Moffat Beach Camping

Our Moffat family beach camping trip was memorable. I foresee other camping trips in our future but, hopefully, not wet ones...and likely not at the Oregon coast. We tent-camped at a 1000 Trails campground called Whaler's Rest near Newport. It was us, Eric and Leah's family, Ryan and Michelle's, Mom and Dad, and Grandpa and Grandma--21 of us all together. We had a great time because of who we were with and in spite of the weather. I admit to being fairly miserable a large portion of the time due to being cold and wet, but I tried my best to have a good attitude. I had convinced myself that three nights of tent camping were going to be ok because it wasn't supposed to rain. HA! The weather people were wrong. It's bad when the only place you can escape the elements and dry your towels is your minivan. For the most part, it just drizzled and misted, an almost constant dampness. The day it rained hard, we all went out to lunch at Mo's and then to see a movie in the theater, (How to Train Your Dragon 2).  When we returned to our camp site later that afternoon, there were puddles everywhere, evidence that we made a good decision by leaving for a few hours.

The kids hardly noticed the weather and had a blast running along the trails with their cousins and playing on the beach and in the cold ocean. The beach photo with the kids digging in the sand in their swimsuits and the adults bundled up in coats and blankets says it all. My favorite times were around the campfire--warmth, a hot beverage in hand, and lots of laughter. I also very much enjoyed holding little niece Bailey, helping to keep her entertained and out of the dirt and mud. Mom and Dad made it easy on us all by providing and preparing almost all the food. We ate very well. They put a lot of hard work into this camping trip, for which we were truly grateful. Camping is a lot of work! It was fun to have Grandpa and Grandma with us, too. They came in their camper van, living in luxury. ;-)

Kari added some drama (or should I say trauma?) to our trip by cutting her index finger with Joel's pocketknife the first evening. We debated about whether to take her somewhere for stitches but eventually decided to try to patch her up ourselves and see how she did. It probably could have used a couple stitches, but we made do with butterfly bandages, polysporin, and medical tape. Once we got her bandaged up and some ibuprofen in her, she put on a brave face and didn't complain about it the rest of the weekend. She was a trooper. We duct-taped her finger when we went to the beach and then redid it all after each water venture. It's been a week and a half now, and her finger is healing well, so I guess we did a good job.

I took my camera to the beach and got it out a couple times at our campsite but didn't use it much around camp after the first day, so I didn't get photos of the kids playing in the grassy area, going for "trail runs," or any photos of our tent sites. The Taj-Moffat (our tent) served us well and kept us as dry as a tent possibly can at the coast--no major leaks. We had a pretty good set-up, with each of us having our own tent site and then an additional site just for cooking and eating. That was where we all gathered for meals and where we kept the fire going.

Our first beach stroll Friday night



Monday morning we packed up all our wet stuff, jammed it into our van, and headed home. It was a shock to our eyes when we drove over the coastal range and into the bright sun, not a cloud in the sky. Our drive home was nice and uneventful, and then began the unpacking and drying of all our stuff. The mountains of laundry in our garage, where I relegated them, were impressive. Equally impressive was the short time it took the sun to dry our things. Our scorching backyard made for an excellent dryer. It looked like we were having a garage sale in our front yard for a while, but by evening, we had it all put away, except for the laundry. That took two solid days. I felt so accomplished when I put the last of it away Wednesday afternoon.

Lots of memories. What an adventure!