Travels with Sherpa Tom: Our Second (and Final) Month in Rockaway Beach, Oregon, July 2026

We continued to enjoy our time in Rockaway Beach for our second month. There are many homes with beautiful landscaping and amazing plants, including this hydrangea.

Many homes had cute and interesting details.

Piper enjoys the sunny afternoons in the back yard.

While watering our plants at our patio home in Phoenix, our friend Jane found a dead rat in the kitchen. We have a whole book to write about how Patty had heard what she thought was a rat in or on the ceiling about her bedroom - after a month, Beatitudes maintenance staff found nothing. But the rat in the kitchen changed all that. It appears that this rat came up through the toilet, as they found bite marks and pieces of the toilet seat floating in the toilet. This led to multiple inspections, rat traps and more. But no sooner did this happen, than we found a rat in the street about 100 feet from our rental unit in Rockaway Beach. The rat did not look healthy, and then the next day we found the dead rat just off the side of the road, only a few feet from where the rat is in this photo. Patty used a shovel to put the dead rat into a plastic bag that I held, which was then triple bagged and put into the trash dumpster.

We continued to enjoy many walks, including both in town and at the beach.

For our 50th anniversary in 2025, I got matching coffee cups with a saying on them that included the phrase being together until the end of our lives. When the local July 4th parade was laid out on the streets, there were markings of turns, and both the start and the end. We joked that this photo was of us being together until the end of our lives.

For my birthday on a clear and sunny evening, we ate outside at the Sand Dollar Restaurant - we were literally at the beach.

We made a quick trip to Burlington, Vermont. On the 14th, we loaded Piper and luggage into the car, then drove into Portland.

Megan was off in Salt Lake City for her annual qualification training and testing. She had things to memorize on all walls of the dining room/living room. These help her learn and retain many things that a pilot needs to know.

On Wednesday the 15th, we flew United from Portland to Chicago and then on to Burlington. Thursday morning, I had coffee with my friend and long time CCV colleague Melissa. Then I went to donate platelets at the Burlington Red Cross - for the first time in 60 years, I was declined because my blood pressure and pulse were too high (it was fine when I went again two weeks later, see below). Thursday evening was the party for our friend Bridgette. She was retiring from more than 30 years as an attorney with the federal government. In 1992, she had been a student intern with me at what was then the Vermont Service Center in St. Albans. Friday morning, Patty and I had breakfast with Seth and Ben from Well Bridge - we have worked with Seth for more than 20 years for financial advice and services. Then we spent time with Bridgette and family at their house in South Burlington. Then it was United flights from Burlington to Denver to Portland. Saturday, it was loading Piper and gear into the car and back out to Rockaway Beach.