My friend Kerry came to visit last weekend during a bout of ridiculously nice weather. So, we cancelled all potential plans in favor of driving a mere two hours to the west coast to go to the beach. This ain't no Puget Sound folks. I'm talkin' 'bout a real expanse of sandy beach as far as the eye can see. One of my favorite things about going to the beach is that they totally let you drive right on it. As we were careening along I was telling Kerry how I always make sure to stay on the packed sand cause getting stuck in sand would be the worst! Then we see some signs to our left that are facing the other direction. I get worried that they say we're not supposed to be driving where we are so we go around them to get a better look and... yep, get totally stuck in sand. Whoops. We both get out and attempt to push my car out, only resulting in us getting more and more stuck (for the record if it had been snow we totally could have pushed ourselves out, sand is 10 times worse). Then a few people walking their dogs happen along and try to help us out, then a sheriff randomly driving by us on the beach also stops to help push and viola! We're out. It was kind of a ridiculous way to start the day but it only set us back about ten minutes. We took pictures of our rescuers as they drove/walked away...
We spent our first few hours walking up and down the coast, collecting shells, sand dollars and driftwood.
Here's Kerry and Pencil...
Kerry and I with crazy beach hair.
Pencil living it up.
Me with an ever present Diet Coke in hand.
Kerry getting Pencil to smell dead beach things (which of course she loved).
It was a perfect day. Pencil had never been to the beach and I thought she would hate the water since she is such a spaz at bath-time but she was such a little trooper. She followed me in and out of the water, always making sure to jump over the edge where the water meets the sand.
She got a bit overwhelmed when the tide started coming in unexpectedly, I turned around when I heard her whining and saw her neck deep in water, ha.
The walk ended with me carrying a wet and shivering Pencil resulting in a damp dress & wet dog smell for the rest of the day.
After our walk we drove to the little fishing village of Westport for some lunch. We went to the 'One Eyed Crab', mostly cause it had a hilarious looking sign and we had about three places to choose from.
It was kind of awful food but we were both in really good moods so we didn't really care. After lunch we browsed the cheesy tourist shops and bought some amazing saltwater taffy.
I remembered the place with the taffy boat from when my Granny would take me to the ocean when I was younger so we stocked up there. They even had sugar-free taffy which was a score for me, I only bought four pieces and regretted that later. That's Kerry behind the ship, taffy ahoy! (That was for you Bethany).
We climbed up the observation tower in the freezing cold wind to check things out.
Kerry.
The harbor.
Kerry again, I think she looks adorable in this picture and it makes up for a weird one later on.
And me and the freezing windblown Pencil. While window shopping on the way back I bought a three dollar piece of coral and it has been living on my shelf bringing me joy every time I pass it.
I may just have to become a coral collector, I think it's so beautiful and it goes perfectly with my love affair with the ocean and white decor (although I wouldn't say no to red coral either). Note the new wall color in my place.
Finally after our Westport adventure we headed back to the beach to say goodbye.
Me, and then a hilarious one of Kerry in her drawstring hood (it was COLD by then).
Kerry will probably hate this photo but I needed photographic evidence that I was not the only one there.
We walked for a bit more, drove successfully off the beach with no mishaps and went home, accompanied by a soundtrack of Taylor Swift. My car still has about two inches of sand on the floor. Best day ever!
