Today was a really good one. We drove to Astoria to watch the girls play soccer and to celebrate Jewel’s last day of her antibiotics and her return to semi-normalcy. It’s “semi” because I believe we’re all in agreement that none of are every truly normal. Something is always out of whack in one way or another.

The trip to Astoria began at noon under a dark, cloudy sky with the slight promise of a little rain. We knew the girls would play rain or shine so the weather prospects weren’t relevant. As we neared our destination, Duggar’s in Warrenton, so we could eat lunch first, the sky showed a slim promise of sunshine, but it didn’t last. Thankfully, however, it wasn’t cold.

Lunch was awesome. Lydia had chicken strips and a cup of clam chowder, Diane had a halibut sandwich, Jennie had a Duggar Cheeseburger, Jewel had fried clams, and I had my customary, trip to the beach Crab Louie. There’s nothing quite as good as a crab louie made with fresh Dungeness crab. I’m sure some of you may disagree, but that’s OK. I regret that I failed to take a photo of our meals to share. I do have this one, however, that we ate with Diane’s Mom, Jean, the other day:

It was pretty good, too. Got it from Zhen’s in St. Helens. For folks familiar with St. Helens, and even those who aren’t, Zhen’s used to be Lucky Inn.

After lunch, we went a bit further down Highway 101 to visit Petco so Jen and Lydia could get a halter and collar for their new cat, Beau. He’s all gray and very cute. His new collar has a bow tie on it. I’ll share a photo when I get one. Whether you want me to, or not.

One the shopping was done we parted ways. Lydia had to be at the field by 4 pm but the game didn’t start until 5 Diane, Jewel, and I headed further West to the Pacific Ocean. Jewel has been whining that she hasn’t seen the Pacific Ocean for years, forgetting, apparently, that she lived on an island surrounded by the same ocean for the last 8 years or so. One of us pointed that out and she rephrased her whine that she hadn’t seen the PO from Oregon in a very long time. So, we rectified that. It wasn’t hard for Diane to go that extra step because she makes up reasons to visit the coast. Sadly, we don’t do it often enough for either of us. It’s a great place to be and there’s just nothing quite as pretty as an Oregon beach even on the worst of days.

We drove through Fort Stevens to the very end where the road terminates in a parking lot on the Columbia River side of the park. Along that stretch is a very nice beach that was being put to good use when we arrived. We didn’t stay long because the object, after all, was for us to reach the ocean. Back tracking a bit we stopped at the parking lot for the South Jetty, took a short walk to a viewing tower, and got our ocean fix for the day. Here’s proof:

After the Kodak Moment it was time for us to head for the soccer field so we wouldn’t miss anything.

The game was fun to watch, but not as exciting as normal because it was just a scrimmage between the two teams. They played almost a full game during which the Astoria goalie made some pretty incredible stops. They scored against Lydia once off a corner kick. The reason they scored was because she didn’t have any defenders to help and just before the kick one of our coaches was yelling at our girls to get away from the goal for some reason. Anyway, it paid off for Astoria because they got it in the net and there wasn’t a thing Lydia could have done to stop it. It ended 1-0.

When the game was mostly done, they called it and regrouped for another round but the Astoria goalie shed her gear to play in the field leaving the keeperless. Fortunately, St. Helens has two goalies so one, Morgan, was loaned to Astoria. St. Helens scored against her once and Lydia kept the other goal clear so the day ended in a 1-1 tie, I guess. Then we went home. Diane made me drive.

The day before yesterday Jeff showed up with his three youngest children and we had a great visit. It’s always fun when they are around because they are so full of energy. That’s Gilligan, Baylee, Diane, and Jerrie.

And here’s a sunset I failed to share with you on July 10th. Sorry about that.

Now it’s late and we’re having our final visit with Cedric tomorrow before he ships out for boot camp. He has to be in Portland Monday but doesn’t leave until Tuesday after taking his official oath of enlistment. We get to witness that at 9 am Tuesday, then it’s hands off Cedric until his first leave because once he swears in he belongs to the Navy, not us. We’re all excited for him and he’s ready to go. Has been for months.

I’ll be back when my head gets cluttered with stuff I don’t want there any more.

Edited 7/17/2016: Had to change Cod to Halibut in the narrative to make the story more factual. But, I left it Cod in the title because Halibut doesn’t begin with a “C”.