WAY back in September, Ed turned 40! I surprised him with a little weekend get-away to Ocean Shores. It was kind of a 40th birthday (for both of us) and 20th anniversary trip rolled into one. We didn’t have a lot of time, but we had enough to make the 4.5 hour drive worth while and we made the most of every moment!
We left immediately after the awards at the Silver Lake XC meet and headed out of town. I *really* wanted to get to the beach by sunset, and our GPS was telling us that we would arrive at 7:04 p.m. and sunset was at 7:02 p.m. So…we chased the sunset…quite literally. While we were driving we thought perhaps we should try to find another location from which to view the sunset, other than our hotel. We didn’t know how close to beach access we would be at our hotel, since we had never been to Ocean Shores before, and we didn’t want to take the time to check in and view the sunset from our room because we would then SURELY miss it. I googled a bit and found out that there’s public beach access at City Beach State Park, which was BEFORE the road with our hotel. We found the park, and as we drove in wondered….OH! Do we need a Discovery Pass to park here? It’s a state park! But as we drove to the end of the park, near the beach access, we saw a sign: FREE PARK DAY! What?! Today was the day where parking to the state parks is free and you don’t need a pass?! AWESOME! We jumped out of the van and ran through the shrubs and towards the sand to the beach. It was *almost* sunset. Ed noticed a couple standing up on a little bluff and figured, Hey! We could probably see the sunset better from up there! So he just went climbing on up there, disturbing the romance of that couple, so that we could watch the sunset. 
..and it was so pretty. The other couple left and walked towards the beach and we followed shortly after. As we made our way to the sand, there was a little creek. Ed just went and jumped over it and left me behind. I knew I couldn’t jump over it, especially in the heeled boots I was wearing! The other couple, whom we had disturbed on the bluff, found a log to cross over on, and the lady held out her hand to me to help me across the log, too! I just couldn’t stop laughing about that. Oh, Ed. Anyway, we made it to the sand and watched the sky continue to darken for a while.
(This picture was brightened so that you could see our faces, but the sunset was happening behind us.)
Eventually we headed back to the van and checked in at the hotel. We had a great dinner at a local fish & chips place. Unfortunately, we didn’t sleep much and were pretty unhappy with the hotel overall. We had VERY noisy neighbors and it appeared that the walls were made of paper. Above us we heard footprints almost all night and the noisy neighbors next door were in and out with lots of loud & drunk sounding people. Sigh. That’s one thing I don’t like about hotels. The hotel breakfast the next morning also left much to be desired, so we quickly checked out and headed out on our adventures for the day. Belo
One thing on my bucket list was to drive on the beach and I knew you could do that at Ocean Shores. Ed was NOT certain he was willing to do that, but after seeing the assortment of vehicles that were driving out there, he consented and it was FUN!
We also found out that it’s very easy to go horseback riding on the beach…
Just drive up! We decided not to go this time, but hope to take the girls someday.
We did rent a two-person “Surrey” and took that on the beach and through the town, which was also FUN!
After returning the surrey, we drove around town, checked out a few antique stores, and drove south towards the jetty.
Saw lots of deer along the road!
I loved the beach by the jetty even more. It was less crowded, and more interesting.
Ed walked to the end of the jetty. I did not. It doesn’t look treacherous from here, but there are actually LARGE crevices between those rocks and I am not a mountain goat. I’m sure my children would have all done it in a heartbeat, but I was content to hang out on the portion of the jetty that was above solid ground and take fun pictures.
Ed took a picture looking back towards the beach from the end of the jetty – pretty cool!
We headed home and stopped for dinner at a Salvadoran restaurant in Aberdeen. It was delicious!
And then we drove home. And then two hours after arriving home I discovered my purse was missing. The last place I remembered having it was at that restaurant. Ugh. FOUR. HOURS. AWAY. The restaurant was just a little hole in the wall restaurant…what on earth would we do to get it back??? I felt absolutely sick. The next morning, Ed called the restaurant and spoke to someone who barely spoke English, but he was pretty sure my purse was there. I called later that afternoon and got an English speaking person and confirmed that yes, my purse was there. Had this been a chain-type restaurant, I would have asked them to mail it. But given the circumstances, I decided to drive there and pick it up. So, the next day after work, I left, drove 4 hours, got my purse, and drove 4 hours back home. Yuck. Not a good way to end the trip, but it was still a worthwhile trip.
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