Life Smith: camp

While camping at the ocean last weekend, the weather was mostly not great. When we arrived Friday afternoon, Brad and his brother, Eric, spent the first 2 hours setting up a big blue tarp to shield our campsite from the impending rain.

The trees in our campsite were all very tall, and the lowest hanging branches were generally over 9-feet above the ground. This meant that there were trees climbed.

And Brad and Eric threw rocks at each other (with rope tied around them) in order to string the tarp high enough. Eric was smart and used a shield.

It rained quite a bit over the course of the weekend, so the big blue tarp definitely came in handy. During the first downpour, we noticed the water starting to pool in the middle of the tarp. We found a large downed tree limb, and used it to prop up the middle part of the tarp. Not long later, a large gust of wind, picked up the tarp, thus leaving the limb unsupported, and it fell on my head. It hurt. (there are no pictures of that, thank goodness.) After that, though, the limb was secured to the picnic table and the ground, and no one else got bonked.

Saturday morning started out pretty gloomy. It poured down rain not long after we got up. And it stayed cloudy long enough for Brad to try death-by-coconut.

However, by the late morning, the skies had begun to clear. We spent the day in the town of Long Beach eating ice cream, taking in the local music scene, drinking margaritas, taking advantage of the free carriage rides, and having an epic dance party on the beach.

photo by: Eric Smith

The weather was gorgeous the entire rest of the day on Saturday.

Sunday morning, it clouded up again. We got up early that morning, packed up camp, and drove south to Astoria, OR to check out the Rogue Brewery Tasting Room. Before heading to the bar/restaurant, we stopped at the Astoria Column and climbed way too many stairs to get to the top. I told myself it was good exercise before having beer for lunch.