Fun with Nature

Ah...the great outdoors.

Now, I am one of those in between girls. I do not wear makeup everyday- special occasions are more my thing. My husband was shocked when he discovered that I don't own a hair dryer and I would rather sleep than deal with the aforementioned issues every morning. Or at least have time for a longer hot shower...more on those later!

On the other hand, I don't really like dirt that much and the thought of anything more than a day hike where carrying more than snacks and reading material is also a no thankyou.

So where does this leave me? Car camping! My husband and I tend to camp in Oregon because through their well designed (Washington take note) web site I can easily search for the amenities that I require:

1. Showers (Oregon is great because at most places it is FREE HOT showers)
2. Toilets (no vaulted outhouses- EW!)

Other than that I am quite content to spend 7 days sleeping on an air mattress and consume an entire bag of marshmallows on my quest to make the perfect 'smore. I'm getting quite close...but as they say in the library world "more research is required".

This year we split our time between Cape Lookout and Devil's Lake. The former is one of our standbys. It's right on the beach, literally the other side of a sand dune, and is conveniently located 12 miles outside Tillamook. Yes, that Tillamook of the famed cheese and ice creams and butters and fudge and so much yumminess! We ate most of our meals there. The Blue Heron is worth hitting, we did a nice wine tasting and they have excellent brie. Just to prove that "it's a small world after all" we ended up next to another library employee that I know from another branch. It was a weird "don't I know you" moment outside the bathroom.

Next we headed to Lincoln City where we kayaked and relaxed on the beach. It was warmer here so we were able to spend more time by the ocean. Ahhh...the ocean...there really is no good way to record the ocean, you just have to be there to fully hear all the sounds. There were a ton of kite fliers and I got to abuse the Outlet Mall to my satisfaction.

All in all it was a nice relaxing week for the Dear Husband and I to recharge ye olde batteries before heading back to work.

Transformers- More than Meets the Eye!

Talk about a 4th of July Movie! I have to confess to being a child of the 80s and am still amused by watching the cartoons of my childhood. Duck Tales, Tale Spin, Gummi Bear and Transformers are all in our permanent collection.

It was with some trepidation that my dear husband and I waited for the Transformers movie. For every Lord of the Rings there is the trauma of Spidy 3. But we had to see it just for the nostalgia (and the previews have been looking pretty kick ass) so see it we did.

It was amazing! I would have to describe it as 1/3 Black Hawk Down, 1/3 Independence Day and 1/3 fun with robots. They had enough homages for us big kids that still pull out the old cartoon from time to time,but the plot was such that even if you couldn't sing the theme song from memory you still understood what was happening. Since we do a family day for the 4th we saw it with a bunch of people ages 7+ and everyone enjoyed the movie.

We talked to some of our friends later who had also seen it and it was reported that one of them did a happy dance of joy on the way out of the theater. This will definitely be a welcome addition to our DVD shelves.

For a much longer and in depth review, check out this excellent posting from one of my other friends. And no, Movie Man didn't do a little dance, that was someone else...