Borrowing a phrase from a song in my favorite movie...I spent last weekend at the beach (a favorite thing) doing scrapbooking (another favorite thing) with two great girlfriends (yes, favorites)! We drove to the Long Beach peninsula and stayed at Jonie's (my creative memories consultant) in-law's beach house. It was about 15 minutes north of the town of Long Beach. The weather was gorgeous on the drive up. I've been to Long Beach before, but not north of the town. The peninsula has little cute towns and is unique because on one side is the ocean and the other side is Willapa Bay. For some reason I thought Willapa Bay was on the Puget Sound, so was thrilled to see it.
My favorite little town on the Bay was Oysterville. Aptly named for the big oyster operation there. Every house in town seems to be historic and has a placard in front of it telling when it was built and by whom. Fascinating. The Bay side of the peninsula is nice because it doesn't get the wind that the ocean side does. I want to go back to Oysterville!
It is the featured location in the book series I am reading by Jane Kirkpatrick. (She is another favorite thing). Immigrants come west from Bethel in the East to settle and actually start an oyster operation in Willapa Bay and then part of the group settles south in Aurora, outside of Portland. Kirkpatrick writes historical fiction stories that are set in the Northwest and always feature a real historical character who is a woman who seems to buck the system. I like that. The book I am reading is call "A Mending at the Edge". It's the last in the Change and Cherish series.
Back to the beach...We were headed to the beach to put in some serious scrapbooking time. I have been taking pictures and putting them in albums since high school. Scrapbooking, to me, is creating a history of our family. And, I love photography.
Jonie treated us to some fabulous meals...Pasta with smoked salmon and asparagus cream sauce for dinner, egg and artichoke heart casserole for breakfast, paninnis for lunch, lemon cheesecake bars for dessert. We ate dinner one night at Jimellas, a market turned restaurant. Quaint, but first class food. I had a great stuffed chicken breast.
The weather was typical beach. Warm and sunny when we arrived, but a big storm blew in on Saturday with heavy winds and sideways rain. One of my favorite things about the beach is watching the weather. The house had a cool barometer type thing on the wall that told you when high and low tide was. I think I drove Jonie and JoAnne crazy watching that thing. Take after my Dad I think with the weather obsession.
I did some beach combing and picked up some sand dollars for my collection! Jonie and I walked the beach on Saturday and Sunday. It rained on us Saturday, but Sunday was gorgeous. We had a goal on Sunday to walk down to "the castle". It's a house and lighthouse shaped building built by the inventor of Nu-Skin. We found out the tower was supposed to be a water tower, that's how it got the green light. But the owner built a tower full of guest rooms. The locals aren't really happy with it. The walk turned out to be an hour and a half long. We left poor JoAnne waiting for us for breakfast! We couldn't quit when it seemed so close!
Along the way we noticed a bird that I hadn't seen on the walk the day before. The Snowy Plover. It is endangered and the peninsula beaches are a nesting area. They were so cute as they skittered across the sand...Did you know that a group of them is called a Congregation?
Got lots of pages done in Mark's 50th birthday album, the chronological album (I'm up to June of last year!) and journaling in the Loreto Mexico album.
We went into town for coffee Sunday at a cute little coffee shop/bookstore. Got the scoop from a local gal on the "lighthouse" and another house in Oysterville that Jonie liked.
We packed up and headed home. We drove down Cranberry Road and checked out the cranberry bogs on the peninsula. I of course had to Google cranberries and found out that Washington is one of the top producers of cranberries! I expected watery bogs, but they were dry. 70% of Washington's crop is "dry" harvested and sold as fresh. Most of the "wet" harvested berries are sold for processing. Had no idea. One final stop in Astoria for lunch at the Wet Dog Brewery. A great window seat to watch the big ships go by on the Columbia. We all had great salads. As we were leaving they were starting a big band performance on stage. Who knew, Big Bands in a brewery?
One last favorite thing is birds. We have an osprey nest outside the window by Zidell. They have built their nest on top of a pole erected by Zidell and probably have eggs or a chick. Hard to tell...will keep you posted.
It was a great time. Always is with the two of you.
ReplyDeleteJoAnne