Our Quickie Getaway

Oh, the joys of semi-empty nesting! We noticed on the news Wednesday night that the coast weather was supposed to be really nice. Thursday morning Harvey looked at me and said, "Wanna go to the coast?" After a couple of hours of gardening to "earn" the little vacation, off we went.

On our way we were treated to this sight:

A herd of wild elk. So beautiful!

We didn't arrive until late afternoon, so we settled into our motel room and relaxed. The next morning dawned grey and windy, but no rain! Wanting to stretch our legs and (as my grandpa used to say . . . ) blow the stink off, we set out the short walk to the beach. Oh my, was it ever WINDY! We decided to walk against the wind first and set our sights on a large piece of driftwood down the beach a bit. My thighs started burning as if I was actually walking up a hill! You can see from the below picture how stirred up the ocean was from the wind. As the waves retreated, the thin layer of water left behind actually blew crosswise from the ocean's outward path.

The beach always has treasures to find:

 An abandoned abalone shell.

 A seagull standing watch over another sickly bird.

 A mountain range sculpture left by a receding wave.

 Another interesting pattern . . . oh, wait. This was left by a vehicle driving on the beach. This is the only thing I don't care for on the Washington

coast - you're allowed to drive on it like a road. Seems kind of sacriligious

to me, but to give the drivers credit, there was very little littering.

 The sand was peppered with tiny little bird tracks, and we

startled the little sandpipers into a low swept escape.

 This is our motel (Best Western Lighthouse). These man-made dunes

line the road down to the beach, but on this day it was a very SANDY

walk because of the wind. On our return trip we decided to stay on

the upwind side of them to avoid sand in our eyes, mouths and

everywhere else. If you look close you can see the sand blowing

across the sand and over the tops of the mini-mountains.

 Downtown Ocean Shores has many different restaurants, and

while we didn't dine at this little eatery, we had to take a picture of it.

The book "Go Dogs, Go!" was one of our oldest granddaughter's favorite books. She used to ask for the "Doe Dogs, Doe!" book. Sweet memories.

When we left on our adventure, our youngest son challenged us to "do something we'd never done before, and document it with a picture". We were so relaxed that nothing really came up to meet his challenge. BUT . . . we did have a little unwanted excitement. The first full day we were there, I dragged Harvey along to do a little window shopping. When we returned to our car, the steering wheel locking mechanism decided to liven our day by NOT unlocking. (Oh the joys of the electronic age.) We called the dealership to get some tips, and we jerked and tugged on the steering wheel at their suggestion, trying over and over to turn the key. No results. What to do? Well, nature called, so we walked over to McDonalds to take care of it, then returned to try it again. And again. And again. We were both sending up silent prayers, not really wanting to call a tow truck, and even more so, not wanting to give up any of our vacation time. One more try. I flipped my key over, jerked the wheel, turned the key, and voila! Or I should say, our prayers were answered.

We sat there awhile, trying to decide what to do. We were kind of afraid to turn the car off again. Should we go back to the motel (without turning the car off), pack up and head home? We decided to think about it over lunch.

We were still afraid to turn the car off, so we stopped at this little Mexican hut and parked right next to it so we could keep an eye on the car. Harvey looked into the mini-van right in front of the restaurant, where a HUGE mastiff hound sat inside. He commented that if we could borrow that dog to sit in our car, we could leave the car unattended anywhere without any problems!

 This little dive was delicious! We had to wait at least 20 minutes

before the owner (and only cook, waitress, and busser in the joint)

could even take our order. She warned us of the wait, but we

noticed that there were locals eating there, construction workers

and a local family. Knowing this is always a sign of a good

restaurant, we told her we were willing to wait,

and we weren't disappointed!

We decided we were going to exercise faith that the car would behave itself the rest of the trip, so we went back to the motel and turned it off. The rest of the afternoon, we did this:

Well, Harvey did, while I read a book next to the fireplace.

We had a great time, the car didn't give us any more problems, and we came back home relaxed and reconnected and ready to enjoy the holidays ahead.

Thanks, sweetie, for a great suggestion!

Lovies!