Black Friday

Black Friday shopping I managed to avoid for the most part. Instead of hitting the stores, we got super early, loaded up the car with the dogs, and me and my mom hit the beach. Our goal was to be there by sunrise. A few big storms had recently passed through, so we had big hopes of finding some treasures on the beach. No such luck with that, but we did have a ton of fun!

The water was very foamy. This was my attempt at capturing a picture of the waves coming in with the gorgeous pink in the sky from the sunrise.

I then insisted the we stay at the beach long enough for the sun to rise up and hit the beach itself instead of just way out in the water. I couldn't stand to lose the chance to take some pictures of the pups enjoying the beach, especially with how hard it has been to get good pictures lately with all the clouds and rain. 

And, I had to get a picture of some dog's paws. I just can't help myself. It is, apparently, my addition.

When I have been saying "we" throughout this post, I actually mean not just me and the dogs, but my mom and her Border Collie Possum as well. It was my mom's idea to go to the beach, and I am glad she had it.

I didn't end up coming home with many good pictures of Pallo. He was pretty leery of standing with his back to the ocean just so I could take a picture. Since the tide was coming in fast and we got hit by a number of waves, his caution was probably valid. But, it made for frustrating picture taking. Especially since I forgot to bring along my extra batteries and the low battery light came on after the first couple of pictures I took, so I was trying to conserve rather than just keeping the camera on and snapping pictures of everything.

When I said above that the ocean was foamy, I meant really foamy. And, this log was at the top of the beach, right before the gravel bar in front of the cliff. We even had to jump up onto some people's private stair cases a few times to get away from the waves. Probably it won't do any good for my recurring nightmares of being stuck on the beach between the cliffs and a rising tide with no where to go- but at least my fear of that happening meant we booked it out of there in between waves no problem, other than getting our feet a little wet.

We left the beach at about 9 after spending almost three hours there. We really weren't going to do any Black Friday shopping, but then drove past the Rogue Brewery which had a Sale sign out front- we couldn't help but stop in. After hauling five cases of beer out of their warehouse and in to the car (at only $10 for a 12-22 oz case, how are you supposed to resist?), we headed home. But, we had to stop and check for chanterelles (a type of wild mushroom that grows in the fall in the Pacific Northwest) one last time since it is the end of the season. There weren't many there, but me and my mom did find enough for me to bring home and make some soup in the next couple of days.

Hope everyone else had a great holiday, a safe Black Friday, and has a fun weekend!