July, 2018
Gosh, what a terrific week at the coast! It was full of wonderful things to see and do and wonderful people to talk with. I’ve shared most of it with you. Here are a few other things that I didn’t tell you about …
I walked or drove out onto two other ocean beaches; I walked in the ocean; I explored the sea grass on the sand dunes. I investigated a wonderful campground down near Ocean Shores and made note of my favorite campsites for future reference. I had lunch two different days in the local lunch joint in the little village of Pacific Beach and made friends with a bunch of the locals. I chatted with the State Park Rangers and learned lots of stuff, and chatted with other campers too. The morning that I left the campground, I had two shower tokens left over so I gave them to a family (mom, dad, and two little girls) who were visiting from the Philippine Islands and who were camping in one of the yurts in the campground.
One day mid-week I drove up into the mountains of the Olympic Peninsula to check out the area around Lake Quinault for future camping possibilities. What a gorgeous area. I will definitely be camping there in the future and will share everything about that area with you then.
The beach and ocean at Taholah at the mouth of the Quinault River.
One of several fond memories from this Pacific Ocean beach camping trip was the time I met two women who were camping in one of the yurts at the campground. We easily struck up a conversation and became immediate friends. One of them is an attorney with a USA federal agency; the other woman is German and a teacher and was visiting here from Germany. The two had met in school as little girls when the woman from the USA was living with her military parents in Germany. The two became fast friends in school and have remained so ever since. They travel to see each other and each other’s families and go camping in Europe and in North America at least twice a year. The three of us spent time together several times during our stay out here on the coast. The last evening before they left, the three of us shared the most perfect beach campfire ever! Actually, the two of them built the campfire, I just sat there and enjoyed it. 🙂
Taking all of the memories with me, I will be heading home in the morning. I hitched up the truck to the trailer the evening before my departure (no rain predicted, but one never knows). After dinner, I polished off the last little bit of ice cream along with the one remaining very slender slice of apple pie (remember the pie and ice cream that I bought in Montesano?). Hmm, boy, was that good.
The Camp Hosts in their motorhome right next to me were sitting outside so I chatted with them briefly and again thanked them for all they do. I waved at the three friendly RAM truck owners across from me … Ron, the friendliest one, said the neighborhood wouldn’t be the same without me.
Small sand drifts created by the wind.
And I took one last walk on the beach. There had been quite a bit of fog or mist or haze out on the ocean all week, so there hadn’t been any sunsets to speak of. But this evening’s sky was almost cloud/haze free. There still wasn’t much of a sunset but the view out over the ocean sure was nice.
Thanks to every one of you for coming along with me on this journey. I really like that! It’s fun for me to share these trips with you and read your comments, and it’s fun just knowing that you’re tagging along. 🙂
So I’ll head home … laundry, bills, and other chores await … an oil change for the truck is due and the truck needs a really good bath to clean that salt off from that drive in the Pacific Ocean. And then I’ll restock the trailer for the next trip.
Hang around, don’t go far, help me load up so we can head out again soon!