Labor Day Weekend in Long Beach with Trish

Saturday, August 30th

About a month ago, at the WSGA Campout, I spoke with a lady named Sherry (LifeIsGuud). She and her husband live in Pacific County and was going to host an event at the end of August. Without thinking, I agreed to host an event during that same weekend, just for the next day, so I could suffice hosting an event near the ocean as the WSGA chapter rep. I didn't realize it was Labor Day weekend. That meant not many people will probably attend and hotels would be expensive. Ughhh. Oh well.

I asked Mom if she wanted to go with me that weekend, but she was already doing a quilting thing with her people. I asked Megan if she wanted to go and she was going to until Robert screwed up the kid's schedule and she ended up having her kids that weekend (which was a good thing she got her kids), so I asked Trish if she was available to hang out for a weekend and she said she was and would go with me.

I got onto the internet and tried finding an affordable hotel room for one night. I managed to get lucky and found one right in the middle of where we needed to be in Long Beach. I hated that it was about $250+ a night but it was a holiday weekend. Trish told me she was going to pay half of it, and I thanked her for offering. I let her know when we would be leaving and would appreciate her meeting me at our house so we could leave to head down. I also told her to bring stuff for any occasion...it is the coast in Washington after all, it could be hot, cold or perfect. She said she was looking forward to it.

This was my first time on a trip with just Trish, so this could be an interesting weekend. She got to our house around 9ish. We moved her stuff into the Escape, we used the restroom, made sure we had everything, told Ben bye and hit the road around 9:45. I decided to take Hwy 4 out of Longview/Kelso because I haven't been down that way in a while. We spent the next few hours talking about random things throughout the drive. They were some great conversations and I enjoyed them.

We arrived in town roughly around 12:30. I asked her if she was hungry and she said she could eat. We scanned the streets for a place that looked good and came across North Jetty Brewing. The parking lot was virtually empty so maybe we got there at a good time? We went inside and was immediately taken to a table and served a menu. I ordered Another F**king Raspberry Hef because I love fruit beer and Trish ordered a Boneshaker IPA. For food, I got the Cubano and she got the Ham and Cheese Panini. They came with a bag of chips. The food and beer sure hit the spot.

We got back into the Escape and found a free public parking lot so we could spend some time walking around. We spent about an hour or so walking up one street and down the other. Our first stop was at the virtual cache, The World's Largest Frying Pan (GC7B6C5). I've been here several times throughout the years but this time someone finally put a virtual cache here. Trish and I posed in front of it to suffice the logging requirements. 

We went into a few shops just to pass some time before we could check into the hotel and make it to the event by 5 p.m. We even went into Marsh's Free Museum to see the weird stuff and Jake, the alligator man. I bought a few postcards and a magnet. From there, we saw we were within a short walking distance to grab a traditional cache, SS Admiral Benson - Graveyard of the Pacific (GC632BP) and another virtual cache, Long Beach, WA: A Beach Town (GC9P7FP). We had enough time to grab them and then make our way back to the Escape to drive and check into the hotel.

We made our way to the Best Western and checked in. We took our stuff up to our room and picked the beds we were going to sleep in. I got a room with two queen beds, so everyone was comfortable. We grabbed what we needed and headed back out to the Escape to drive to the event. It was short couple blocks down Bolstad Beach Access Road, but it was totally worth driving. We parked in the lot because we knew better about driving in the sand. We did NOT want to be those people. We grabbed our chairs and looked for the group of geocachers next to a fire. We went and grabbed Discovery Trail - Captain Clark Statue (GCAD2BV) before the event and then admired what was left of the professional sandcastles.

We saw where the National Beach and Toasted Marshmallow Day! (GCATMGC) was. I recognized Sherry and a couple of the other people from past events. We spent the next two hours sharing stories, watching at least eight different people/cars get rescued from being stuck in the sand and enjoying smores by the fire. We had about 10 people show up to the event, and we stayed until about sunset. We helped Sherry pick up her stuff.

Trish and I went back to the hotel, ate some food we packed, relaxed, got cleaned up, she slaughtered me at Phase 10 dice, we watched some college football and then went to bed. I slept like poop even with the A/C on and ear plugs.

Sunday, August 31st

I did a lot of tossing and turning throughout the night. I got up a couple times to adjust the A/C so it would drown out the snoring. I also tried to adjust my ear plugs so I could get some sleep. I eventually did but it wasn't good sleep. My body definitely knew I wasn't in my own bed when I woke up around 8:30 feeling a little sore. We laid in bed for another 20 minutes or so before getting ready and going down to the buffet for some hotel breakfast.

They actually had a decent spread and Trish, and I found plenty of food to get us through most of the day. We packed up our room, checked out and headed to the Escape. I asked her what she wanted to do before the event I was hosting, and she said she was up for whatever. I looked at the geocaching app and saw a couple of geocaches on the Discovery Trail we could get. We can grab caches and get in a walk. We parked at the Sid Snyder Beach Access lot, grabbed the stuff we needed and walked south.

We made our way to the first cache, Catching Waves (GCAVB2V), while ducking and dodging electric bikes, families with dogs and a little girl just learning how to ride her bike with training wheels. The location of the first cache was obvious, it was somewhere near the dolphin sculpture, and it was a 4.5 difficulty. I explained to Trish that it could be any of the following examples and listed off a few. This one was sneaky according to the past logs. We were on the right track but had to ask the cache owner for a hint. Trish found it and we celebrated!

The second cache, Discovery Trail - Pine Grove (GCAD36A), was easier to find. I popped that right out of its hiding spot. Trish snapped a picture. We continued walking south down the boardwalk for another quarter of a mile or so. We crossed over the grassy area onto the beach and walked the beach back to the parking area. We saw a vulture eating dead seagulls.

As it approached event time, we got back into the Escape and drove to the Bolstad Beach Access entrance, parked, loaded up the wagon and pulled it to a spot on the beach. We got all set up and waited to see who came to my second WSGA event. A few people came, signed the bucket, hung out and chatted. A couple of us worked together to make a sandcastle. I always thought it would be fun to host a sandcastle geocaching event because I've never been to one, and I've never heard of anyone hosting one before. We had a great time!

I thanked everyone for coming, packed up, wagoned everything back to the Escape and Trish and I headed home via Hwy 4 through Longview again. We left the beach around 2:30. We stopped at Papa Pete's just outside of Longview for some pizza and a much-needed pitstop. 

After food, we hopped onto I-5 north and didn't stop until we got home. We arrived around 7. Trish thanked me for a fun weekend, and she got home safely around 8.

Next Adventure: My 10 Year Workiversary