Summer is here

Today, at 11:06 am, we welcomed summer. With the first day of summer came 15 hours, 59 minutes and 31 seconds of glorious daylight.

At this time of year, the sun rises around 5:00 am and sets around 9:00 pm. When you include the morning and evening twilight, that's a lot of light. This is one of my favorite things about PNW summer. (Yes, the converse is true: The short winter days are one my least favorite things, but let's not think about that right now.)

Another thing I relish about PNW summers: Unlike the Midwest, summer here doesn't mean oppressive heat. Locals are keen to tell you that summer doesn't really start here until after the Fourth of July. Case in point: It was a cool, sunny 71 degrees today, and temperatures this weekend are not expected to rise above 70. OK, so there's rain the in the forecast for Saturday and Sunday -- but I'll take it. It reminds me of Ireland and England.

Speaking of summer...We have already taken a mini summer vacation to what has become one of my favorite places in the world: the Oregon Coast. (Pictured above are SMH and Loki enjoying the ocean at low tide.) We spent the first weekend in June in Newport, then followed our noses to a campground about 15 south of Cannon Beach.

The campground -- Oswald West State Park -- turned out to be an amazing discovery. Camping is tent-only, so you have to hike in about .25 mile (the park provides wheelbarrows -- how thoughtful!) to set up. When we finally settled in, we realized we were one of the only campers there without surfboards. Turns out the camp is popular with the local surfers, so we spent some time down at the beach watching and wishing we knew how to hang 10.

We also did some hiking along beautiful cliffs



And we explored some tide pools.

The last picture shows some starfish in the tide pools. I know they look a little squishy and creepy, but they are actually beautiful, decked out in brilliant oranges and purples.

The weekend also involved a tour of the Rogue Brewery, a delish salmon dinner, a run on the beach, and with friend Kevin's help, a whale-spotting in Depoe Bay.

The summer is off to a spectacular start.