudes took pictures. :) When we finally got to the shark tank, it was rather crowded, but still 
very fun. The tunnel went through the middle of the tank, and the way the windows were, we could watch sharks swim over and below us. They were small-ish, but a few were fairly good size. While enjoying the serenity of light shining down through the water, and stingrays swimming overhead, I became aware of a rather ominous reverbrating hum that echoed and filled the tunnel, and grew in volume. (The boys were having fun humming at a certain frequency, that gave the odd effect, so-for fun I joined in.) The crescendo built, with harmony and stifled grins, until Clint gave it a climactic movie-music touch, then we all burst into laughter and moved on. We stopped by the gift shop to make a few-that is, squash a few-pennies. Ben even squashed a quarter. Joy and Robert had seals on their pennies, but Ben's quarter had a shark. *Cool, very* Peter's had an otter I think, and the others I didn't see. That was all, and we ran-walked-hurried through the rain to our cars. (Clint reported hail at one point) At the moment we're on the road, in the vans, in our seats, going home. (Well, okay, Bible study first I think, but home sounds and feels soo much better.) *Sigh*5:31
Joy is asleep, judging by her present posture, lying down across the seats. *Okay, so she just moved, she's only resting* I wonder what we'll have for dinner... Mond
ay night at the beach house we ate some very good tacos that Molly LaFayette provided. I ate one and was plenty full enough. *Before dinner, Mama Gloria, and I, finished off an odd "Noah's Ark" puzzle that we'd started earlier.* After dinner we went about trying to find games to play. Joanna, Elizabeth, Joy, and I, went down to the "l
ounge." Joy, Elizabeth and I, started a Settlers of Catan game, but we kept pausing whenever Joanna would beset and attack Elizabeth. They got in several play "fights", and we finally just stopped the game so Joy and Elizabeth could wrestle. And they did wrestle, and Joanna tried to help Elizabet
h, but Joy still won twice. After
/around/before wresting, Joanna and Elizabeth showed us there bears. We kept hitting the button so hard, and it would only show every other word-skipping the rest. That game lasted for a time, until things got a bit too loud and rowdy, then we went back over to the main house. *The extra room is over the garage, so it's seperate from the rest of the house* Over on the more sane side, we found quieter games to play. The adults and a few of the boys started a game of Settlers of Catan. *The boys mostly shwing the others how to play * Well, okay, so Jim, Gloria, Mama, Josh, Jeremy, and I think Charlie, played that, while Molly and I, played Boggle.
ay night at the beach house we ate some very good tacos that Molly LaFayette provided. I ate one and was plenty full enough. *Before dinner, Mama Gloria, and I, finished off an odd "Noah's Ark" puzzle that we'd started earlier.* 
ounge." Joy, Elizabeth and I, started a Settlers of Catan game, but we kept pausing whenever Joanna would beset and attack Elizabeth. They got in several play "fights", and we finally just stopped the game so Joy and Elizabeth could wrestle. And they did wrestle, and Joanna tried to help Elizabet
h, but Joy still won twice. After
/around/before wresting, Joanna and Elizabeth showed us there bears. Molly and I had fun, even if I threw off her groove a bit, and then we played Mancala. *So Molly got a little groove back in the end.* After watching Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. *dull movie* After we finished all olur games, 
we all headed for bed. I picked top bunk, and fell asleep feeling quite at home. I won't forget to write all about Tuesday, and Wednesday morning, but before I forget, and before the light is completely gone-this is some-what akin to what I wrote in the notebook at the beach house just minutes before we left:
we all headed for bed. I picked top bunk, and fell asleep feeling quite at home. I won't forget to write all about Tuesday, and Wednesday morning, but before I forget, and before the light is completely gone-this is some-what akin to what I wrote in the notebook at the beach house just minutes before we left:6:20
Sunshine (in calligraphy, but I'm to tired to write it that way)
3/24/04
"Sunshine, how I love it,
Sunshine makes me glad,
Sunshine lifts the shadows,
And makes me no longer sad,
Jesus is my Sunshine,
Jesus, how I love Him,
Jesus makes me glad,
Jesus lifts the shadows,
And makes me no longer sad."
By: Ruth A. Meyer age 15 ~ composed ang sung while walking down on beach. The weather was wonderful! We built a big sand castle, and even though it's gone now, we enjoyed making it. I felt right at home the whole time. We had soo much fun! The house is lovely. God Bless!
~ Ruth ~
Tuesday morning I woke up and I thought I was in bed at home. When I rolled over and saw were the window and other bunk beds were I knew I was back at the beach house. But! There was sunshine coming in the window, through the blinds! I had hope! Normally I'm not much of a morning person, but I got up gladly in my eagerness to see the sun.
6:38
[Rest stop] Ow! My legs were really stiff getting out of the van, but I'm back in the van, and we're heading out. It's getting to dark to write. Oh well, just adding: Groovy Girls club theme song: "Groovy Girls are great, But dont bring a date, No boys allowed, All boys will be plowed!" "How about some *Groovy folding*", by Molly, as she walked in with a big basket of clean clothes.
3/25/04
Home at last! It's Thursday, but I haven't recorded all the events of Tuesday, so I'll pick up were I left off and go from there. Tuesday morning was sunny and clear. It must have been sometime around 7:00 when I woke up. Since we wanted to go down and see the tide pools, we were told to grab a peice of fruit to hold us over until we got back for breakfast. Chomping down on a big crispy apple, I poured myself some Toastie O's, and sat down to eat them with a few of the boys who were doing likewise. Charlie, Robert, Joy, Josh, and I, jumped in the Olsons van with Mr. Olson, who eagerly headed off down the road. The others came a little later in the other two cars. The drive to Boiler Bay was nice, the sunshine was pleasent, and the blue jacket Molly LaFayette lent me to use was warm and comfy. There was rope in the car, and we were expecting to have to use it to climb down the rocks to the tide pools, but as it turned out, they weren't much needed. Driving over the bridge on our way there, we had a clear view of the ocean. It was blue, not gray, as it had been the day before. Once there, it wasn
't too hard climbing down over the rocks. The first critters we saw were tiny crabs that were crawling or "scuttling" as you might say, sideways over the rocks. Finally, making our way down to the actual tide pools, we started glancing around, looking for familiar shapes and colors. Ther
e were several green anemonies in the first pools we saw, and further on there were pools literally teaming with small spiky purple sea urchins. ADD8 *Mr. Olson said the anemonies only stung a little, but I still didn't fancy touching one.* We found a few shells left from sea urchins, and Joy collected them. There was one small type of blob-like critter that would squirt you with water if you stepped on it, as Clint and I discovered. :) Though I couldn't find any hermit crabs, the others spotted and pointed out a few. ADD9 They were neat to see, and Jeremy even found one outside of it's shell. A few of us stopped by the boiler for a picture, and we went further out, near the tide. ADD10 There were only a few redish starfish at first, but as we went out futher we began noticing bright-orange ones in abundance. Around the time we discovered a big bright orange sunstar, the group from the other two cars caught up with those of us who'd gone earlier. ADD11 Far out, we got our shoes wet jumping from place to place in search of firm ground and cooler critters. ADD12 The little girls had to be lifted from one spot to another, and the going got trickier as the tide came in. A few people slipped, but no one was hurt bad. Mrs. Olson cut her hand and got a bit bruised, but went on just as eagerly as ever. We found more tiny crabs as we headed back, ADD13 *Poor Joanna got pinched by one, and gave quite the startled sceam* and Molly pointed out several brightly colored starfish. We got lots of really nice pictures. Mr. Olson wanted a group picture of us all by the boiler, so we went back to it. ADD14 Even with the tide still coming in, a few guys jumped over to the big rocks behind the boiler, and Josh and Mr. LaFayette even leaped right on to it's barnacle-encrusted top. Robert waded in as close as he could to one side of the boiler, and after finally getting everyone in place, they took a few pictures and we scattered again. Jeremy found a little blood star, and we snapped a picture of that too. ADD 15-16 Heading back, we looked closer and more carefully for fish and other things in the tide pools we'd only glanced over before. ADD17 Back to the rocks, I wandered over to a small waterfall coming off the cliff-side, to wash my shoes off as Ben told me to. Turning back to the rocks, hower, I stepped back in the sand of the small beach by the rocks, thus getting my shoes all sandy again. Climbing back up the rocks was easy, and up at the top I sat down on a big rock with Joanna to wait for the others. ADD18-21 It was still very sunny, and there were others waiting down below on the rocks. All together again at the top, we jumped into the cars and headed back to the beach house. Back at the house, we cleaned up and started making pancakes. As people drifted in, after showers-in their socks, we ate our pancakes with happy satisfaction. One pancake was enough for me, then I sat down with Mrs. Olson and we started making a puzzle of a rock pool scene. We relaxed there for a bit, then the guys went geo-cashing, and the girls went down to the beach. It was windy on the beach, and cloudy, but the sun broke through from time to time. We tried using a big piece of driftwood as a wind-break, but the wind still blew right around it. Behind the driftwood, Joy, Joanna, and Elizabeth, started making a sand castle. Molly had fun, and made a sand cat, complete with wiskers! :) I didn't feel like getting all sandy, so I wandered around the beach looking for shells. I had wandered out a ways-and found a few-and was on my way back, when the sun came out from behind a cloud. I don't know how I did it, but inspired by the sun, I started singing a song, making it up as I went. "Sunshine! How I love it, Sunshine makes me gald! Sunshine lifts the shadows, and makes me no longer sad!" I kept walking back to the others and then I went past them, and kept meandering about until I had got the song just right. I kept humming and singing it over quietly to myself as I joined in the play of the others. Joanna had gone out to ask me what I was doing, and when she did she found a large length of kelp. She dragged it back to the others, and Mr. LaFayette, *Who came down to the beach after taking a nap* cut it into three parts for them to play with. A few girls and I tried using a short bit of kelp with a knob on one end as a whip, but when the knob kept snapping back and hitting our hands, we tried something else. Kelp makes good jump rope ropes. One short piece of kelp was used as a one-person jump rope, and the longest piece two people held while a third jumped over it in the middle. I tried both, and even Jim, Molly, and Gloria gave it a try. Jim and I had a jumping contest. I jumped rope 51 times, but as I jumped once inbetween jumps, I really jumped about 101 times. Jim swung the kelp rope fast enough that he didn't have to jump inbetween, and he jumped 44 *or so* times. *I think he's still in better shape then I am, though.* For fun, we clambered up on the big piece of driftwood, and despite the wind blowing our hair all over our faces and in every direction, we took some pictures. :) It was almost lunch time, so we headed back to the house. *Not before the girls went into the ocean again* Once more I refrained from wetting my feet. The girls slowly made their way barefoot, back to the house. Our timing was perfect, though, and as we stepped onto the gravel driveway, I saw that the guys had just got back from geo-cashing, and were getting out of the Olson's van. They had obviously enjoyed themselves as much as we had, and were brimming with news of their discoveries. Charlie found the first cash, and it was a dog coller. Peter took the coller, and they left a few dimes. Robert found the next cash, and in it they found a four-leaf clover. Taking the clover, they left a Christmas ornament in it's place. The clover was as big as my hand, plated with 24 karat gold, with a saying etched on the back. It went to Gloria, and was admired by all, *or at least me.* :) At this time, lunch was set out. You had your choices of either; turkey or ham; bagels, or bread, milk or pop. Since there was a lot of milk that needed to be drunk before the end of the trip, the moms preferred we chose milk. I went for a bagel, and popped it in the toaster. As the others fixed their sandwiches, I waited for my bagel to pop. People sat down, they ate, they drank. I waited. Mama commented on a strange smell. Peter started to toast something, and asked who was burning a bagel. Quickly rescuing my bagel, and trying not to get burnt, I looked in dismay at it's charcoaled sides. Not wanting to throw it away, and feeling I should take responsibility for my burnt bagel, I fix myself a turkey sandwich. And, I ate it, burnt bagel and all. *Also the mustard was "spicy brown", not the "honey" I was expecting. It was very crunchy, and decidedly mustar-flavored, but I ate it. (Yes, I know my reasonings were pretty silly, but since I didn't mind the taste of charcoal, I made the best of it.) I enjoyed imagining it, but I don't think anyone else really was "envious" of my charcoal bagel.* With some effort I finished it off. Food is food. I was hungry. Then I heard talk of agate hunting, and my curiousity was roused. The Olsons knew a beach nearby where they'd found agates before, so that's where we were headed. The moms decided we could go agate hunting and do the dishes when we got back. In a few minutes we made it to the beach, and hopped out. We forgot to bring a bucket, but luckily there was a large pot in the Olsons van that we used. A river ran between the beach and where we'd parked, and I enjoyed seeing the sun sparkle off the water. The first section of beach we went to was almost all sand, and we were wondering for a bit if we'd find any agates at all. A few venturesome boys went climbing up a grassy cliff side that was topped with a line of trees, but they joined up with everyone quickly when they moved off. When we got back to the car we found out that Molly's hat had blown off when they where walking back over the river, and that it was floating away. Jumping in the cars, we drove a little further down the beach. We got out and found the beach was much more rocky along that stretch. We never did save Molly's hat, but we started looking for agates anyway. I wasn't sure at first what to look for, though I did find a few other pretty rocks. Then Mr. Olson found an agate, and that helped me get an idea what to look for. Peter didn't think there was much chance of finding anything, but I didn't care. I kept on going, bent over, head down, eyes peering keenly at every conspicuous stone I passed. Any agatish-looking rocks I put in my left jacket pocket, and the simply pretty ones went in my right jacket pocket. I stopped a few times and sat on the rocks, looking through what I had and what was around me. Good rocks I kept, not good-enough rocks I left. As we walked back to the cars at the end of our long search, I showed my agateish-looking rocks to Mr. Olson. The ones good for polishing he took to put in his rock tumbler. I noticed Josh carrying a large bundle and I heard someone mention a bowling ball. When he dumped it in the back of the LaFayette's car, I found it was a collection of rocks with odd holes in them that Molly had gathered. One had three holes that my fingers fit into-almost exactly like a bowling ball. Fingering over my own few treasured rocks on the way back to the house, I got a closer look at what I'd found. Back at the beach house once again, I jumped out and went and found a safe place for my rocks. The dishes still had to be done, and since it was Elizabeth and I's turn, we set to the task. I wasted little time rinsing of the dishes, and I was half-way through filling up the sink with soapy water, when I remembered there was a dish washer. Thinking how thoughtless I'd been, I showed Elizabeth how to fill up the dish washer, *She never used one before* and found I had almost forgotten what to do myself. Anyway, since going on about dishes, and wiping counters, and putting away food, would bore anyone to death, I'll move along to the action. Josh and Charlie were determined to make the biggest sandcastle, and the three other girls (Joy, Elizabeth, Joanna) wanted me to join them in a frolic in the ocean. I hurried to finish cleaning the counter off, but Molly and Gloria graciously offered to finish up for me, and I was able to go down to the beach. I wondered, as we went through the chain-link high fence, how Josh really had fit through the space just above the doorway. *A feat he had tried before when he didn't have the key* I did wonder how he got through though, unscathed, but only momentarily. Then, we were down on the beach, and I finally gave in. Slipping off my shoes and socks, I walked out onto the ever-wet sand. I wasn't too cold, thanks to the jacket I was wearing, but the way the wind was blowing I figured I soon would be. Peter had come down with us, and soon had a kite flying up in the air. Josh and Charlie found the best castle-building site, and Josh "paced" out the perimater. Off to the left of the site, they circled off a "quary-zone" for digging up sand. The girls went and walked in the sea, then stood for a time in the water. My feet were getting sandy, so after a bit I went for a walk at last, myself, in the cold waters of the ocean. But Josh and Charlie needed help digging, so I walked back and found a shovel. Josh was busily scooping sand, when his scooper broke. It was still somewhat useable, so he kept digging. Josh assigned Elizabeth to run get buckets of water, but after a few minutes he dug down to the water anyway. The girls went off, and we dug deeper. Charlie hauled buckets to the castle site as quickly as we filled them, and a pile of sand started growing in the rectangle they'd "paced" out. Feeling the monumental effect of our mound, we kept digging, and Joy even jumped in and helped. By the time Charlie decided we had a solid, sufficiently sized base, we had dug a trench around the spot of "quary" were the buckets sat, and I was ankle-deep in sandy water. Josh had a very muddy, soupy, hole on his side of the "quarry", and he used the gloopy mess to help Charlie form the castle keep on top of the base. I kept digging, and between Josh's "sand mud" and my "dry sand", a wall and three towers mounted on top of the base aside the keep. As Josh and I formed the towers and walls, Charlie added detail and made an exact shape for the keep. Robert finally arrived on the scene, and helped give a nice form to the castle base. Mr. Olson showed up with his camera, took a few pictures, and gave some "architectual engineering" advice. However, as what he described sounded more like a cathedral then a castle, we only used some of it. As Mr. Olson walked off down the beach to look for agates, and the boys started working on the finishing details and a bridge to the front of the castle, I noticed the sun was on the verge of setting. As the boys worked, I watched the sun, and could actually see it going down. I alerted them of the lighting dilema, but they were deterimined to finish the bridge. Then the bridge collapsed. Desperate, they did what they could, built a sloping ramp, and just when we were all wishing Mr. Olson hadn't left with the camera-he came back! He took a few pictures, then the sun set, and all that was left was a pink-purple glow in the sky. Though it was hard to see, we decided to look for more agates. I couldn't find any, but I found a few rocks I liked, so I slipped them in my pokcet, and we headed back. My feet, by then, were cold and slightly numb. *I wish they had been more numb.* For the first time going along the path back to the house, I realized how rough the way was. The grass pricked my feet. The paved driveway hurt. I realized then why the girls had walked soo slowly before, when going over that stretch. Approaching the gravel driveway, Mr. Olson suggested he carry me the rest of the way. My feet hurt a lot, and I didn't want to cut them, so I let him carry me piggy-back up to the cement. I should have put my shoes back on, down at the beach, but I decided to carry them instead. Up at the house, I washed off my sandy feet with the hose. My hands were cold, and I was pretty chilled, but as we all gathered in the main living-room area for dinner, I started warming up. For dinner, Gloria had spaghetti, salad, and french bread, all made up, and we happily sat down on couch and chair to eat. There was a lot of spaghetti, so everyone got their fill. I worked some more on the tidepool puzzle, then they pulled out the hymnals. We sang several good hymns, and though people dropped out because they couldn't sing anymore, I sang carefully and kept singing with all my heart. Mr. Olson looked up a few hymns, on the internet on his laptop, and I worked more on the tidepool puzzle. I kept putting in pieces until all the kids were mostly gone and adults were talking, then I went off to watch a movie. I didn't realize how late it was, so shortly into "Beethoven", and shortly after being informed, I stopped the movie and went to bed. Wednesday morning was partly cloudy, but still fairly sunny. We had some time before we had to leave, so Peter, Elizabeth, and I, sat down to finish off the puzzle. Most the way through, I left to pack up my stuff, and carefully secure my rocks and sea shells in my suitcase. By the time we finished the puzzle, most of our stuff had already been loaded into the cars. As the moms were busy packing away food from the kitchen and making sandwiches for lunch, I decided to get the medicine for my sty out of the van. Sorting through all the pop bottles, I filled a cup with Root Beer and started adding drops of G.S.E. [Grapefruit Seed Extract] Plop! Off came the dripper, and it plunged into my pop with quite a large dosage of medicine. The clear extract settled mostly on the bottom of the glass, so I tried to sip from the top. It was still extremely bitter. Mama managed to salvage the exess extract, and poured it into an empty "frappichino" bottle. The still-strong pop was poured into another cup, and I managed to gulp it down. It was tollerable, so I tried not to complain. The girls helped the moms finish making up lunch, and the food was quickly transported to the cars. Outside, after adding two bottles of pop to the LaFayettes rather packed car, I stood and listened in on Mr. LaFayettes conversation with Jeremy. Peter called for me, and I found I'd been given the honor of writing in the notebook at the house. I wrote down the poem "Sunshine", and the note I already wrote about. It was wonderfully sunny, and we all posed outside the house for a few group pictures on the stairs. They got a picture of all the boys too, and then we piled at last into all our cars, and took off for the rest of the day, looking happily forward to home.
't too hard climbing down over the rocks. The first critters we saw were tiny crabs that were crawling or "scuttling" as you might say, sideways over the rocks. Finally, making our way down to the actual tide pools, we started glancing around, looking for familiar shapes and colors. Ther
e were several green anemonies in the first pools we saw, and further on there were pools literally teaming with small spiky purple sea urchins. ADD8 *Mr. Olson said the anemonies only stung a little, but I still didn't fancy touching one.* We found a few shells left from sea urchins, and Joy collected them. There was one small type of blob-like critter that would squirt you with water if you stepped on it, as Clint and I discovered. :) Though I couldn't find any hermit crabs, the others spotted and pointed out a few. ADD9 They were neat to see, and Jeremy even found one outside of it's shell. A few of us stopped by the boiler for a picture, and we went further out, near the tide. ADD10 There were only a few redish starfish at first, but as we went out futher we began noticing bright-orange ones in abundance. Around the time we discovered a big bright orange sunstar, the group from the other two cars caught up with those of us who'd gone earlier. ADD11 Far out, we got our shoes wet jumping from place to place in search of firm ground and cooler critters. ADD12 The little girls had to be lifted from one spot to another, and the going got trickier as the tide came in. A few people slipped, but no one was hurt bad. Mrs. Olson cut her hand and got a bit bruised, but went on just as eagerly as ever. We found more tiny crabs as we headed back, ADD13 *Poor Joanna got pinched by one, and gave quite the startled sceam* and Molly pointed out several brightly colored starfish. We got lots of really nice pictures. Mr. Olson wanted a group picture of us all by the boiler, so we went back to it. ADD14 Even with the tide still coming in, a few guys jumped over to the big rocks behind the boiler, and Josh and Mr. LaFayette even leaped right on to it's barnacle-encrusted top. Robert waded in as close as he could to one side of the boiler, and after finally getting everyone in place, they took a few pictures and we scattered again. Jeremy found a little blood star, and we snapped a picture of that too. ADD 15-16 Heading back, we looked closer and more carefully for fish and other things in the tide pools we'd only glanced over before. ADD17 Back to the rocks, I wandered over to a small waterfall coming off the cliff-side, to wash my shoes off as Ben told me to. Turning back to the rocks, hower, I stepped back in the sand of the small beach by the rocks, thus getting my shoes all sandy again. Climbing back up the rocks was easy, and up at the top I sat down on a big rock with Joanna to wait for the others. ADD18-21 It was still very sunny, and there were others waiting down below on the rocks. All together again at the top, we jumped into the cars and headed back to the beach house. Back at the house, we cleaned up and started making pancakes. As people drifted in, after showers-in their socks, we ate our pancakes with happy satisfaction. One pancake was enough for me, then I sat down with Mrs. Olson and we started making a puzzle of a rock pool scene. We relaxed there for a bit, then the guys went geo-cashing, and the girls went down to the beach. It was windy on the beach, and cloudy, but the sun broke through from time to time. We tried using a big piece of driftwood as a wind-break, but the wind still blew right around it. Behind the driftwood, Joy, Joanna, and Elizabeth, started making a sand castle. Molly had fun, and made a sand cat, complete with wiskers! :) I didn't feel like getting all sandy, so I wandered around the beach looking for shells. I had wandered out a ways-and found a few-and was on my way back, when the sun came out from behind a cloud. I don't know how I did it, but inspired by the sun, I started singing a song, making it up as I went. "Sunshine! How I love it, Sunshine makes me gald! Sunshine lifts the shadows, and makes me no longer sad!" I kept walking back to the others and then I went past them, and kept meandering about until I had got the song just right. I kept humming and singing it over quietly to myself as I joined in the play of the others. Joanna had gone out to ask me what I was doing, and when she did she found a large length of kelp. She dragged it back to the others, and Mr. LaFayette, *Who came down to the beach after taking a nap* cut it into three parts for them to play with. A few girls and I tried using a short bit of kelp with a knob on one end as a whip, but when the knob kept snapping back and hitting our hands, we tried something else. Kelp makes good jump rope ropes. One short piece of kelp was used as a one-person jump rope, and the longest piece two people held while a third jumped over it in the middle. I tried both, and even Jim, Molly, and Gloria gave it a try. Jim and I had a jumping contest. I jumped rope 51 times, but as I jumped once inbetween jumps, I really jumped about 101 times. Jim swung the kelp rope fast enough that he didn't have to jump inbetween, and he jumped 44 *or so* times. *I think he's still in better shape then I am, though.* For fun, we clambered up on the big piece of driftwood, and despite the wind blowing our hair all over our faces and in every direction, we took some pictures. :) It was almost lunch time, so we headed back to the house. *Not before the girls went into the ocean again* Once more I refrained from wetting my feet. The girls slowly made their way barefoot, back to the house. Our timing was perfect, though, and as we stepped onto the gravel driveway, I saw that the guys had just got back from geo-cashing, and were getting out of the Olson's van. They had obviously enjoyed themselves as much as we had, and were brimming with news of their discoveries. Charlie found the first cash, and it was a dog coller. Peter took the coller, and they left a few dimes. Robert found the next cash, and in it they found a four-leaf clover. Taking the clover, they left a Christmas ornament in it's place. The clover was as big as my hand, plated with 24 karat gold, with a saying etched on the back. It went to Gloria, and was admired by all, *or at least me.* :) At this time, lunch was set out. You had your choices of either; turkey or ham; bagels, or bread, milk or pop. Since there was a lot of milk that needed to be drunk before the end of the trip, the moms preferred we chose milk. I went for a bagel, and popped it in the toaster. As the others fixed their sandwiches, I waited for my bagel to pop. People sat down, they ate, they drank. I waited. Mama commented on a strange smell. Peter started to toast something, and asked who was burning a bagel. Quickly rescuing my bagel, and trying not to get burnt, I looked in dismay at it's charcoaled sides. Not wanting to throw it away, and feeling I should take responsibility for my burnt bagel, I fix myself a turkey sandwich. And, I ate it, burnt bagel and all. *Also the mustard was "spicy brown", not the "honey" I was expecting. It was very crunchy, and decidedly mustar-flavored, but I ate it. (Yes, I know my reasonings were pretty silly, but since I didn't mind the taste of charcoal, I made the best of it.) I enjoyed imagining it, but I don't think anyone else really was "envious" of my charcoal bagel.* With some effort I finished it off. Food is food. I was hungry. Then I heard talk of agate hunting, and my curiousity was roused. The Olsons knew a beach nearby where they'd found agates before, so that's where we were headed. The moms decided we could go agate hunting and do the dishes when we got back. In a few minutes we made it to the beach, and hopped out. We forgot to bring a bucket, but luckily there was a large pot in the Olsons van that we used. A river ran between the beach and where we'd parked, and I enjoyed seeing the sun sparkle off the water. The first section of beach we went to was almost all sand, and we were wondering for a bit if we'd find any agates at all. A few venturesome boys went climbing up a grassy cliff side that was topped with a line of trees, but they joined up with everyone quickly when they moved off. When we got back to the car we found out that Molly's hat had blown off when they where walking back over the river, and that it was floating away. Jumping in the cars, we drove a little further down the beach. We got out and found the beach was much more rocky along that stretch. We never did save Molly's hat, but we started looking for agates anyway. I wasn't sure at first what to look for, though I did find a few other pretty rocks. Then Mr. Olson found an agate, and that helped me get an idea what to look for. Peter didn't think there was much chance of finding anything, but I didn't care. I kept on going, bent over, head down, eyes peering keenly at every conspicuous stone I passed. Any agatish-looking rocks I put in my left jacket pocket, and the simply pretty ones went in my right jacket pocket. I stopped a few times and sat on the rocks, looking through what I had and what was around me. Good rocks I kept, not good-enough rocks I left. As we walked back to the cars at the end of our long search, I showed my agateish-looking rocks to Mr. Olson. The ones good for polishing he took to put in his rock tumbler. I noticed Josh carrying a large bundle and I heard someone mention a bowling ball. When he dumped it in the back of the LaFayette's car, I found it was a collection of rocks with odd holes in them that Molly had gathered. One had three holes that my fingers fit into-almost exactly like a bowling ball. Fingering over my own few treasured rocks on the way back to the house, I got a closer look at what I'd found. Back at the beach house once again, I jumped out and went and found a safe place for my rocks. The dishes still had to be done, and since it was Elizabeth and I's turn, we set to the task. I wasted little time rinsing of the dishes, and I was half-way through filling up the sink with soapy water, when I remembered there was a dish washer. Thinking how thoughtless I'd been, I showed Elizabeth how to fill up the dish washer, *She never used one before* and found I had almost forgotten what to do myself. Anyway, since going on about dishes, and wiping counters, and putting away food, would bore anyone to death, I'll move along to the action. Josh and Charlie were determined to make the biggest sandcastle, and the three other girls (Joy, Elizabeth, Joanna) wanted me to join them in a frolic in the ocean. I hurried to finish cleaning the counter off, but Molly and Gloria graciously offered to finish up for me, and I was able to go down to the beach. I wondered, as we went through the chain-link high fence, how Josh really had fit through the space just above the doorway. *A feat he had tried before when he didn't have the key* I did wonder how he got through though, unscathed, but only momentarily. Then, we were down on the beach, and I finally gave in. Slipping off my shoes and socks, I walked out onto the ever-wet sand. I wasn't too cold, thanks to the jacket I was wearing, but the way the wind was blowing I figured I soon would be. Peter had come down with us, and soon had a kite flying up in the air. Josh and Charlie found the best castle-building site, and Josh "paced" out the perimater. Off to the left of the site, they circled off a "quary-zone" for digging up sand. The girls went and walked in the sea, then stood for a time in the water. My feet were getting sandy, so after a bit I went for a walk at last, myself, in the cold waters of the ocean. But Josh and Charlie needed help digging, so I walked back and found a shovel. Josh was busily scooping sand, when his scooper broke. It was still somewhat useable, so he kept digging. Josh assigned Elizabeth to run get buckets of water, but after a few minutes he dug down to the water anyway. The girls went off, and we dug deeper. Charlie hauled buckets to the castle site as quickly as we filled them, and a pile of sand started growing in the rectangle they'd "paced" out. Feeling the monumental effect of our mound, we kept digging, and Joy even jumped in and helped. By the time Charlie decided we had a solid, sufficiently sized base, we had dug a trench around the spot of "quary" were the buckets sat, and I was ankle-deep in sandy water. Josh had a very muddy, soupy, hole on his side of the "quarry", and he used the gloopy mess to help Charlie form the castle keep on top of the base. I kept digging, and between Josh's "sand mud" and my "dry sand", a wall and three towers mounted on top of the base aside the keep. As Josh and I formed the towers and walls, Charlie added detail and made an exact shape for the keep. Robert finally arrived on the scene, and helped give a nice form to the castle base. Mr. Olson showed up with his camera, took a few pictures, and gave some "architectual engineering" advice. However, as what he described sounded more like a cathedral then a castle, we only used some of it. As Mr. Olson walked off down the beach to look for agates, and the boys started working on the finishing details and a bridge to the front of the castle, I noticed the sun was on the verge of setting. As the boys worked, I watched the sun, and could actually see it going down. I alerted them of the lighting dilema, but they were deterimined to finish the bridge. Then the bridge collapsed. Desperate, they did what they could, built a sloping ramp, and just when we were all wishing Mr. Olson hadn't left with the camera-he came back! He took a few pictures, then the sun set, and all that was left was a pink-purple glow in the sky. Though it was hard to see, we decided to look for more agates. I couldn't find any, but I found a few rocks I liked, so I slipped them in my pokcet, and we headed back. My feet, by then, were cold and slightly numb. *I wish they had been more numb.* For the first time going along the path back to the house, I realized how rough the way was. The grass pricked my feet. The paved driveway hurt. I realized then why the girls had walked soo slowly before, when going over that stretch. Approaching the gravel driveway, Mr. Olson suggested he carry me the rest of the way. My feet hurt a lot, and I didn't want to cut them, so I let him carry me piggy-back up to the cement. I should have put my shoes back on, down at the beach, but I decided to carry them instead. Up at the house, I washed off my sandy feet with the hose. My hands were cold, and I was pretty chilled, but as we all gathered in the main living-room area for dinner, I started warming up. For dinner, Gloria had spaghetti, salad, and french bread, all made up, and we happily sat down on couch and chair to eat. There was a lot of spaghetti, so everyone got their fill. I worked some more on the tidepool puzzle, then they pulled out the hymnals. We sang several good hymns, and though people dropped out because they couldn't sing anymore, I sang carefully and kept singing with all my heart. Mr. Olson looked up a few hymns, on the internet on his laptop, and I worked more on the tidepool puzzle. I kept putting in pieces until all the kids were mostly gone and adults were talking, then I went off to watch a movie. I didn't realize how late it was, so shortly into "Beethoven", and shortly after being informed, I stopped the movie and went to bed. Wednesday morning was partly cloudy, but still fairly sunny. We had some time before we had to leave, so Peter, Elizabeth, and I, sat down to finish off the puzzle. Most the way through, I left to pack up my stuff, and carefully secure my rocks and sea shells in my suitcase. By the time we finished the puzzle, most of our stuff had already been loaded into the cars. As the moms were busy packing away food from the kitchen and making sandwiches for lunch, I decided to get the medicine for my sty out of the van. Sorting through all the pop bottles, I filled a cup with Root Beer and started adding drops of G.S.E. [Grapefruit Seed Extract] Plop! Off came the dripper, and it plunged into my pop with quite a large dosage of medicine. The clear extract settled mostly on the bottom of the glass, so I tried to sip from the top. It was still extremely bitter. Mama managed to salvage the exess extract, and poured it into an empty "frappichino" bottle. The still-strong pop was poured into another cup, and I managed to gulp it down. It was tollerable, so I tried not to complain. The girls helped the moms finish making up lunch, and the food was quickly transported to the cars. Outside, after adding two bottles of pop to the LaFayettes rather packed car, I stood and listened in on Mr. LaFayettes conversation with Jeremy. Peter called for me, and I found I'd been given the honor of writing in the notebook at the house. I wrote down the poem "Sunshine", and the note I already wrote about. It was wonderfully sunny, and we all posed outside the house for a few group pictures on the stairs. They got a picture of all the boys too, and then we piled at last into all our cars, and took off for the rest of the day, looking happily forward to home. The End.
