Bermtopia-by-the-Sea: Chasing sunsets

   

True confession. I nearly burned The Miz's artisan bread on Christmas Eve. I'm pretty sure my daughter-in-law would have forgiven me. I had a good excuse. I was out chasing sunsets.

We are here on the Oregon coast, once again, for the holidays. Yes, I know. It's getting to be kind of a habit, isn't it? A good habit, I'd like to think.

This is my view as I type. 

It's been like this since Monday when we got here. In all the years I've been coming to Arch Cape (and I'm talking 55+), I've never experienced the sun in a December like this on the coast. It's magical.

But back to burning bread and chasing sunsets. . . .

An obvious dividend of these clear, sunny December days is the fact that you actually see the sun set each night.

Each one starts out so differently.

Sometimes with a silvery splash. . .

That keeps getting better. . .

and better. . .

It's hard to know when it's perfect. . . because it's pretty much perfect all the time. That's how I managed to almost incinerate our Christmas Eve bread -- standing out on the lawn, trying to get the most perfect of perfect sunset shots instead of attending to a 475 degree oven.

Last night, the late afternoon sky blazed at first . .

Before settling down and dusting the horizon with a soft, shell-pink ribbons of light. . . 

And in the south, the sky was nearly teal. . .

Until darkness fell. . .

Hushing the waves below us.

Bermtopia-by-the-Sea: The Thanksgiving Edition

Searching for a Twinkie for the End of the World

We are here. But not without a few adventures along the way:

Fresh organic Thanksgiving turkey not ordered and the deadline long gone? No problemo. Groveling works!

Forgot Ben's "special" canned dog food? Don't worry. Let your fingers do the walking through the yellow pages.

Asked twice if we were new residents at The Mom Unit's retirement community. Arrggghhh. Maybe I will start coloring my hair again.

Brought the cappuccino maker but forgot the milk froth-er? That's it. Game over. We're going home.

Not really. As you can see, we managed to make it to Bermtopia-by-the-Sea relatively unscathed on Tuesday, dodging what was the Oregon coast's first major storm of the season. Six inches of rain recorded in a little town just down the road from us, but The Retreat rode it out just fine and here we are.

The Poopheads, The N1S and The Miz pulled in about five minutes apart a couple hours later, and we've been going non-stop ever since.

This is the Poopheads' joint. We can watch Their Every Move.

But first, I must share the mission my date and undertook as we hurled ourselves across Eastern Washington Tuesday. We decided we would attempt to find the last Hostess Twinkie in the world. Surely, some forgotten backwater gas station or mini-mart dotting the scablands surrounding Bermtopia would still be stocking Twinkies. Surely.

We, of course, missed the memo that there had been a run on Hostess products and Twinkies were now selling for a bazillion dollars on eBay. We're a little slow on the uptake that way.

Nevertheless, my date and I like a challenge and thus set off searching for the last Twinkie in the world.

Thirty-seven gas stations and mini-marts later -- major fail. But we do have an awesome collection of Hostess cupcakes, Ding Dongs, Ho's Ho's and Zingers. So there.

We met some nice people.

"Twinkies are junk food, people! Junk foo-ooo-ood!"
Direct quote.

And visited some interesting places.

Bad idea.

And saw some interesting things.

Yeah, I know. Just another reason why Bermtopia is
Near Nature. Near Perfect.

And managed to turn an 6-hour trip into 8. Ben was none too pleased with us.

And now we here: Bermtopia-by-the-Sea. The place, the world, I have loved most since I was a kid.

There will be future reports of clambakes, poker games, tent cities, somersaults and how much smoked salmon a party of five can consume in 4 days (Hint: We are on a record pace.), but right now let's just say we are happy and thankful for great families, good health and much abundance in our lives.

There is so much to celebrate.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours from Bermtopia-by-the-Sea!