Bay City Birthday

The yurt we stayed at over the weekend in the background, bayshore debris in the foreground.

Pedro asked to stay at a yurt for his birthday two years ago. I found a cool one on Vacasa, but it was booked. I tried again last year, and it was booked. So right then, I booked it for this year! We’ve stayed at yurts in state campgrounds, and they are fun, but this one was listed as “glamping.” For those unfamiliar with the term, it’s a combination of “glamour” and “camping.” It looked good online: large, fully furnished, includes a full kitchen and bathroom, and had a hot tub! It’s a single yurt on private property, and best of all: right on the beach.

It was spacious and comfortable, though I would not at all call it glamorous. More like nice fishing cabin, with very worn but comfortable furniture and rickety table and chairs – that kind of thing. A little chilly, but that happens with yurts. It had a gas stove that heated the place up, and there were lots of blankets heaped around for us to use. It was indeed right on the beach of Tillamook Bay.

The yurt, with the main house and garage on the right. The tide was out so we walked out into the bay.

By pure coincidence, we got lucky with the weather. It has been in the 40s (7 C) and raining here, which is normal. But Friday and Saturday, highs were in the upper 50s (14 C), and it was sunny! Such beautiful blue skies for Pedro’s birthday. The very first thing we did once we unloaded was to begin exploring the exposed bay as the tide went out.

Looking into the setting sun.
We walked all the way out to the water’s edge.
Then walked the shore for a while.
I liked the pock-marked erosion here.

I brought food for two days and the kitchen had enough pots, pans, dishes, etc for us. I cooked up a fresh meal of vegetable stir-fry and shrimp, with steamed rice. While Pedro waited for supper to be ready, he prepared a charcuterie board with stuff to snack on, and we snacked. Then we ate our meal. I had brought birthday cake, but we were too full to even think about it.

We enjoyed the lovely view of the sunset from the front porch of the yurt.
The sky was beautiful with every new stage of lighting.

I woke in the morning while it was still pretty dark and loved the view of a band of fog over the water, with clear skies and a moon above it. I took a hundred photos of birds in the dark, which was a little silly, but I enjoyed myself and wished I had a more powerful lens.

Dawn over Tillamook Bay
Full moon at dawn
I spotted all those birds out there and couldn’t resist them, even though there was not enough light for my camera to do them justice.
As it got lighter, my photos became more clear.
I liked this guy way out there. A solitary hunter.
I think maybe a Blue Heron?
Here’s another, who is closer, but at a time when the fog thickened.
Finally light hit the birds and we were able to identify Northern Pintail ducks. The one standing looks like an American Widgeon.
This is a good shot for identification
Sun began to hit the holly tree in front of us.
And with the light of morning, the American Robins showed up.
Robin redbreast
In my last duck photos, I think there are also some American Widgeons with the Northern Pintails.

For first breakfast that morning we had birthday cake – carrot raisin cake, so it was health food! Then we tried out the hot tub, which we had not used the night before.

Birthday guy preparing to dig in.
A morning soak on the beach.

After that great morning, we went into Bay City and had second breakfast, then went off to hike a trail, as we are wont to do. I’ll cover that in the next post.

16 thoughts on “Bay City Birthday

    1. It’s a fantasy of mine. Of these days… I’ll splurge on a bigger one. With my current camera, I am able to lighten the photos once I get them into my computer and open up my photo software.

  1. Wish Pedro a happy birthday from me. Another carrot cake lover like my last husband. I’ve come to love it as well. A nice quiet retreat is a great way to spend while getting older. 🙂 Looks just wonderful. I like the cold but I know it’s hard on you. Hugs to both.

    1. Oh speaking of cold, remind me when I see you to tell you about the “Arctic Zone” in our home. It’s a blessing in disguise for me, but I’ll tell you all about it. Yes, he likes carrot cake. I’m glad I have found that for him. Pedro does not have much of a sweet tooth – even less than me! Except that he loves ice cream, so maybe I can do an ice cream cake one year.

    1. My next post should be a salve for you. I’m traveling, but when I get a chance there will be some nice ocean and coastal forest trail shots. I can’t believe how hard it is to make a trip to the coast when we are so close. It’s silly. We should go more often, right?!

  2. First, of course, happy belated birthday to Pedro. Second, your glamp was more of a glamp than our was, at least the one in Florida. Third I made reservations last night to be across the Bay in Netarts June 11-18. 🙂

    1. I’ll be sure and pass on to Pedro all the birthday messages from this post! :o) Oh I’m glad we had more of a glamp, then. It was pretty nice not to have to bring any bedding or dishes or cookware or a stove. And showers were nice! I have marked your visit on the calendar. If my man is free, I’ll bet he would be eager to head over to Netarts to visit. He loves that place.

Leave a reply to explorenewness Cancel reply