A few weeks ago, I asked Dad what he wanted to do for Father's Day this year and he said he wanted to go to the ocean. I asked him which beach and he said Ocean Shores so we can stop by BiMart on the way through Hoquiam. I told him we can make that happen. I asked him what time did he want everyone to be at our house? He said we can leave by 10 a.m. Father's Day was set.
I let everyone know what we were going to do and when to be ready by but sadly, Trish and Amy didn't come, and I wished they would have. A few days before, I made sure I had all of the beach stuff staged in the garage so we could take it with us. It consisted of a bin with toys, plastic buckets, plastic shovels and random sticks from the last time we were at the beach. I grabbed the other large shovels and set them aside. Doug had a kite in the garage, so I grabbed that and set it with the bin and shovels. I grabbed a few chairs and the pop-up table.
The day off, I got up around 8 a.m., made Ben get out of bed, ate a light breakfast, grabbed some snacks and threw it in one of the reusable grocery bags, grabbed the medium sized cooler and stuck a bunch of drinks inside of it with the ice packs. Mom, Dad and Grandma rumbled in with Mom's Expedition and Erika, Zac and their dogs soon followed. We wanted to minimize the cars, so we all packed up Mom's Expedition and Zac's car with the bags, food and beach items. Charlie was going to go with us so we stuck a sheet down in the back so Doug could sit with him. We left as close to 10 a.m. as we possibly could.
I drove Mom's Expedition while Zac and Erika followed behind us but had to make a pit stop first. I told them to meet us at the BiMart in Hoquiam. We got onto Hwy 101 and then onto Hwy 8, west towards Hoquiam. It rained on us a little bit between Summit Lake and McCleary. The traffic was minimal, so we made great time.
We got to BiMart and Erika and Zac pulled in shortly after. We all got out, went inside and wandered around for a bit. Dad was there for some ammo, oil, snacks and a chair he wanted. We were probably there for about 40 minutes and all used the restroom at different points. We got in line and Dad paid for his stuff and Erika bought a few things. I didn't need anything.
We packed up the vehicles, got situated and got back onto the highway. From there, it would take us roughly a half hour to get to Ocean Shores. Traffic wasn't that bad until we got on to Route 109 past Hoquiam. We got stuck behind a bunch of cars going really slow and it frustrated me because I just wanted to be there. Once we finally got to the turn off, I rejoiced because all of those people were going straight or turned at the casino. Yay! No more slow people!
We drove through town and got to the center where the roundabouts were and decided to enter the beach through that access. We stopped at the smallest state park, Chance A la Mer, where the bathrooms were located. Some of us got out to use them while the others sat and waited. Once we were all accounted for, we drove out towards the beach.
I asked Dad where he wanted to go and he said far away from people, so we drove north for a bit up the beach and found a great place away from people to stop and set up shop. The weather at the beach was nice compared to the rain and wind at home. We thought the weather would be terrible at the beach but were pleasantly surprised. We grabbed the pop-up tent Erika and Zac brought, she put together Toby's tent (he doesn't like to be in wide open areas), set up the chairs, the kite and the small table to set drinks and snacks onto. We all sat there and ate some snacks for a bit while we flew the kite and chilled. The dogs seemed to be enjoying themselves as well.
The weather kept holding up, but it was a bit chilly when the wind blew. I grabbed one of my buckets and wandered around the beach collecting random junk for our sandcastle. You know, pieces of wood, rope, sticks, feathers and other plastic knick knacks.
Doug seemed to be on the phone the entire time we were there either talking or texting Sonja, his new love interest, but at least he was spending time with his dog. He did give it up for a little while after we gathered our buckets, toys and shovels and hauled them towards the water. My family has always made a giant sandcastle when we come to the beach. We determined the tide was coming in, so we planned accordingly.
We picked a spot and started shoveling sand into the middle. We built the castle, the moat around it and the walls to keep the water out. We had people work on the walls, the shape of the castle, we tried keeping the sand out of the moats the best we could, and we were all having a good ol' time. We knew we really didn't have a lot of time to mess around, because at any minute the tide could come in and do some serious damage, so we all worked on it as quickly as possible.
When we were pretty much done with it, it was just reinforcing the walls and keeping the moat cleared out, we added our embellishments to the castle and added our toys, the alligators, whale and boats, and then admired our work. I wish I would have brought more metal shovels. Erika started videoing our castle, literally at the precise moment, and a wave came in and surprised all of us. I wasn't wearing any shoes (I find it easier to build castles without them) and the tide tried taking all of our toys, buckets, shovels and even our bin and lid out to sea. I ran as fast as I could to gather all of them yelling to everyone to grab what they could. It was funny and we did get all of our stuff back.
We all spent some time rinsing off everything before putting it back into the bin. I washed out the buckets and all of the shovels. We walked it back towards the vehicles. The clouds looked a little rough in the distance, but it never rained on us. The wind picked up a bit more though. We all decided that it was almost time to pack up and go. We had been there for about four hours or so.
We helped Erika and Zac take down their pop-up but because of the wind, it bent a part of it and basically wrecked it. I felt bad but Erika said it was a cheapie and they had intended on getting a stronger one anyway. We hucked into the back of their car, along with some of the beach stuff, the tent and the bags of food. We put the rest of the stuff into Mom's Expedition. We all piled in and left the beach front.
We stopped at the bathrooms again. I mostly wanted to wash the salt water and sand off of my hands but a few of us got out to use the restroom. I asked everyone if we wanted to eat in Ocean Shores or wait until we got to Aberdeen. Mom said we should go to Mike's Seafood, and no one disagreed so that is where we went.
We parked in the back and walked inside. We were promptly seated and luckily, the place wasn't too busy. We all got drinks and ordered food. Most of us had fish and chips, some had chowder and a seafood platter to share. We hung out, Erika showed us all the video she captured earlier that day of me desperately trying to save my beach toys. We did a lot of laughing. Our food came and it definitely hit the spot. The fish and chips were served on a fish shaped plate!
After we were done eating, we had Dad open his cards and gifts. We gathered up our stuff, thanked the waitstaff, used the restroom and headed out to the cars. Erika and Zac said they were going directly home and that I could pick up the beach stuff later. We told them to drive safe. We all packed into the Expedition and headed towards home as well. It didn't take us long to get home and rolled into our driveway around 6. We helped unload stuff and brought it into the house. Mom, Dad and Grandma headed back into Rainier.
We got cleaned up, did a load of laundry and got ready for the upcoming work week. It was nice to do something different than we had been for Father's Day. This was our first Father's Day without Grandpa, and it was sad. Life is sure different without him and Grammie.
Next Adventure: TriCities Geocoin Challenge: Lacey to Selah
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