It was a wonderful camping/campering stay at the Washington coast which isn’t as well-known as the Oregon equivalent, but is also gorgeous. Of course, there were moments…
Although it’s much cooler at the Pacific Ocean, the trip there was miserable since John’s air conditioning wasn’t working. Unfortunately, one of the granddaughters we were transporting is autistic and couldn’t handle the windows down on the freeway, even with her headphones on. I didn’t say much because what was the point? We were all hot. Tactless words that didn’t escape my mouth: There’s always something wrong with this truck!
We spent a lot of time at the campground and not as much at the ocean which was tantalizingly close. I finally told John that in spite of the gray weather and wind, I wanted to see the Pacific! Look at the seagulls’ reflections! This is a color picture, by the way. I also mentioned my desire to go into the fishing town of Westport to look around; that didn’t happen and I’m mostly OK with it. John’s latest obsession with crabbing got in the way sometimes. I reminded myself that it was his family trip, his preparations, his food and his driving and again…I kept my own counsel and went with the flow.
After we had arrived, I looked out the window and spotted our next door “neighbor” wearing the same sweatshirt that I had brought. I grabbed it and told John, “I have to go right now and do something.” Poor John thought I was having a medical emergency! Believe it or not, it was actually Seth from Soldotna, Alaska who asked if we could take our “twinning” photos together, not me. He works for Facebook and has a delightful family; his older two kids played quite a bit with John’s youngest granddaughter. He lives in Washington now, but we shared many stories of Alaska and became camping friends. 🙂
I didn’t get the photo I wanted of John’s granddaughters giving him a faux hawk. He’s an easy-going guy, except when he’s not.
The teenage granddaughters from Texas got on his nerves: fiddling with their hair when we (mostly he) wanted to leave, complaining about being cold while forgetting jackets and being generally VERY dramatic. John doesn’t deal well with emotional and unpredictable teenagers whereas I do, thus I ran some interference when he/we were crabbing. John himself was a big crab about forgetting his tool kit. In reality, he just didn’t look in the right place. For a while though, he was uncharacteristically curt and the girls and I found other places to be. Happily, one of the traps he had did attract “Fred” (so named by the girls) and his mood improved. Fred was a big enough, male Dungeness crab and was tasty later that night. RIP, Fred.
With improved weather came several walks down to the beach; that meant kite flying, sand castles, wet feet and pants and much therapeutic wave watching.
It couldn’t have been more perfect weather!
This was one of the teenage granddaughters, enjoying the view.
While I do love blue sky, the clouds have their own beauty.
The younger granddaughters frolicked in this fresh water “river.” I stayed away from the water and read a bit of my latest Scottish mystery. The ocean is incredible, but I don’t appreciate salt water and sand all over my shoes and pants. I didn’t pack that many changes of clothing!
As it was, the dampness and breeze didn’t do my coiffure any favors! If I lived by the ocean, I would need a new hairstyle.
The way home was HOT, but we could roll down the windows since we had a different set of granddaughters. It didn’t help much. More Stargazer lily blooms were waiting for me at home, as well as deck repair and preparing for my family trip to the San Juans. So far, it’s been a real pain. I did everything I could do: made an account, had it ready to access, got up at 6:45 a.m. to go immediately on the WSDOT site to reserve a sailing time. 6:59 a.m. rolled around and I refreshed–only to see that every boat except the 4 a.m. and 11 p.m. ones were already full-standby only. Fortunately, John managed to snag a reservation for the 2 p.m. one on his crappy little cell phone. HOW? Then John had the nerve to say, “I think you give up too easily.” WTH? I did everything I was supposed to! I don’t think my blood pressure pills are strong enough for this 3-hour drive to catch the ferry (barring any bad traffic), possibly missing the ferry and having to do standby, a screaming baby who hates car rides and a 3-year-old who will probably fuss about being in the car that long. PLUS, there’s shopping to do and many items to pack like the Baby Bjorn crib.
Now I’m the crab and want to stay home with Mari. Trips can be overwhelming. However, I’m sure once (if?) I get onto the island that it will be a beautiful and special time. I’ll try to make sure that this San Juan experience is worth it for everyone, including me. But first I have to work out my feelings by whining and fretting; it’s how I roll.
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