Crabbing

There's something you should know.  Crabbing is pretty much the coolest thing ever.  Although, you should also know that the crabbing I did was nothing like Deadliest Catch.  It was not remotely deadly, and I really liked it that way.

We went to Taft Beach, which is just a couple miles from where we were staying in Lincoln City.  That's the official place to go crabbing.  The beach drops off pretty quickly, so you can cast into pretty deep water fairly easily.  (I'm sure there are other reasons why this beach is great, but that's the main reason that I was able to observe.  I also observed that I was able to catch a bunch of them, so there's that too.)

A friend of mine had loaned me the trap, so I took it to the beach and just did my thing.  There was a nice family who had been there crabbing all day and a couple teenage kids took me under their wing and taught me how to work the magic.

The trap is basically a net with a hook in the middle.   You put a piece of chicken (I used chicken legs) on the hook and you cast out the net.  It opens up on the sea floor and then when you pull it in the net closes up and catches anything that might be chowing down.  When you pull it out of the water, your job is to shout for joy at all the crabs you bring in.

It's not too difficult, but there was a little bit of a learning curve as far as figuring out how to aim your cast, figuring out how long to wait before pulling it in, and things like that.

The first time I cast it out, I pulled in one tiny precious cute little crab.  Naturally, I took a selfie with it.

At first, I was so excited that there was anything in the net, that I took a picture with everything I got.

As time went on, I either get better at it (what I like to believe) or just got more lucky (a very real possibility).  I brought in some pretty big hauls.  Like this one below.

Here's a video of me bringing in some goodness.

You'll notice that Robyn told me to throw them back after I pulled them in.  You are only allowed to keep males that are really big.  (There's a certain size they have to meet, but I don't remember what it was exactly.)  As my teenage friends were training me, one of the things they asked me was if I had a bucket.  I told them I was just there for fun and wasn't planning on keeping anything.  But I told them if I caught anything that was legal, I would give it to them.

It took me a good 90 minutes of casting the net, but I finally caught a Goliath sized one that was a full inch bigger than it needed to be.  I got a picture with it and then gave it to my little friends.

They were super excited about it.  They had been there all day (we got there in the afternoon) and they only had 2 so far.  Mine was bigger than the 2 they already had.

After I gave them the big one, they made even more effort to give pointers to other newbies.  I think they realized that helping others be successful was a good investment.  (But I should note, that they helped me out before there was any promise of reward.)

But don't worry.  Lest you think that I missed out on great seafood by not cooking up the crab that I caught, we went to Mo's which overlooks Taft Beach.  We had delicious seafood and we didn't even have to cook it.

Robyn wasn't very into the crabbing, but she was much more into eating amazing clam chowder while we looked out at the beach.

That's the last of my writing about Lincoln City.  But don't worry, there's more to come about the rest of our Oregon vacation.

Road Tripping to Lincoln City

Robyn and I recently got back from a fabulous road trip to Oregon.  It was quite the adventure, and we had a fabulous time.  Over the next few posts, I will chronicle some of the highlights of our trip.

The first destination on our trip was Lincoln City.  Fun fact: Lincoln City, Oregon is really far away from Lehi, Utah.  It took us about 14 hours of driving to get there.   I actually really enjoy road trips.  I love the time alone with Robyn.  I love just putting it on cruise control and watching the world go by.

And, of course I love sing-along time.

Robyn prepared a packet of fun for the road.  She had such things as Mad Libs, the license plate game, a list of get to know you questions and other madness.  I should note, we rocked the license plate game.  We saw the license plates of 45 states (including both Alaska and Hawaii), but we also did some extra credit and got 4 Canadian provinces.  With our extra credit included we have 49/50 which is 98%, a solid A.

I told Robyn we should drive to the east coast to pick up the last few we needed.

I mentioned above that I really do enjoy road trips.  However, the 14 hours to get out there was just a little much.  (We did it over 2 days.  We drove to Twin Falls, Idaho after work on Friday, but that was still 10 hours on Saturday.)  When we pulled in to Lincoln City, I told Robyn that I was done driving for life.  I made her drive the 1 mile from our condo to go out to eat.  Luckily, I was over my hatred of driving by the next day so I was able to drive again.

Once the road trip part was over, it was time for the fun to begin.  Lincoln City is such a chill place.  Our condo was right on the beach, so we loved to just sit and look at the crashing waves.  We opened the windows so the breeze could come in, and it was amazing.

This was one of our favorite things.  It's like a picnic on the beach without the sand.

Of course, we loved relaxing in the condo, but I clearly wasn't going to be that close to the ocean and not get wet.  One of my favorite things on this trip was waking up early while Robyn was still sleeping and going on walks along the beach to discover all the various forms of life.

I learned this is called a moon jellyfish.

There were some tide pools not far away.  I liked to walk over to them and see what I could see.

A starfish chillaxing

An open shell where a mussel once lived.

Lest you think that Robyn didn't enjoy the ocean either, she did come to the tide pools with me once as well, it was just later in the day after she was done sleeping.

Just hanging out with a whole bunch of mussels.

I even got her to touch the ocean once.

Lincoln City was even amazing at night.  As the sun started to get low in the sky, campfires started popping up on the beach near our condo.  Naturally, we had to participate at least once.  We just gathered drift wood on the beach, and we didn't have a ton of it so our fire didn't last long, but I feel we got enough of the experience.

I make this cute little baby fire look good.

Robyn makes it look even better.

I think one of my favorite things was watching the sunset over the ocean.

 One night, Robyn captured the moon and venus shining in the sky during the sunset.

As you can see, Lincoln City was pretty fantastic.  But probably the coolest thing in Lincoln City was when I went crabbing.  So stay tuned for the next post when I tell you about that.

While the Wife is Away

Sometimes Robyn leaves me all by my lonesome.  It's usually to visit family.  This time was one of those times.  She flew to California to babysit our twin toddler nephews for a few days.  (She's an epic babysitter.  There was not a single person with her qualifications within a 700 mile radius.)

Every time Robyn goes out of town, people ask me, "What are you going to do while she's gone?" or afterward, "What did you do while she was gone?"

Well, the simple answer is, "Not much."

Mainly, I do a lot of reading.

I make sure to be as precious as possible when I read.

But there are a few things that are important to note about when my wife is 700 miles away.

1. There is no one to dispute that just because something says "Star Wars" on it, doesn't mean it's amazing.

If it says, "Star Wars" you just buy it.  You can ask questions later.

It turns out that Star Wars cereal looks like Lucky Charms and tastes like Trix.  But it has tiny Tie Fighters, Yodas and lightsabres, so it's clearly awesome.

Don't you just feel The Force?

2.  There is no one that makes me kill spiders.

Here's the thing about spiders.  They eat insects that we like less than spiders.  So I consider them to be friends.  Robyn considers them to be incomprehensible horrors.  I noticed a spider perched on the wall on Thursday.  He was still there Sunday morning, because he knew we were friends.  Unfortunately, he should have hid himself because I had to terminate him in preparation for Robyn's return.

3.  There is no one to impress

I usually make Robyn breakfast on Sunday mornings.  It's a tradition that we enjoy.  She gets to sleep in a little bit, and I get to enjoy her happy face when she wakes up to something yummy.  My cooking generally does not include baking.  And while Robyn does not ask to be impressed, I do like to make sure that what I make is something she'll enjoy.  I thought it would be fun to try to make muffins from scratch.  What better time to try it than when Robyn is away so that if I epicly fail, she never has to know?

I got the batter all made.  (I was impressed that I got this far.)

I think I probably filled the individual cups a little high because the muffins merged together.

The hardest part was getting them out of the tins.  Many muffins died to bring us this breakfast.

The good news was that I didn't care what the muffins looked like.  They still tasted great.

I totally didn't eat the ones that survived the reaping from the tins.  Thus Robyn could come home to these and be totally impressed.

So there you have it.  That's what I do while Robyn is away.  It's safe to say that I have accomplished more in other years.  But I'm happy with how I passed my time.

We Can Backpack by Ourselves

Ever since a year ago when we went backpacking into Havasupai, Robyn and I have been working to become better backpackers.  We've been acquiring the equipment, and we've been on a few different trips.

We even have a trip planned this summer to go backpacking in Oregon.  But while we've been planning our upcoming Oregon trip, we realized that there is a small problem with it:  We won't have Jared.

Jared is a backpacking guru, and my BFF.  He's taken us on various adventures, and he knows how to make sure we are safe and comfortable.  Those are good things, unless you want to be able to do a trip without him.

Thus, we decided that we needed to take a Jared free backpacking trip, to prove that we could survive.  Spoiler Alert.  We totally survived the Jared free trip.

This past weekend was that very trip, and we had a great time.  (Although, we realized it clearly would have been better with Jared guiding us as we pulled out the topographical map a billion times to make sure we were going where we wanted to go.)

All in all, it was a great trip.  Here are a few of the highlights.

We got off a little later than planned, so we had our picnic dinner at the trailhead.

It's important to pose with an apple.

I can never remember where I put the keys when we get back to the car, so I took a picture of which pocket they were in.

I made Robyn get a picture of her looking happy next to snow.

There were lots of really pretty ponds and lakes along the way.

We had to climb over a mountain over into the adjacent valley.  Here I am at the summit.

It's important to take selfies with pretty lakes.

This was my view the whole way, the back of a pretty girl surrounded by trees and nature.

Our destination was island lake.  This sign lied.  One mile from this sign is another sign that says "Island Lake .5"

Because of the confusion about how far island lake was, and because we got off a little late, we didn't make it there until after dark.  But it was fine, we set up camp in the dark and went right to sleep.

In the morning when I woke up before Robyn, it was important to take a selfie with her sleeping.

This is what island lake looked like when I got out of the tent.

Robyn made us a gourmet breakfast of oatmeal and sausage.

This deer wandered into our camp and just stood about 15 feet away from me and stared at me for several minutes before prancing off into the wilderness.

Robyn enjoyed the breeze on the hike back.

It wasn't the most hardcore backpacking trip.  It was about 9 miles round trip.  Real backpackers probably aren't impressed, but we feel we have proven we can survive on our own in the wilderness.

Hopefully we'll also survive backpacking in Oregon.  I'll keep you posted.

The Final Ingredient!

I'm so totally ready to be a real backpacker.

As you know, Robyn and I have been getting more into backpacking in the past year or so.  As you may not know, we have been slowly acquiring supplies to become legit.

We had already acquired things like backpacks, a tent, a sleeping pad, a backpacking stove, etc.  There was one item on the list that I had yet to acquire.  I had not yet purchased a sleeping bag.

I should be clear, I own a sleeping bag that I acquired as a teenager.  It is plenty warm, but it is large and bulky.  It would basically take up the entire space available in my backpack.  What I needed to acquire was a sleeping bag designed for backpacking.

This past weekend, my BFF Jared W let me know that Liberty Mountain was having their big sale.  This was the time to make the big purchase.

We went in and selected one that seemed like it would be warm enough and big enough.  Naturally, I had to try out how well I could sleep in it.

Good thing the store has a cot for just this purpose.

Aren't I precious?  In a real camping situation, I won't have a price tag attached to my face.

If you can't tell by how precious it made me look, I'll just let you know that that sleeping bag and I were meant for each other.  Naturally, I made the purchase.  So now I have everything I need to be a real backpacker, and I don't need to borrow anything from Jared W.  (That doesn't mean I won't need to continue to acquire cooler stuff, let's not get crazy.)

Now that I have everything I need, it's time to plan a trip!

Robyn and I are thinking about doing a 3 day backpacking trip in Oregon this summer.  I'm a little intimidated, but it's supposed to be super beautiful.  Do you think I can handle it?

Does this look like a guy who can hike 25 miles through a rainforest with a backpack on his back?

Happy Birthmother's Day

Ever since Jeff and I decided that adoption was going to be the path for us to grow our family we have celebrated Birthmother's Day.

Each year we have released balloons in our future birth mother's honor.

This year it didn't stop raining all day, but we didn't let that stop us.

The original plan was to release them together but it was so cold the balloons lost their lift.  We had to take them home and warm them up before we could release them.  We ended up doing the real release in our backyard.  It wasn't the picture perfect release I had in mind but what in life ever is as we picture.  Anyway I was just glad that it worked out and I could honor our future birthmother.  I pray for her ever day.  I pray that she will find peace, love and support in the adoption plan she creates.  I pray that I can be part of that support team.  I pray that we will learn how to communicate with each other so we can have an amazing open adoption. 

Tim Cook Hates Me

The day was April 10th.  It was a long awaited day in the tech universe.  Rumors had been flying for over a year that Apple had been working on a new gadget.  Those rumors had been confirmed for over half of that year.  The day had finally come that the mythical device would actually be on sale.

Robyn was out of town visiting family, but she had told me which of the Apple Watch models she wanted me to order for her.

For past devices, I have tried different strategies for making the purchase on opening day.  Only once have I actually stayed up until midnight to be the first to purchase a device.  It was for the iPhone 5, and it was a nightmare.  The website didn't work.  I couldn't get on to order it.  It took me around 3 hours to finally get in and make my order.  By the time I had done that, the device was already back ordered and the whole exercise of staying up late was pointless.

I did not want to do that again.

So I got up at 6:30 AM, and ordered 2 watches.  I ordered the white one for Robyn, and a black one for myself.  It said they would both ship in June.

Sadness filled my soul.

Fast forward to this past week.  April 24th (last Friday) was the official opening day of the Apple Watch.  I figured the day would come and go with no changes for me, because mine was back ordered until June.

But then I noticed that they charged my credit card.  However, they only charged it for the price of one watch.  I logged on to my account online.  Both watches still said they would ship in June.  However, Robyn's white watch said it was "preparing for shipment."  What does that even mean?

Were they planning to prepare shipment for a whole month? It made no sense.

They sent me an email saying that they were shipping it and it would arrive Monday.

However, Friday morning came and I got another email saying that Robyn's watch was out for delivery!  Miracle of miracles, it was coming opening day!

I filled out the form that allows them to drop off the watch without a signature, and told them to deliver it to the back door.  I didn't tell Robyn it was coming, until I got home.  I just told her she should look out the back door.  I filmed her reaction for your enjoyment.

From June to April 27th, to April 24th.  It seems that Apple likes to deliver disappointment followed by pure excitement by giving it to us when they promised everyone they could get it.

She opened it up, put it on and booted it up for the first time.

Isn't it pretty?

Since then she has demoed lots of neat features like activity tracking, remote control of her music and camera and many other features.  She has let me play with it, but it's just not the same when it's not my own little toy.

Apparently black is the most popular color for the watch and it's still very much back ordered.  This is what Apple says now about the delivery time.

There's really only one possible explanation for Robyn's watch being here already, and mine still waiting until the end of May or the beginning of June.

Tim Cook hates me.