For the weekend my family with my friend Sarah in tow went to the beach for a bit of clamming. We stayed at a hotel in Gearhart with the five of us, my uncle and his girlfriend and a family friend and his son. In Boston style we packed enormous amounts of food with enough fruit to satisfy my addiction to earth’s candy. With a stocked fridge we settled in nicely.
We went out early Saturday to catch the low tide. My uncle, an experienced clammer, sported the appropriate garb; tight wet suit material overalls. We can simply say I was jealous. We spent the morning getting wet and dirty digging in the sand and being bashed by waves. There are a lot of things I am good at but clamming is not one of those, after many hours I only had 4 in my bag that I managed to smash when kneeling down to dig, FTW? Sarah and I had tall rubber boots on to attempt to keep us dry but we had to endlessly perform high kicks to drain our boots, which was probably a sight. After being completely owned by the ocean and out dug by clams Sarah and I waded back to the car, ditched our boots and went for a wee walk. We found some cool drift wood that we are going to make wine racks out of. Soon the rest of the crew had their limit and we headed in for some breakfast and a day of sun on the beach.
The next day Sarah and I accepted our failure and decided to sleep in and leave the clamming to the others. Rested we got up packed our things and headed to Oswald State Park for an easy hike. Here we hiked out to Falcon Cove. Sarah was such a champ and sucked up being sick and had a great time. Along the trail we came across large numbers of slugs and of course I loved all the songs courtesy of the birds. It had rained the night before so the trail was a bit wet giving some fun mud puddles to trounce through. It was awesome to be back among Oregon nature, the thick trees and so much green! I almost forgot how many different types of green Oregon has. At the top of our hike we had a view of the mountainous coast line highlighted with the blaring sun. All in all for a first weekend back it was not a let-down.
When I got home the sun was beginning to set so I decided to go on a run. I went out to Rosemont Rd and awkwardly sat in the sidewalk and watched as the sky performed in pinks and orange against a back drop of distant mountains and hills. I have been doing this almost every night to help transition back home; the little things like experiencing a sunset from a new but old place have helped me reconnect. I miss New Zealand with a passion that I cannot put into words but Oregon is just as much my home and has plenty of beauty to explore.
We aren't breathing for nothing.
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