Thursday morning started with a LOT of rain.

It was pouring off and on, with periods of just complete downpour. We had planned to head over to Coos Bay, though, so we decided to go anyway. Greg needed a belt, so naturally our first stop was Tractor Supply.

Once he had his belt, we decided to head over to Shore Acres. Luckily, we caught a break in the rain.

Shore Acres is a beautiful garden right along the ocean. I’ve been there before, but only around the holidays when they cover the whole place in Christmas lights. I’d never really explored it at another time of year, so it was fun to see it without all the lights and decorations.

We walked around the gardens, and the entire time we could hear sea lions barking somewhere nearby.

We just couldn’t see them.

We noticed a trail near the gardens that looked like it headed toward the ocean. We figured we’d take it and maybe we’d finally get to see the sea lions.

As we walked down the trail, I spotted a snail.

Then I spotted another one.

And once I saw one snail, suddenly I started seeing them EVERYWHERE.

Hundreds of them.

Of course, I had to stop and take pictures.

There was one crawling along a log that I was able to get really close to. I loved being able to see all the little details in it—the texture, the patterns, everything. It’s actually one of my favorite photos from the entire trip.

We kept walking down the trail for a while, but eventually realized we weren’t getting any closer to the ocean.

So we turned around.

No sea lions.

We went back and walked around the gardens some more, with me stopping constantly to take pictures.

Eventually Greg said that if we drove a little farther down the road, we’d probably be able to see the sea lions.

So we went back to the car and drove a little farther.

Sure enough, there was a pullout.

And it did NOT disappoint.

There were hundreds, if not thousands, of sea lions packed onto the rocks. They were barking and piled on top of each other, and suddenly all that listening to them without being able to see them made sense.

I took a bunch of pictures, of course.

We picked a little spot for some lunch.

Then we headed back toward town.

Lately we’ve really been enjoying stopping at vintage shops, partly because we’re always looking for interesting things for the cabin and partly because Greg has been looking for old traps. I searched for a vintage shop and set the GPS, and it took us right into downtown Coos Bay.

As it turned out, the shop was directly across the street from the one Aunt Jan works at.

We stopped in there first, but sadly missed her. She wasn’t working that day. We found a couple of things we liked and then walked across the street to check out the other shop.

After we got back, Greg decided it was time to work on the apple tree again.

He spent some time trimming the limbs that were growing over into the neighbor’s yard and picked more apples while he was up there.

So that pretty much summed up Thursday: rain, gardens, hundreds of snails, thousands of sea lions, vintage shopping and Greg trimming apple trees.

A pretty good Oregon day.

It looked like a river flowing down the road from so much rain.

Look how big those leaves are! I put Greg in there so you can see the scale.

Greg had put this bottle with dirt on one of the apple tree limbs when we were there in June. He was hoping it would start to grow roots and he could take the limb and plant it at our place. It didn’t quit work.

So many apples