We did something different for Halloween this year, we skipped it. Skipped it? Yes, we skipped it. Why would anyone do such a thing and skip Halloween? I'll tell you.
I think it was about nine years ago, we had a family reunion at South Beach State Park in Oregon. I had a blast at the reunion, we played on the beach, went to the aquarium, went inside a light house, and got stuck in the worst traffic on the way home. Even with the traffic the car ride was a blast, except for the part where I almost peed my pants because we were stuck in traffic for sooo lonnnggg.
Back to the story, while we were at the state park I noticed these strange tent like buildings. I quickly learned that they were called yurts and I thought they were super cool. I have pretty much wanted to stay in a yurt since I learned about them nine years ago. I can't believe that was nine years ago. It's crazy how fast time passes.
We have looked into staying in a yurt several times but they have always been completely booked out. The Oregon coast is a popular place to visit in the summer. Well they weren't booked out Halloween weekend so we snagged one up and invited my siblings to come and join us for the weekend. Megan and Mr. D were the only ones who were able to make it.
Friday night we played some games, Megan was tired and couldn't stay awake, but the rest of us stayed up talking until the wee hours of the morning.
I was a little bit nervous about sleeping in the yurt. Would it have electricity? Would it be warm? How clean would it be? Would it keep us dry? What were the beds like?
The yurt had electricity, it was great! We didn't need to bring lanterns. The only thing we needed were headlamps for bathroom runs. The yurt had a small heater and it seemed to put out a fair amount of heat. We also brought a portable heater and plugged it in, we were plenty warm. The yurt was surprisingly clean. The germaphobe in me had to disinfect the beds and table. Thank you Sol-U-Guard. The yurt kept us very dry, it was a stormy weekend so that's saying something. The beds in my opinion were hard, I didn't sleep well at all. If you're going to stay in a yurt I recommend bringing an extra sleeping pad.
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| The inside of the yurt. |
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| Andy & I. |
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| Mr D & Megan. |
Saturday we played on the beach for as long as we could stand it. It was cold and windy. It was so windy that you could lean over into the wind and not fall over, it was pretty awesome!
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| Megan leaning into the wind. |
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| Megan & Mr. D. |
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| Her facial expression is the best! |
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| Love how happy he makes her. |
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| Me & Megan jumping. |
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| Megan & Mr D. |
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| Me & Andy. |
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| Andy hit my hand while we were jumping and the knuckles popped, it was loud and painful. |
We ate brunch at Pig 'N Pancake, watched the sea lions, went in the shops on the bay front, toured a lighthouse, and hit up a thrift store before parting ways.
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| Windblown hair. |
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| Megan & Mr. D. |
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| Andy & I - note wind and layers make us look plumper than we really are. |
I picked up a flour sifter for a couple bucks. I have never used a flour sifter before, I'm excited to try it out.
On our way back we had a feeling that we needed to stop at a thrift store. We were both tired and not really in the mood to go but felt like it was where we needed to be. It was kind of a weird feeling. So to the thrift store we went. This thrift store didn't have anything awesome and there was a very whiny child that could be heard throughout the entire store, it didn't make for a very fun thrifting adventure.
Eventually we decided it was time to hit the road. We turned on the GPS and began the journey home. There was a point on our trip where the GPS wanted us to get off the freeway and get back on, we both thought this was strange. As we came around a turn we could see a wall of red emergency lights up ahead. We quickly got off the freeway and took the detour that the GPS told us to take. We got back on the freeway once we had passed all of the emergency vehicles. The rest of the trip home was eerie. The freeway was empty, the only other cars on the road were the ones who got off where we did and bypassed the accident.
We later learned that the freeway was shutdown and didn't reopen until the next day. We were informed that it was shutdown because of an officer involved shooting. We don't know the details of what happened but we are grateful that we listened to the prompting we had to go to the thrift store. If we didn't listen to the still small voice we heard, we likely would have been caught in the crossfire. We know the Lord was looking out for us.
