We have a long-standing tradition of spending the week before Christmas at the coast. It’s an escape from our usual lives, right before the craziness of family gatherings and shuttling between all the parties. This year, we stayed at the Sea Gypsy in Lincoln City. When a rare sunny day happened upon us, we stepped into our wellies and went exploring.

We then lucked into another sunny day, and spent it exploring one of our favorite parks.

Our lodging has an indoor pool, so we made the best of the bad-weather days too.

Of course, our 12 days of Christmas was still going on, so we opened a few new toys, too. Our space was pretty small, so we had to keep tidy, but we made it work.

When I opened some new lenses for my phone’s camera, I had to give them a whirl on this blustery day. The macro shot is of a tiny jellyfish that had washed up on the beach.

On the morning of the 24th, we stopped at the local grocery store and picked up a couple of whole crabs. Will (surprisingly, or maybe not) volunteered to help clean them once they were cooked. Here we are prying open aprons and discarding gills!

It was a good trip, and continues to be a good tradition. Highly recommended.