Getting Away

We did it.  We got away, on purpose, to have fun, relax, rest and look at the ocean, just the two of us, but as soon as we saw the beach we thought…wouldn’t the dogs have fun here…and wouldn’t it be neat to ride the horses here… but that was about it, surprisingly (sarcastic font needed) no thought about missing the cats.  There is a lot of water (rivers, lakes, ponds, the sound and streams) here in Washington, but the ocean is still the ocean and there is nothing like the sight and sound of the waves.  My Loving Spouse just needed to refuel his soul and look at the sea and so we spent the weekend at Ocean Shores.

There was a brief, but expensive stop along the way at a Sewing machine store.  I am on my 4th quilt on a borrowed sewing machine.  I’ve been doing my research about the sewing machines the other quilters use and as helpful as they’ve tried to be, I was getting no where.  I finally realized, that they all pretty much love the brands they have and that none of them were cheap.  My ‘budget’ was way out of whack.  “Oh…”, I said, “It’ll be hard for me to buy one with out My Loving Spouse.  I’d never be able to spend that kind of money on myself”.  So we stopped at the store….looked around…got hooked by the salesman (who we really liked), did NOT buy the one that came with a laser…but fell for the floor model, which was on sale.  I received My Loving Spouse’s text half way through the selling ‘spiel’.  It can even sew leather and naugahyde (new seats for Whoa Nelly).  We’d spent more than we thought on a machine that has more than we’d ever dreamed…and for much of the weekend I felt both stunned and excited!

Ocean Shores is a small town with a big beach and one can drive right on the beach!  So of course we did…a lot!!  That in itself was quite unique and wonderful, driving by the cliffs and seeing how the wind changed the beach just over night with the ever-changing tides was quite an experience.

The tiny town was just perfect for us!  We poked around enjoying every store they had and were both surprised and delighted at the offerings.  The prices were good.  The content was interesting.  The humor brought out loud laughter often and it was a delightful time.  Oh, and we spent very little money, which was good given the whole sewing machine store stop!

I love these small stores strung so colorfully together.  What an improvement over a ‘mini-strip mall’ (and yes they had those too).

We clearly stumbled on the whole eating out in a new place.  We’d been advised to have razor clams and eggs for breakfast, which honestly seemed a bit more on the extreme clam eating learning curve than we were probably ready for, so Friday night at what looked like the the last ‘decent’ restaurant open on our way, we did try razor clams.  I’d been raised in the ‘clean your plate’ age, but still only managed to eat three bites of my razor clam fritters.  My Loving Spouse did eat his whole dinner of fried razor clams and then got to spend the night with them as they ‘revisited’ him often.  We were assured by the locals that if we didn’t like razor clams, we just ate at the wrong place, which I am sure was at least half-true.  Our dinner was topped only by our lunch the next day somewhere ‘nameless’ up the coast at what we thought was a road side ‘diner’, but turned into more of a ‘colorful’, tough, mid-life, loud, never-been-a-beauty queen, chic bar.  We did pay our tab, but otherwise, it was eat and run!  We did find the ‘right’ restaurant for us, but only managed on it at the last-minute, for a piece of pie (heavenly and reasonable) and yes, we’ll be back to the “Home Port”.

We drove along the coast with the forest on one side and the ocean on the other, with plenty of blue skies.  Small houses dotted along in different states of repair, some well cared for others old and aged, almost all decorated with different buoys rolled in from the sea.  We drove through part of the Indian reservation and I was ‘disturbed’ by the squalor that they chose to live in.  I say ‘chose’ as we all do have the choice to pick up after ourselves, keep our homes tidy and take care of what we have to live with.  I’d never really seen this up close and it made me sad and anxious to leave the area.

The Off Spring managed to keep all the animals alive and the house from burning down so we consider it all a success, especially as Elsie Gump took the opportunity to break out of the pasture and try a chomp on the roses.  Number Two Son became the cattle wrangler, mostly by making noise behind the three-legged cow to get her back into a more secure pasture….but whatever works!

We had a great time away and as always were glad to be home, greeted by a beautiful carpet of yellow leaves and …the cats.