A Week Ago

To make the most out of the nice weather we've been having lately, my family (consisting of myself, husband plus daughter), including my mom, sister-in-law & her three kids, all trooped on towards Seaside, OR. Two hours & two drivers later, we arrived safe and sound, albeit one of those drivers got lost because she must've turned too soon (can you guess who? ;-P), we came to find that there was a volleyball competition on the beach. The first I've ever seen in all the years I've been living in Oregon and going to the beach! I guess there's a first time for everything...

This is a first in a series of photos that I'll be posting about my family. For a long time it was just my mom and brother plus his family, and we were all scattered and hardly got together. I don't know why that was the case but it's all in the past now. 

My oldest brother and his family came to America back in January, after a very long debacle of sponsorship that started in the early 2000s. What a great relief to see them off the airplane finally this year! Since then, there's been an endless amount of visits (we go over to my mom’s 2-3 times per week on average), and this beach trip was their first ever since arriving in America and a return for us since February. 

Although I brought my camera for this trip, there wasn't a whole lot of opportunities to take pics, starting with the extra chilly breeze on the beach itself in the morning. Seems like the sun barely peeked through and winds were still hanging around. So we decided to have lunch at a restaurant there. Turns out, because the town was so busy with people (finding parking was a nightmare) due to the beach festivities and whatnot, all of the restaurants had long waiting lists. Luckily, my husband found one that only had a 10 minute wait. Hence, the pictures below were in this restaurant. 

I thought it would be different to change things up a little bit and go black & white. Lighting in the restaurant was less than ideal, so I had to crank up the exposure a little bit; other than that, they had great light coming through one of the windows where we sat. 

What's not featured here are the bumper car rides and the Tilt-a-whirl, a blast of speed and excitement for $2.50 each. I can't remember the last time I had so much fun on these rides. Definitely worth coming back for, and especially recommended if you're ever in the Seaside area. We didn't have enough time to check out the video arcades, but enough time to browse some shops and really get a feel for the "beach scene." Next time, I'll have to bust out my camera more. 

Finally, an iPhone shot..