She found a place that sleeps 7-9 people and just hoped for the best. I told her I would pay her $100 just to help out with the cost. Originally, about 9 of us were suppose to go but Ben couldn't, Jen couldn't and her sister didn't end up coming up from Mississippi like she was going to. That left just the five of us and grandma.
I got up the next morning around 9:30 and came downstairs. I really wasn't sure what was happening or what we were going to do. I knew mom wanted to go to Ruby Beach but that was almost 100 miles from where we were staying but she didn't care...she wanted to go. Everyone got up and mom made breakfast. We had scrambled eggs, toast, sausage and bananas with coffee and orange juice if you wanted any.
The cookie pillow is in the picture because it was left at my house the night before by Grammie and Tracy. I didn't get the message in time that they wanted it back before Tracy left to go home so it came with us to the beach. I thought it would be funny to photograph it on our adventures at the beach.
Shortly after we all got ready to head out. Mom didn't want to take two cars so we all piled into my Escape. Mom sat in the back. I knew the weather was going to suck but I didn't know it was going to suck that bad. I have never driven to the Olympic Peninsula from Ocean Shores so I was about to embark on some new roads. It would be pretty hard to get lost so I just followed the signs because I didn't get the GPS ready that fast.
The road we took brought us to the small town of Humptulips. Yes, every time I come through here I giggle. You just can't help it. Erika was complaining about having to use the bathroom and everyone wanted coffee. Dad had mentioned that he used to work with a lady that lived here and she traveled all the way to Olympia for work. That is at least an two hour plus long commute back and forth. Ugh, that would kill me. I found a place to pull over and everyone but me, grandma and mom got out. Meanwhile, I plugged in the GPS just to see how far we had to go and I wanted to stop at Amanda Park for a cache. I needed to get to 10,800 before the end of the year. I figured since I was the driver I was going to stop and they had to deal with it.
When we did get to Amanda Park it was still dry. We did pass several places with snow on the side of the road but not enough to cause an issue. I parked and only mom and I got out. She wanted to take pictures and I came for the cache. I walked up to the stump overlooking the river and Quinault River - Rockin;' in Quinault [OPG] (GC6T2K7) was really easy to spot. I signed the book, took a picture of the code word and got a picture of me, the cache and the river before putting it back for the next set of cachers. I went back to the Escape and headed the rest of the way to Ruby Beach.
Halfway between Amanda Park and Ruby Beach it started raining. I was really hoping it would hold up until we were done. It didn't because the rain hates us. Ugh, we were going to be soaked!
We finally got to Ruby Beach and I saw the giant mud puddle but didn't realize it was that deep. The Escape bottomed out hard. I sure hope I didn't ruin the back end of it. I was surprised to see that many people in the parking lot. Rain or shine people travel about. Some of us used the restroom before we headed down and. We made sure we brought our stuff with us. I wore my rain jacket, made sure to bring gloves and a hat. I charged my selfie stick so I could get everyone in the pictures we took. Mom had her camera and everyone else just made sure to dress warm.
We wandered the beach for at least an hour or so. This time there were a lot more logs on the shore than when we were here over a year ago. It's amazing how much the beach changes from day to day with all of the erosion and weathering that goes on. We enjoyed the sea stacks, the rocks and the logs. Dad and Doug walked south a ways while mom, Erika, grandma and I just meandered around taking pictures and enjoying the very rainy and windy view.
Once everyone got cold and wet we headed back up the hill to the Escape. Along the way I decided to walk along the logs and I actually found a commercial fishing lure! It was pretty rad! I'm going to try and use it for something. Everyone used the restroom again, took off our wet coats and piled in. Mom also insisted that we stop at Kalaloch so we could see the tree. I've been there so many times I was not excited to go back into the yucky rain but we had to, to make mom happy.
I am really glad I brought the selfie stick or we all wouldn't have been able to get in the pictures together. Everyone started getting cold again and was pretty much done so we convinced mom to head back to the Escape. We got in and followed Hwy 101 south back towards Humptulips. Of course we stopped again to use the restroom. We took the same roads back and along the way we all decided we needed to stop at the only grocery store in town before going back to the beach house.
When we got there we all spread out wandering around trying to figure out what we wanted for dinner. The consensus was fajitas and tacos mostly because they were easy to make. I wanted some chips and salsa and grabbed a few drinks to tie me over until I got home the next day. I also bought a Seahawks pint glass because it was cool and it was only $4.50! Most pint glasses were over $7 or $8! It was very interesting loading the Escape. Basically mom got in the back and we filled the voids with grocery bags. Haha!
We got back to the beach house and I got cleaned up ASAP. I was cold and wet and wanted to be clean and warm. I put on some fresh clothes and helped mom make dinner for everyone. I grabbed the laptop, ate some chips and salsa and enjoyed my tacos. They continued to make some balloon animals and then dad got the Yahtzee and we played a few rounds of Yahtzee. We got the TV to finally play a movie and dad was happy. We ended up watching Young Frankenstein. Then the wind and rain got worse. I really thought that the power would go out but it didn't. It was considered gale force winds out there which is 39-54 mph of sustaining winds. It was loud the whole night and I went to bed around midnight-ish. Overall the day was fun spending time with the family we don't get to see very often. Hopefully next year it will be more organized and the weather will be much better. Maybe we will got to Mount Rainier for some snow adventures?
Next Adventure: Back Home for the Holidays
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