French Beach and Shirley

After another leisurely morning of using the hot tub and having lunch at home, we headed out early Thursday afternoon to check out French Beach Provincial Park while Mom and Dad took another hilly hike.

French Beach had a children's playground, which the children enjoyed.





See the metal bars Mike is standing on, below? When we first arrived at the park, Nicholas couldn't really climb them--the play structure was designed for much older children. We helped him climb up and fling himself over to the platform. Within a few minutes, he could climb with very little help...and before we left, he had completely mastered the climb. Of all our children, he is definitely the most dextrous climber!



Chris is so patient with his younger brothers!
French Beach was a beautiful rocky beach. The waves made a beautiful sound on the rocks as the tide went out.

Kieran wanted to take a stone home, but we settled for taking a photo of it. (The beach had posted signs asking visitors to refrain from removing anything.)






Nicholas was very anxious on the beach--we think he was traumatized by the sneaker wave we experienced the last time we were on the Oregon Coast. Poor little thing!
Mike took Nick and Chris back to the playground while Kieran and I walked down the beach a ways.


I loved the amazing variety of beautiful rocks on the beach!





Back at the playground...poor Chris was getting tackled again...





Kieran and I decided to go off on another wander, this time on a trail along the beach...check out this amazing tree trunk!


Then we veered into the forest...






The skunk weed was in bloom...


Here's Kieran perching on another tree trunk. He then ran over to Mike and the boys and announced that I had been washed away by a big wave!


On the way back to Kingfisher Manor, we stopped to take some photos of the unincorporated town of Shirley. Have you ever noticed that Shirley is rarely used nowadays for a girl's name, even though many other old-fashioned names have come back into fashion? I just googled "Shirley," and apparently it used to be a male name...and although I was indeed an English lit major, I didn't know that Charlotte Bronte wrote a novel named Shirley (after Jane Eyre). My master's-in-English and British husband DID know that. (But ask me about the novels of George Eliot and Jane Austen!)
I thought it would be fun to take some photos of Shirley, even though my own Shirley (my mom) was less than impressed. Go figure...Christopher is always thrilled to have his photo taken in front of anything that says "Christopher." I would be delighted to discover a town called Marie (although I've never been into a Marie Callender's in my life!). My mom is less easily amused, I suppose.
I thought these were interesting photos at any rate:





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