Janet Brien's photos with the keyword: waves

We are still busy settling into our home after our last RV trip. I've been refilling supplies that were used, stripping the beds and washing all of the linens and so forth. Not too much left to do but I like to get it done and out of the way. This morning we also got a delivery...a replacement for the rinky-dink, cheapo plastic toilet that came with the RV! The new one is ceramic and normally-sized instead of feeling like something you might find at kindergarten. Steve was so excited that he had the old one replaced within an hour! It's a really nice upgrade, especially for 6'2" Steve because the original was so short and small. It made us wonder—we are both slender and yet that toilet made us feel like elephants...what are these standard RV toilets like for people who are even the least bit heavy? We realized soon after we bought this trailer is that the original owners did almost nothing to upgrade the RV except to put in a new dinette table...we figure it probably broke so they had no choice but to replace it. Having spent about a month living in our trailer now, it's amazing that they put up with all of the annoying little problems we needed to fix right away. RVs are CHEAP. The workmanship is truly abysmal. Anything that isn't visible is shoddy...there are missing screws, nails, boards, you name it. Rough-cut wood, uneven, lopsided, poorly done everything. "Care" is not a word used in the behind-the-scenes building of an RV. At least, that's been our experience. It didn't take long to learn that unless you pay top dollar—and I mean a LOT of money—an RV is just barely held together and must be upgraded, altered, tuned up and fixed if you hope to use it for a lot of traveling. Basically, getting an RV means that one or both of you must be handy and clever about the myriad fixes that are required to turn an RV into a comfortable home away from home. You won't believe everything Steve's done to the trailer! He's changed out the light bulbs, added a dozen light fixtures, put up at least a dozen hooks all over the place, replaced both the kitchen and bathroom faucets and the shower head too. There's a paper towel holder now, and every cabinet is full of removable baskets to keep everything organized. He added proper towel racks and a toilet paper holder in the bathroom and put in a super fluffy bathroom rug! Both the smoke and CO alarms have been replaced. All four of the tires are brand new and he had the brakes professionally worked on so they are factory fresh. We now have a runner carpet that goes the length of the coach so our 3-legged dog is comfortable and has traction. He's added a bunch of space under the counters just by making the hoses and wiring neat and tidy. He'll be creating a cubby hole cabinet by the door because the space is available and we have to wonder, why didn't they do this to begin with? Space is such a premium in an RV! Likewise, he'll be building two large pull-out drawers under the dinette seats instead of the stupid situation it is now: pull off the cushions, lift up the cheapo piece of plywood and get into the huge space on either side. A sliding drawer will be perfect and should have been there to begin with! Because of Steve's skills, we've got an RV that's really becoming an awesome place. We'll probably need to upgrade our refrigerator/freezer to a larger one but for now it's fine. Oh, and my bed required another topper to make it useable...and now it's perfect! We also have other things to fix and change but the changes we've made have made such a big difference. How could the original owners have put up with it as it was?! Oh yes, my main image! Today is my day to put up my Happy Fence Friday picture and I'm choosing one that I took on our Coos Bay hike. While we were at our turn-around point and eating our late lunch snacks, we noticed a fellow photographer off in the distance at another point. He was there for some time, enjoying the view and we wanted to see too, so after our break we found the trail that took us out to that point and...WOW! WHAT A VIEW! While I was walking over to get a better look, I was surprised to see a chain-link fence that didn't seem to be doing anything but stick out like a sore thumb. But then I thought, "What a perfect picture for HFF!" So here you go! (very busy tonight so no insets!) Pam, we have thought so many times how nice it would be for you to live out here on this coast. We don't know where we'll end up settling down after we've finished having our adventures but Steve feels the same way you do. I don't want to be in cold, foggy, windy conditions that the coast is so known for, but inland a bit would be ok for me. Access to the beach would be lovely. We'll have to see how things shake out way down the road! Wish we could wave a magic wand for you though! *BIG HUGS MY DEAR* :) Explored on 5/31/19; highest placement, #6.

(+3 insets!) (please view large for all the nice details!) Oh my it's been such a busy day! More than one of you mentioned in your comment that coming home from a long trip means a bit of work to get things back in order. You weren't kidding! We have had three RV trips now: two were 3-night/4 days and this last one was 13 nights/14 days. Getting settled after several days away didn't take much effort but two weeks had me working for hours yesterday and most of today! I'm nearly done now, whew!! Thankfully I've enjoyed myself. There's something so satisfying about getting laundry washed, dried and put away, food put away/replenished, computer files backed up and so forth. And meanwhile, the weather is just wonderful. Sunny, warm but not too hot, flowers everywhere, birds singing in all of the trees. So pleasant. I am delighted too that there are lots of California and corn poppies in bloom here and there where I've planted seeds. The splashes of orange, red and pink are so beautiful. It hasn't hurt that we've gotten much more rain than usual this May and the reward of so many flowers is so nice to see. While I've been busy inside the house doing a million things, Steve fired up our powerful DR mower and our heavy-duty wheeled string mower and he spent several hours cutting down the grass and weeds around the house. Still much more to go but he's made great progress. Once he's done with that he'll be putting the flail mower on our tractor and attacking the areas further from our house. After having a wildfire roar through part of our property a few years back, we aren't interested in adding any fuel to a possible situation. Today's featured shot is a view of Crescent City's Battery Point Lighthouse and the beach and rocks beyond it. It's not a great picture of the lighthouse but I think the overall image is nice enough that I wanted to share it as a main picture. More importantly, this photo has a story and message behind it that are very meaningful to us. We hadn't planned to visit Crescent City. But we'd spent the first night of our trip at our campsite near Jedediah Smith State Park with rain pelting our rig and the next morning the rain was forecast to come down heavily all day. Hiking and biking would be out of the question. However, instead of moping around in the RV we decided to drive out to nearby Crescent City, if only to have lunch there. Our fare turned out to be an amazing pair of fish tacos (which we couldn't finish but gobbled up later!) and as we ate, we couldn't help but notice there might be a chance to sneak a walk on the beach. Grabbing our umbrellas, we took the opportunity. Oddly enough, the rain stopped soon after we set foot on the beach and we proceeded to have a wonderful time taking lots and lots of pictures—which included my feature of that day just for Pam! (Inset included, also shows another view of the lighthouse!) :) What we didn't know was that Crescent City had its own lighthouse! I was so excited when I saw it at the end of the beach and I clicked away as we walked ever-nearer. We didn't really want to walk all the way up to the lighthouse for better pictures and angles because our lucky gap in the rain looked close to being over and we wanted to walk past the lighthouse instead. (We were wise to trust our instincts because just as we set foot on the main road back to the truck the skies opened up and dumped a wind-whipped deluge on our heads! Thank goodness for our umbrellas but they couldn't keep our legs from becoming totally soaked by the time we got back into the truck!) I'm so glad we made the decision to continue past the lighthouse. A lovely little cove revealed itself to us along with huge rocks strewn that direction and driftwood everywhere to complete the scene. Steve and I spent a few moments just enjoying the view and thinking about the day. It had started off feeling rather gloomy and both of us were unhappy about the weather. In the end, coming out to Crescent City turned out to be an completely unexpected and rewarding surprise. So, this picture also serves as a reminder: even if a day may not seem to be working out the way we hoped, it's possible to end up having a great time after all! Oh, I've also included a couple of insets: walking on the beach we got so many lovely images, so here's a couple of them: one is a lovely iceplant blossom in pastel pink; the other is a feather I found lying on the sand. (And I included my past picture to show this day, which was all about Pam...it's got a great view of the lighthouse too!) Pam, I remember reading about your England adventure and having some days full of rain. You certainly made the best of the situations too. Bad weather doesn't have to spoil everything...it merely changes ones' opportunities! Thank you too, for your comments and reflections on couples and working on issues. I find that there is a whole lof of "eating crow" for me but it helps to understand why issues arise so they can be dealt with! *BIG HUGS TO YOU MY DEAR!* :D Explored on 5/30/19; highest placement, #5.

(+3 insets!) I'm running late again but I blame the beauty of the hike we went on today! I had to process pictures to share and one was just not enough! :D This morning turned out to be heavily overcast but no rain was forecast so we moved ahead with our plans for the day. We hoped to visit the last day's festival vendors as well as go on a hike. So, after our delicious bacon and eggs late-breakfast, we packed up and headed out. We found some of the vendors near our RV park and enjoyed visiting their stalls. One of them was selling lots of stuff that was useful for the RV crowd and we picked up a bunch of fun things…a pair of telescoping weinie roasting tines, some extra large carabiners to attach stuff, a bbq grill brush and a few other assorted things. All very inexpensive, three cheers! :) Even though almost all of the vendors were gone we didn't mind because we can always find these vendors wherever we go. What we really wanted to do was go on our hike! Off we went to the trailhead for the Thomas Creek Whaleshead hike , just a few minutes north of Brookings. The hike turned out to be yet another spectacular adventure, brimming with gorgeous forest and rugged coast views. Both of us had a great time with our photography and enjoying the lovely scenery all around us. I even got some super pictures of a Stellar Jay who sat in "full fluff" on a branch where I was able to get a wonderful view. (I'll post another day as a main image, what a lovely bird!) We got pictures of cool mushrooms and forest views, lots of flowers and many other pretty subjects. What a day for photography! :) We stopped for a late lunch at the half-way point, which happened to be an incredibly gorgeous view looking north. It featured craggy shoreline, a remote beach and huge boulders rising out of the ocean. What a sight! Sitting there and looking out at the ocean, the fog rolled in and drifted out and it was fun to watch the visibility increase and fade as we nibbled on our tasty fare. This loop hike took us down nearer to the water, though we were still high above the crashing waves. The highlight of this hike took us to a stunning grotto which featured a natural bridge in the rocks under which the waves rolled in and out. It was so beautiful and we felt so delighted that we got to see this awesome rock formation. My main picture today is the natural bridge, and my insets include some of the rugged coastal views we enjoyed, including a view from where I sat eating my late lunch! :) Pam, you are not allowed to NEED to wear the Ruby shoes! :D Glad you enjoyed my pictures of the darling seals! :) I would love to see grey seals too. Actually, I hope to some day have a collection of different seals that I've photographed over the years, I simply adore them! :) Hope your day was good, you were certainly in our thoughts today! :D *BIG HUGS* Explored on 5/28/19; highest placement, #12.

(+2 insets!) Today was another travel day! After we had a delicious breakfast, we each did our parts to pack up the trailer. Both of us have lots of little things to do but it adds up to a lot of stuff if only one person was doing them. As a team, we are getting faster and more efficient at the break-down of the RV and the hookup of the trailer to the truck. It's fun to see how we're improving as time passes. The weather was perfectly dreadful with rain coming down in a constant torrent and wind gusting against our rig. Big deal! We didn't care...no amount of bad weather could ruin the gorgeous scenery that we enjoyed as we drove along. The rugged coast was accented by incredible waves crashing against the rocks. The rain made the green of the pastures and forest positively glow with vibrance and lushness. The droplets pattered on the road, making beautiful reflections and interesting textures to appreciate. Water peppered the truck, the windshield wipers were such fun to watch as they wiped away the constant splatters of water... We had no worries as we drove along. Pumpkin was in her travel cage on my lap and she was as happy as could be, munching on her fruits and veggies and twittering at us. What a doll! Molly was content to sack out in the back seat. Our family loved this travelling thing...bring on the rain, it didn't bother us at all! :) We headed up the coast from Coos Bay with an eventual destination of Devil's Lake State Park. On the way we stopped at the charming town of Florence where we shared a jalapeno and bacon burger (without the bun!) and a little salad at a popular local restaurant. We had time to stroll down their main shopping street and enjoyed our visits to a fantastic gallery and a specialty bead shop. What a delight. We pulled into our campsite at about 5:30 and got everything set up in about an hour. Soon we had our yummy espressos-with-cream and then steaks with veggies along with an unbelievably delicious "fauxtato salad" made with cauliflower instead of potatoes. Better than any "real" potato salad we'd ever had. NOM!! After dinner, Steve had to do some other stuff but afterwards we had just enough time to walk to the lake...what an incredible campsite and what a stunning lake! My goodness, it's going to be an amazing place here!! Today's main picture is from our hike a couple of days ago, along with insets that show the forest and the view out to the water from the beginning of our hike, which was over the top of our campsite at Coos Bay...totally amazing views!! The ocean view in my main picture was just one of the dozens upon dozens of jaw-dropping sights we had the good fortune to see on our hike. Best Hike of the Trip! Pam, I hope that you enjoy the pictures...you're certainly in our thoughts on our adventures! Hope it was an ok day for you...maybe a bit of improvement? Wouldn't that be grand? *BIG HUGS from DEVIL'S LAKE*! Explored on 5/22/19; highest placement #2.

Oh my, it's so late!! Not my fault! The sun made me stay out until it set!! :D What a day, what an incredible, amazing day!! Steve and I woke to a SUNNY MORNING here in Coos Bay! HOORAY! Our plans for a hike was set, we just needed to decide which way to go...along the beach or up along the cliffs and into the forest? I thought the cliff-forest hike might give us prettier views and Steve agreed. We grabbed our stuff and headed out on a hike that turned out to be absolutely amazing! Views of boulder-strewn shorelines, verdant forest filled with glowing greenery and lots of flowers. It was exactly what we hoped for. We couldn't be happier, it was such a perfect day! At about 4pm we sat down at a gorgeous spot overlooking the ocean and enjoyed watching the waves crashing over the rocks. Mesmerizing. I knew we'd be hungry so I packed a late afternoon snacky-lunch of lots of yummy things like cheese and sausage, nuts and potato salad, carrots and chips! It was perfect! We got back at about 6:30pm with about 8 miles of hiking behind us for the day, totally satisfied and happy. After making early evening creamy espressos, we soon had ribs cooking on our barbecue for dinner along with veggies. YUM!! Steve and I talked about doing a sunset shoot but I figured we'd wait until tomorrow evening because we were BEAT from our day's adventures. However, Steve suggested we go out to the beach just to see where the sun had set. Before we left, he also found out that it was supposed to rain tomorrow afternoon and into the evening. Noooo!!! We headed out to the beach and to our surprise, the sun hadn't set yet. Even better, we had at least 20 minutes before it went down--plenty of time to get back to the RV and return with our cameras! As you can see, we got our sunset pictures!! It was such fun. Steve had the 5D Mark III on a tripod and took lots of different types of pictures. As for me, I had my Sony and had a great time with silhouette images and pictures of Steve taking pictures too. :) Unfortunately I don't have time for extra pictures tonight, heh...it's 9:30, eek! :D Pam, Steve and I were sure thinking about you a lot on our hike today. The views were something out of this world. We wished you could have been here. We have a video of the waves crashing on the rocks that I hope to post when I can, I think you'll enjoy it! I sure do hope your day was an ok one, you are very much cared about by us and in our warmest thoughts! :) *BIG HUGS* Explored on 5/19/19; highest placement #4.

Thank you everyone for visiting, and for all of the comments you've left on my photos! I am doing my best to return the favor whenever I have a spare moment! Winner of FlickrDuel contest: +10 Wins: Water This image was taken during the Meetup hike to Crater Lake: Wizard Island on August 7, 2011.

This image was taken during our MeetUp hike to Crater Lake: Wizard Island on August 20, 2011.

This image was taken during the MeetUp hike around one edge of Howard Prairie Lake on August 7, 2011.