Kilchis River Campground, Tillamook County, Oregon

August 10th arrived and we headed over to Kilchis River Campground for our annual Family and Friends Camp Out!  But before doing that we stopped by Garibaldi and Jim picked up another dozen fresh oysters, that boy surely loves his campfire oysters!  A pit stop in Tillamook City for supplies and propane for Rocinante and we were off to our final destination!  This campground is located North of the City of Tillamook and is a family friendly site with showers, playground, horse shoes, grassy sites, and river access.  It has around 34 campsites, plus overflow sites when the demand for additional spots arises.

We were late in getting in our reservations at Kilchis River CG and about the only area available was a little overflow area just outside the Campground Proper.   The area had five tent spots in a circle and since everyone had tents, I figured it would work out just fine!  Well, about a month before the scheduled get together each of our three kids' families ended up with new camping rigs!  Our daughter and her hubby purchased a grand slip on camper for their pickup ... wow is that thing ever nice!  Tons of cupboard space and quite roomy.  Our eldest son and his wife picked up a super nice Tent Trailer and our youngest son and his wife got ahold of a 20' expanding trailer!

Well, I tell you I was really worried because the sites we had booked looked really small ... I was beginning to fret about whether we would have room for all these bigs rigs!   Not to worry however ... the area turned out to be quite large and each site was HUGE!  We ended up in our own little campground area with room to spare!  The main campground was packed in tighter than dill pickles in a jar and we were in the lap of luxury!  The only draw back?  We had to walk further to the restrooms and showers ... but that was well worth the spots we had!  And the kids had their own private access to the best swimming hole in the area!

Everyone showed up one after the other and we got our sites set up and spent the evening around the campfire visiting and enjoying each other's company.

Here is a photo of our site at Kilchis River ...

We were under a large spruce tree that provided plenty of shelter and shade.

In this photo we averted a small disaster waiting to happen ... a large loose branch hanging barely onto the tree was noticed right over where I had been sitting and my oldest son managed to lasso the bugger and pull it down.  Thank God for small blessings and handy sons!

This is another one of the sites, this one overlooks the river and one can even cast their fishing line over the edge.  None of the kids caught any keepers, but they had fun trying!

Our daughter's family tossed in some crawdad (aka crayfish) traps into the river and the next morning pulled out a nice catch!

These fellas were not too happy about their predicament, but everyone else was delighted!

 

This was a first time experience for many of the kids and they were quite curious ... you sure have to watch out for the pinchers on those little guys!

 

Luckily I had brought along a large pot and we cooked up the prize catch in a mix of sea salt and pickling spices.  Oh boy, were they ever tastey!  Here they are piled on a nice little serving pan just waiting to be devoured!

 

This photo gives you a good idea of the size .... not bad!

 On Saturday nite, we all settled in around the campfire after enjoying a huge pot of clam chowder I had made up and celebrated all the summer birthdays!  There are quite a few of them!  In fact Jim's sister, our daughter, and our 2nd granddaughter were all born on the same date - August 18th!  Three different generations of Brady girls born the 18th of August!  Wonder if that is a record of some kind?

The different groups of families and friends departed on Sunday or Monday, but before anyone left we did manage to get our annual "Clan Of The Clam" photo ...

I'm the 2nd from the right with the straw hat (next to Jim) holding Danny Boy...

Jim and I stayed on until the following Thursday before we headed back into town.  We usually do that after a big family shindig just to calm down, after all the excitement and mayhem, and get in a little relaxation.    Before everyone had left, Dilly Boy and I had gone and picked three cups of huckleberries from bushes next to our camp spot.....

he was so delighted with his harvest that he immediately had me make up a double batch of Huckleberry Aebleskivers (round Danish pancakes) to share with everyone.

Once everyone had gone, Dilly Boy and I set up our little art studio and he decided my next drawing should definitely feature huckleberries, so here he is posing with a small branch of huckleberries ... (he ate the huckleberries off the branch before posing ... silly guy!)

And so I began my 2nd camping illustration .... "Dragonfly In Huckleberries" ....

As you can imagine, we had quite the adventure and I, for one, am ready to load up Rocinante and head out again!

Happy day to all!

Karen Anne