Clementine turned four while we were staying by Netarts Bay. It was a weird house with the kitchen on the top floor, a beautiful living room and dining room view, and a lower-level bunkroom with towering three-high bunk beds. The outer corridors smelled so strongly of Dog that Daisy and Junie couldn't even sleep in the bunk room and had to move upstairs to couches! But it was a lovely place to stay all the same. We stayed in this same neighborhood in a house with Sam's parents when we came to Oregon in 2017, and we loved watching the tides come in and out of the bay so much that I looked for a place nearby so we could do it again. If you want to play in the waves, you have to walk out past the waters of the bay to the real ocean, but the bay beach is peaceful and beautiful in its own right.
We decided it would be nice to start the day with a "birthday walk" down to the beach, and so Sam and I took the little kids (Sam giving them stern instructions to play together and be nice to each other while he and I walked farther down the shore).
Pretty seaside plants
Much of the time we were walking along the beach I was thinking, as one does, about clams. Last time we came here I had a sudden awakening of interest in clams (you may read the riveting details here) and I would have liked to see some again! But I saw no sign of them. As I have been writing these blog posts, I looked up the old pictures and realized that last time, the tide must have been much much lower than it was on this trip. You can see it in these two pictures. The one above, with all the rocks, is from this 2025 trip. And this one below ⬇️…
…was taken in nearly the same spot, only as you can see, the sandy beach reaches out way farther before getting to the water of the bay. (I looked up the tides, because I could, and saw that on our recent trip, the lowest tide level was .36, whereas when we were there in 2017 we had low tide levels at -1.67. Just in case you're wondering what a difference those levels make.) Within those extra yards of beach must have been the clams!
Here is a picture looking the other direction in 2025…
and in 2017. Look at tiny Junie and Goldie!
This 2017 picture is kind of fun because it shows the location of our house this time, before we knew we'd ever stay there eight years later! See the blue roof in the trees in front of Sebastian? That was our view looking down from the balcony of the house we stayed in on this trip! ⬇️
Big clamshell!
Such interesting sand patterns when the colors mix.
Heart-shaped jellyfish
We found some little crabs
When we got back from our "birthday walk," we drove up the coast and got ice cream at Tillamook (always a fun stop, but I'm sorry to say we liked it much better years ago when it was smaller and less "carefully crafted corporate-driven consumer destination"-y. It's mostly just crowded and expensive now. But, still good ice cream!)
The fried cheese curds were also delicious
We drove all the way up to Hug Point (pictures in another post) and played on the beach and saw the tide pools. I love these coast views SO much!
We stopped at a roadside stand for fish and chips and the BEST fried clams. YUM. It makes me hungry just looking at this picture. Such good birthday food for Clementine!
Back at our house, she enjoyed a nice birthday nap :) while the older kids went down to the real beach to play. From our balcony we could see them waaaaay off at the mouth of the bay, playing in the water. I wasn't positive that little group of four tiny ants was really Daisy, Junie, Goldie, and Teddy, but Seb took a picture with his long lens…
…and there they were!
Ziggy found some watercolors at the house and painted Clementine a birthday gnome and an "I love you" card.
He also made a little "shell museum" on the deck chairs outside.
…and Clementine matched her Daddy with big and small plates and glasses.
And then we watched the tide come in.
And watched the sun go down.
Such a good day to turn four!
No comments