ComfortZone

This past week we traveled down near Coos Bay, Oregon and stayed 3 nights at Sunset Bay State Park. It was all wonderful! Of course Oregon’s parks are always very nice, and the wildlife, scenery, and weather were spectacular.

If you haven’t seen the southern Oregon Coast, I highly recommend it. We decided to leave the Jeep and tent trailer at home (gas prices!), go by car and stay in a Yurt. It was a bit tight in the car with 6 of us, but we all enjoyed the trip anyway.

I’ve posted some panoramas here which are slightly distorted, but give a good idea of this neat little bay. I’m guessing it’s around 1/2 mile across, and has wonderful tide pool areas with lots of marine life.

There’s a lot to see in this area! The land these parks sit on was donated to the state of Oregon by Louis Simpson, a lumber and shipping baron. A couple miles south of Sunset Bay are the Shore Acres Botanical Gardens (7 acres of beautiful gardens), Cape Arago, and Simpson Reef, an outstanding wildlife viewing area.

Here is a slide show if you are interested in seeing more!

I’ve GOT to tell you about our Comfort Family Reunion!

We’ve been having large Comfort family reunions since the 70’s, every 4th of July weekend. For the past 20 or so years (can anyone give me the exact year?), we’ve been taking over one end of Hat Rock Campground near Umatilla, Oregon (home of the famous Army Chemical Weapons Depot).

The view from the bluff east of the campground.

Why way out there in the middle of nowhere? Well, it is an ideal meeting point since people come from all over Oregon, Washington and Idaho. People come from the Olympic Peninsula and Seattle area, Spokane and North Idaho, Boise and La Grande, Newberg, Dundee, Newport, and Rockaway Beach. It’s a comfortable oasis out in hot and dry north-eastern Oregon—about where the Columbia River turns up into Washington.

It is right next to Hat Rock State Park which is on the Columbia and was named by Lewis and Clark. (notice the hat in the upper-right corner of the photo above.) It has a great little store, shade trees, and best of all for the kids—a swimming pool!

We had 63 people at reunion this year, and as usual it was an awesome time to reconnect with each other. There was lots of food, games, visiting, walks to the pond and Columbia River, swimming, and even several haircuts!

One really fun event (of which I have no pictures) is the annual soccer game. Age range: 3-50, no shoes allowed (feet get stepped on), everyone invited (including kids from other sites). We ended up with 36 people playing, and surprisingly, the score was always 3-3! We play until we can’t see anymore, and there was even quite a group of spectators this year!

Here are some pictures of the fun weekend…

There’s always a lot of visiting and game playing.

7 out of 9 of my Dad’s siblings were there! (3 of his brothers are on the right edge of this shot.)

An important part of the weekend is the worship and sharing service that we have. We sing, share, pray, and there’s guaranteed to be a few tears, as stories are shared.

Whenever there are 50th or 25th wedding anniversaries, the couples that are there are honored with a special party, sharing, and a gift. These two couples, Arnold and Gwen, and Herb and Cora, were the recipients of wonderfully honoring words from family members. All four of Herb and Cora’s children were there, which was very special.

Special thanks go to Jim and Lyn for these past years they have had the responsibility of planning and organizing the reunion for us!

I cant wait ’til next year!