Labor Day: An Ocean Shores Adventure

The day before I asked mom what she wanted to do for Labor Day.  Since Ben and I couldn't do anything this year I stayed home for the majority of the weekend.  We threw around ideas like Mount St. Helens, the beach or waterfalls near the Columbia River.  I said no to the Mount St. Helens idea because we didn't know how the clouds would cooperate, we couldn't go down to the Columbia River because most of it was on fire and smoldering so that leaves the beach!  I asked her which beach she wanted to go to and she said Ocean Shores.  We haven't been there since last December so we were due.

I prepared the night before so I wouldn't have a ton of stuff to do in the morning.  Ben and Erika worked at the farm since it paid time and a half because of the holiday and they really needed the money and dad didn't really want to go so he stayed home doing random things.  I had mom meet me at my house so I didn't have to go clear out to Rainier.

The next morning I got up around 8, got ready, ate some cereal and packed up the Escape before mom showed up in the truck.  She came in, used the bathroom and shoved her stuff into the Escape.  We headed out towards Tumwater and got onto I-5 and then onto Hwy 101 towards Elma, Montesano and Aberdeen.

I noticed the first exit off of Hwy 8 in Elma had changed a lot.  A Burger King popped up over night!  Haha, not literally over night but fairly quickly since I had been here last.  Traffic wasn't that bad even though it was Memorial Day.  I think most people in western Washington head to eastern Washington for the mountains and the nicer weather.

We drove through Brady, Montesano and got to Aberdeen and still not that bad of traffic.  We were getting very lucky.  Sadly when we got past Hoquiam and onto SR 109 we had to follow some slow people who we felt like they were lost.  There really isn't any good places to pass on that road since there were always oncoming cars.

When we got to the turn and followed the road into Ocean Shores.  I asked mom where she wanted to go first and she said she didn't care.  The Jetty it is!  Driving down the peninsula seemed like it took forever.  By the time we got there we were basically in Westport!  You could see Westport from this spot.  We were probably two miles from the jetty across the harbor.  We found a place to park, grabbed the stuff we would need and walked towards the rocks.  We've been coming to this spot for years and you could see the massive erosion of this place since then.

We walked along the top of the massive boulders watching the waves crash against them and several flocks of seagulls and pelicans flying by.  I should have been more careful where I placed my small bucket and shovel because we got a large gust of wind and knocked both into a crevasse I could not get down to.  It was okay because I have several of those small bucket shovel combos from The Rock pizza place.  They serve some of their alcoholic drinks from buckets.

It actually got hot which is very unusual for our coastline.  I actually had to take off my sweatshirt.  We probably spent a good hour walking around, taking pictures and doing some people watching.  I wanted to go find some caches while we were here and there were a bunch of new ones since I was here last.  I checked my phone for the closest one that's been found. We got back in the Escape and drove to a side road off the main drag next to one of the many resorts this town has to offer.  We found a place to park and found the trail that lead us to the beach.  There were two here so we decided to walk to the furthest one first.

A Second Reason (GC7B22K) was on the southern part of the trail that paralleled the ocean.  It was a little more than a quarter of a mile from where we parked.  When I got to ground zero, I knew the cache was going to be by the bench that overlooked the ocean.  I kneeled down to grab the container and got poked in the eye by the long beach grass.  Ugh!  My eye!  I actually thought I poked a chunk of my eyeball out but probably scratched my inner eye lid instead.  It hurt and made everything blurry.  I signed our names and we walked back to the Escape.

I checked where the next one was and I though it was further north up the beach but turned out to be literally next to our vehicle.  When I originally looked it seemed like it was along the beach trail just further north.  Whoops.  Haha. "Private" Beach Approach (GC7AWP7) was one of those caches you stuck a fake washer, nut and bolt on and hid it in a hole.  We had to wait until some muggles walked by before we signed our names and put it back. 

Cache, No Cache, Cache (GC78TDW) was just down the road from where we were.  We followed my phone's directions which led us to some property Ocean Shores owned.  It was a fenced off area and it messed with the GPS on my phone a little bit.  I eventually found the container after a few moments.  I signed it and check to see where the next closest one was.

The next one, Trustee Pole (GC6QN72), was about a quarter of a mile down the road.  I found a place to pull the Escape over and get out.  Mom stayed while watching me run around trying to zero in on it.  I found the spot it was hidden in.  The cache owner had hid it in a hole.  I got a picture of it but it was too blurry when I finally looked back at the pictures.  I was long gone by then.

Mom and I decided to head back north into town because I wanted to make a sandcastle and eat our lunch we brought.  We went to the closest entrance to the beach and we regretted that instantly.  There were SO many people and the "drive way" everyone was using was very soft and people were getting stuck.  Mom and I got too far in and we would have to drive in to turn around.  People were parking in places they shouldn't be in making it really hard for people to get in and out of.  Luckily my Escape had really good tires and high clearance.  We turned around as soon as we could.  We went a couple blocks north to find a section of beach that didn't have morons in it.

We succeeded and found a beach that we could get in and out of easily.  We found a spot away from people, walked around trying to find some cool stuff for my sandcastle.  We ate our sandwiches, chips, apples and veggies and watched the seagulls beg us for food.  There was one seagull who was more focused on keeping al the birds away than eating the food we shared with it.  It would make funny dances and make strange noises to keep them away.  It was very entertaining.

We cleaned up our stuff and walked over to the ocean.  I found a place to start making my sandcastle.  I should have brought a bigger shovel because it took a while to build a moat around the castle.  I was probably out there for a good 45 minutes or so by the time I was done.  It was a masterpiece!  Next time I am bringing a better shovel.

Mom wanted to go check out some of the shops before we left.  I cleaned up my buckets and shovels and made sure I was not going to bring a butt ton of sand into my vehicle with me.  No one wants sand everywhere.  We drove back down to where all the shops were and parked the Escape in the main parking area next to the shopping center.  We walked into each shop.  Mom bought dad some of the saltwater taffy and I just browsed because I had to save money for my upcoming trip in the next 10 days. 

We walked down the street to grab our last cache of the day, CCP on OSB (GC6YATP).  We had to wait until the muggles were not around to grab this one.  It was easy to find, I signed our names and put it back.

We walked over to Sharkey's just to see what was inside.  I had never been inside the building but have always taken pictures in front just because it is a cool building.  My cousin helped construct it many years ago.   We decided to get a picture and it was very windy.  My hair is awesome and my left eye was hurting.

There were a few more shops on this side of the street so we ventured over to check them out.  I have never been inside them before.  One of them was local artists and crafters selling their stuff and a lot of it was really cool.  Mom bought a Seahawks crab mostly because it's something you will never see again unless you bought it now. 

Mom and I were ready to leave Ocean Shores before the traffic got weird plus we had to stop in Aberdeen so mom could pick up a few things at Walmart so it took us a while to actually leave the harbor.  I even told mom about how Connie, one of my co-workers, lives in Montesano and it would be funny if we ran into her at the Walmart.  When we got there I followed mom around for a while grabbing the stuff she and dad were out of.  I found a couple more tank tops for Ecuador since it will be 84 and humid the entire time we were going to be there.

On the way back to Olympia mom wanted pizza for dinner so I asked her what kind.  She didn't care as long as it was pizza.  There really wasn't any close pizza joints where we were as we were driving through Montesano...and mom didn't want to wait a long time.  We headed into Olympia and told her about the Pizza Huts, Dominos, Little Caesars and Brewery City in Tumwater.  Mom picked Brewery City in Tumwater.

We shared a large pizza so mom could have some leftovers for work the next day.  My eye really hurt and became very sensitive to the light.  I kept rubbing it thinking something was going to come out of my eye.  Nothing ever did.  While we ate we watched some of the "predictions" the NFL analysts were discussing on this next weekend's opening day for all 32 teams.  The Seahawks game was a pretty big one since we opened with the Packers.  It could go either way depending on how we showed up.

We got to my house and mom grabbed her stuff, got in the truck and headed home.  I brought my stuff in the house and started getting cleaned up, picked up some stuff around the house and prepared my stuff for the short work week.  I had a lot to do in the next few weeks.

Next Adventure:  My First Time Out of the Country:  Ecuador!