blogging from the KOA

This is going to read like an advertisement, but it's just a rave review.  The KOA campground across from Fort Stevens Park on the North Oregon coast is awesome.  Our site has electricity, water, a waste dump, cable TV (Kyle is in heaven) free wifi, and a green patch of lawn with trees and bushes to give us privacy.  In the common area there is a heated indoor pool, a hot-tub, showers, a game room, and vending machines.  Down at the play area there is a giant bouncy pillow about 20 feet by 20 feet that always has an attendant on duty.  The kids get sorted out by size, so the big kids don't hurt the little kids, and each size group gets fifteen minutes.  There are slides and swings and sandboxes.  There are cheaper campsites with no trees, and no cable.  There are little one and two-room cabins.  There are sites for tents only.  There is an activity center where the camp offers free supervised activities like tie-dying a t-shirt, or making a beaded bracelet.  This is an ideal place to bring the kiddies because they just charge by the site, not by the number of bodies on it.

They have bikes of a variety of sizes and styles to rent.  Even those four-passenger surreys. And there are lots of paved roads inside the campground to pedal around on, or I suppose you can take them across the road to the State park and all their bike paths.

We walked around the property a bit last night after dinner and there are kids all over.  Some families have a one room cabin where two sets of parents sleep, and the older kids have two or three tents to camp in.  What a great way to do a family reunion!

Oh, and there's a dog obstacle course, too. Plus centrally located kitchen set-ups for the folks who don't have their own camp-stoves.    The deluxe tent sites even have a covered kitchen area (especially nice because it usually rains here.)

I'm up at six, and the wifi is fast.  At five last night, it was impossibly slow.

And there's free pancake breakfast every morning from 7 till 10 down at the kid zone.

The weather is miraculously pleasant.  Sunny, warm, with a light breeze.  Yesterday, Kyle and I walked a mile and a half down to the beach to see the wreck of the Peter Iredale, a cargo ship from the 1900s(I think)  It's been rusting away on that beach all my life.  Sometimes the storms wash away more sand and expose more of the ship.  Other seasons, it's half covered.  I have never seen so many people on an Oregon beach.  And omigod, people were actually swimming.  The water is about 45 degrees right now, and the currents are wicked.  Two Californian tourists have drowned this weekend already.

So a mile and a half down, and a mile and a half UP, equaled 3 miles.  Yay Roxie!!

The kitties are with us on this trip.  Fly wandered around during the whole drive and shared his favors between both laps.  Pepper and Ben hid in the tiny spaces between the bed and the nightstands.  They didn't come out till after we had turned out the lights.  They are up and wandering now, peering out the windows with great suspicion, and resenting the whole process.  They'll get used to it.

Fly, the Navigator











So right now, there are just a few early risers.  The staff has driven past in their golf carts headed down to get the pancakes started.  A silver-haired gentleman has cruised by on his bicycle.  A young father has sauntered through the morning stillness with his toddler and his strollered infant up to the convenience store for a latte.  The birds are chirping, the sun is up, and it looks like another awesome day ahead of us.