Saturday, July 21, 2012

Tillicum Beach, Waldport

Sunday:
We headed out early with a stop at Fred Myers, then south to the USFS Tillicum Beach campground just south of Waldport.  We've stayed here before; it's one of our favorites. Talk about lucky. We pulled in just as site 31, which is probably the best site in the campground ,became available. (44.36522 -124.09264) We have a huge grassed area with an unobstructed view of the ocean. The sites and interior streets are paved so it works well with Carols scooter. It's so  nice, we decided to stay for the week. There is a very nice Green Market in Waldport on Wednesday plus a church with an 8am mass. The church we went to in Newport had a noontime mass; much better then 8am.
To the north of the  campground perhaps a 1/2 mile or so, is a small fresh water creek that dumps into the ocean. Each day, Gopher and I make that walk a couple of times.

Our view

The wind off the ocean never stops (Sitka Spruce)

The creek that flows into the ocean and one wet dog.

Monday-Saturday

Wednesday:
Went to church in the morning then to the Farmers Market. Carol remembered the almond cookies from the last time so we stocked up.


Identified a bird today. The White-crowned Sparrow.  Per iBird "The White-crowned sparrow is one of the best-studied songbirds in North America. Much of our knowledge of bird song and development is based on studies of this species"
If you saw a bunch of sparrows you would call them a "crew", "flutter", "quarrel", or perhaps a "ubiquity" of sparrows.

Friday/Saturday:
The campground if full, as expected, and mostly with families. The usual mix of two or three kids and a dog, or so, per campsite.  It's worth your life walking on the streets between the bikes, skateboards, scooters and such.  We enjoy it. Looking at license plates, this campground is popular with folks from Oregon, of course, but also Washington, Idaho,California, Alberta and B.C. Canada. We're here from Florida, there is a car from Illinois and another from Michigan.


It was a very enjoyable week.  Tomorrow we continue our trek south. No particular destination in mind; we'll just stop when we get there.



A 1/2 ounce per day adds up.

Over the last few months, we've both been gaining about a pound a month; a half ounce per day, more or less.  Now we both need to loose five pounds. One pound of body fat equals about 3,500 calories. If we want to lose a 1/2 ounce per day, we simply need to expend 120+- more calories then we consume on that day. Weight loss is no more complex then that. No "magic" diets required. Eat less and move more, that's all there is to it. At lunch time we frequently had some chips of some sort. 18 chips, 140 calories. One tablespoon of peanut butter, one of me weaknesses, about a hundred calories.  Back to our routine of having one cookie for desert but splitting it three ways. We started this morning on our very modest goal of losing a 1/2 ounce per day. By the time we get back home, we'll be where we want to be. Of course if it's bakery day......