Monthly Archives: September 2011

September 27, 2011 · 7:54 pm

Ocean Transforms Our Beach

High tide at Turtle Rock, Gold Beach, Oregon.

High tide floods the beach at Turtle Rock. Photo credit: Rose Muenker

The growling roar of the ocean at high tide lured me  to the beach mid-day.  Waves flooded the beach, rolling large tree trunks in their path.  Their formidable power transformed the shoreline before my eyes! While the agitated water stirred up a latte-colored foam, it encircled Turtle Rock, and the ocean and Hunter Creek became one. “My beach” — the mile-long stretch of sand I had walked the past 5 months — disappeared.

By evening, the water had scoured and flattened the beach, and receded back into the sea. And the wet sand lay ready to record my footsteps once again.

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September 24, 2011 · 3:16 pm

Eye of the Beholder

Artist Jack Weins and Photographer David Muenker

Jack and David take a relaxing stroll down Myers Beach after a creative afternoon of painting and photography. Photo credit: Rose Muenker

Watching two talented creatives effortlessly express their gifts is a humbling experience. During a visit by our artist friend Jack Weins, we hiked to the spectacular vista at Indian Sands on the Samuel Boardman Scenic Corridor of the Oregon Coast. While Jack painted the dramatic scene of waves crashing against jagged offshore rocks on watercolor paper, David captured it on his camera.

Meanwhile, I, the writer, was at a loss for words except for one. Awesome! As I watched the fog-muted sunlight turn gray rolling waves into a lustrous teal, heard the thunderous clap of surf hitting the rocks and felt the ocean’s energy stir the air, I truly was awestruck — the vista was awesome.  The word “awesome” popped out of my mouth again and again no matter how hackneyed it has become.

I envy Jack and David. At the end of our adventure, Jack has his paintings and David had his photos. But I left wordless. Well, almost.

 

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September 22, 2011 · 7:24 pm

Winding down our summer in Oregon

Chefs Cal and Lee take their rib smoking mighty seriously! Photo credit: Rose Muenker

Most of the folks we’ve been work camping and playing with here on the Oregon Coast will be heading to new adventures in Arizona, California, Nevada and Washington by October 1st. To celebrate the great times we’ve shared and the friendships we’ve made, the gang had an end-of-season rib barbecue feast.

We Be Rib catering signCal and Lee smoked 44 pounds of pork ribs, each rubbing their half with their special spice recipes. H-m-m! Yup, “We Be Rib” says it right!

Everyone else brought their favorite dishes, which created a delicious feast and caused the two long food tables to groan under the weight!

Corn bread, bean chili, smoked salmon spread, fresh salmon, deviled eggs, green bean casserole, four completely different potatosalads, fresh greens salad, grape salad, corn on the cob, coconut cake, pineapple upside down cake, ice cream — and, yes, many other great dishes!

Smoked ribs buffet

End-of-season smoked ribs feast.

Suffice it to say, we all had as much as we pleased — and stretched our bellies to the limit, too!

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September 13, 2011 · 5:39 pm

Reliving Our Road Trip To Oregon

Out of Denver magazine Aug/Sept 2011We love being able to relive our travel adventures through our bimonthly On the Road column in Out of Denver, the Lifestyle Magazine for SoDe. The August/September 2011 issue chronicles our wonderful, 800-mile trip from southern California to the Oregon Coast.

This issue highlights our experience at two extraordinary places — Sequoia National Park and Yosemite National Park — plus several fun and fascinating attractions around Redding in northern California.

Best of all, David’s spectacular photos turn my 800 words into 11,000 words!

Here’s the link to our illustrated magazine column:

http://muenkermedia.com/pub-OODAug11.shtml

Enjoy!

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Filed under California, Pet Travel, RV Travel, Western United States, Writing - Photography

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September 2, 2011 · 8:17 am

It’s Blackberry Season!

Bowl of picked blackberries

Sweet blackberries picked fresh from a bush. Photo credit: Rose Muenker

We’ve eagerly awaited blackberry season all summer. Mid-August the berries started turning dark purple, plump and sweet. Now it takes us twice as long to walk the road to the RV park office — it’s edged with blackberry bushes and David stops every few steps to pick and savor sweet berries! Last weekend, we grabbed bags and bowls and to pick berries to make dessert.

Blackberry bush

Blackberries ripen at different times over several weeks. Photo credit: Rose Muenker

Now I understand why blackberries are so expensive. The berries on the clusters mature at different times — a cluster contains pink berries just forming to plump, purple ones and everything in between.  The ripe ones fall off their stems into your hands!

Blackberry picking also entails battles with thorns. But the bounty merits the struggle! The true challenge is managing to take home more than we eat while picking. Yum!

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