At the last minute, we opted to take a trip to Aberdeen to visit my Grandma Nancy – who had been in the hospital recently. We brought pumpkins to carve and a bottle of wine to celebrate Halloween, and helped answer the door to cute trick or treat-ers. My pumpkin had a zillion scars, so I opted to carve out a leaf – while Aaron channeled his inner gonzo-style.

The next morning, we took off further down the road for a visit to one of our all-time favorite beaches: Tolvana Park in Cannon Beach, OR. We made it in time for sunset, and enjoyed a very windy walk down to haystack rock and back. The wind and the waves created an astounding amount of froth and bubbles that would wash up on the sand, which reminded me of the beaches in my hometown of Soap Lake, WA.

We set the alarm to get up bright and early for low tide, hoping to see the creatures in the tide pools, but they were nowhere to be found. However, I found a few incredible beach treasures that the large crashing waves had washed ashore. Then we set off further south towards Manzanita, explore a bit more of the coast and stop in to say ‘hello’ to the lovely folks at Unfurl, who feature my bags in their eco-fiber boutique. The rugged coastline, and the high cliffs were very reminiscent of our many drives down the 101 in California – but with its own ‘Oregon’ flavor.

Then we headed back north to spend the afternoon and evening with Grandma again. We were excited to see that my parents were still there visiting. Since I had brought some bag protypes along, it was a perfect chance to show my Mom and Grandma (the two most creative women I know)! We ordered pizza, played a few hours of card games with Grandma and nearly put ourselves to sleep watching Helvetica.

We headed back home early Monday morning, in time to ship bags to Mint Julep stores in Cambridge, MA and NYC.