Long Beach

This week we went west to the BEACH! Long Beach is the longest continuous sand beach in the USA. We didn’t see all 28 miles of it, but the nook we enjoyed was sandy-rific. We camped for two nights so we could have more time to enjoy the beach.

5 hours is a long drive for two little tots, and we ran into road work, which made it even longer. We stopped half way to eat lunch at a viewpoint.

We saw our buddy, Mt. Rainier. A friendly Belgian man who was also at the viewpoint took our picture by the mountain.

It was a long drive for us.

About 45 minutes from the end, I climbed into the back seat to comfort the tired, weepy Rose. Jay happily chattered to himself and his family for the whole drive, but Rose got so antsy back there. Let me just say that there is nothing comfortable about being wedged between two hard car seats in the back of a tiny Honda Civic.

We drove across this FOUR MILE long bridge. It went on forEVER.

THE CAMPSITE: Finally, we arrived. We camped at an RV resort, so there were laundry facilities, showers, bathrooms, horseshoes, a playground, and even a pool. We reserved the campsite that was closest to the beach, and it happened to be this RV place. There were nearly 100 RVs parked there too. I was worried that it would be annoying and loud with all those people crammed into that field, but it was amazingly quiet.

Camping at the RV resort was actually rather entertaining at times. How often do you look out your tent door and see this?

I don’t know if they were actually racing, but it was fun to pretend they were.

It looked like rain when we got to our campsite, so the first order of business was to set up the tent. This week we finally upgraded from Jeff’s old 3-man tent to this big 6-man beauty. This trip was our new tent’s maiden voyage. Success! It was SO nice to lay down in a tent without having my feet and head pressing on the tent walls all night. Space!

Next, we scared up some damp wood for a fire to cook our dinner.

Rose liked her hot dog…

…but she inhaled her Kraft macaroni and cheese. We couldn’t get the spoon into her mouth fast enough. She just swallowed those soft noodles whole. Normally we’d let her feed herself, but she still drops half of every bite, and grassy mac n cheese just didn’t sound good. I never make this nasty stuff, but it was fast and easy for our camping needs. In one campfire dinner, I think I ate more processed ickyfood than I have in the past year combined. And the magic of nature and her fresh air worked to make it all taste GOOD.

Playing outside made all of us HUNGRY!

Jay and Rose slept relatively well in our tent. We made sure that they were good and tired before we zipped them into the tent, and they fell asleep easily. The first night, Rose was still learning how to stay under the sleeping bag, and she kept scooting out and crying in her sleep from the cold. But she had it all figured out by the second night.

They loved the swings.

And I love this picture. Rose fell off and got hit in the face with the swing, and Jay’s face is classic.

THE BEACH: We trekked to the beach 3 times during the two days we were there: once on Wednesday evening, and twice on Thursday. Our campsite was just over a quarter of a mile from the beach. There was a convenient sandy path that connected the two.

Rose got a shoulder ride to the beach each time we went because sand really bogs her little 1.5-year-old legs down. Jay ran most of the way there on our first trip, and every time we walked to the beach after that, he walked slower and slower. We always had to carry him back to the tent because he wore himself out in the sand. Carrying a child through the sand is hard work.

Brrrrr. Oh, the coast of the pacific northwest.

Jeff, Jay, and Rose played the wave-chasing game where you stand still while the water rushes toward you and then run away from it at the last minute. They loved it.

Jeff and I had some fun competitions on this trip:

• We stayed up late one night playing Scrabble on the Kindle Fire (Jeff won).
• We played an epic game of one-on-one basketball on the rough, gravelly half-court at the campsite (Jeff won, by 1 point). We haven’t played basketball together in 5 years! We are both so bad that we spent half the game laughing our heads off and chasing the ball across the field. I thought we should get half a point if the ball hit the rim (since it was such a rarity), but we managed to play to 11 without that rule. It took a solid 40 minutes though. Jeff kept telling me that I was breaking certain subtle basketball rules. I used my elbows and guarded so fiercely that Jeff says he has bruises from it. He was the one impaling himself on my sharp nubs! Our skill level may be similar, but Jeff actually knows all the rules, so I may have cheated once or twice in ignorance. It was a hearty, hilarious competition.
• We stayed up late playing Angry Birds on the Kindle the second night (Jeff won the most rounds). It was my first time ever playing, and I felt so pop-cultured.
• FIRE-BUILDING: Jeff built the first fire. It took him a while to coax a flame out of the damp wood. I built the fire on the second night with ONE MATCH. Point for Shaina! It had even rained that day, but I still managed to dredge up my pyro-skills of old and we had a cozy blaze in no time.
• We each guessed how long that 4 mile bridge was, and my guess won EXACTLY. I had to add this and the fire-building to even out the score because Jeff won all the actual games. I still had my moments of triumph, however fleeting.

Kindle Scrabble in the dark

Ok, back to the BEACH. We started off on Thursday morning with jeans and jackets for all of us. Watch how fast things degraded.

Suddenly, within one minute of each other, Jay and Rose both fell flat in the wet sand. Jay tripped and fell flat on his stomach, and Rose slipped and fell flat on her back. We were in shivering-crying-sandy-wet CITY.

Ugh! I’d cry too.

We packed up and trudged back to camp, each carrying a cold child and a camp chair.

We washed the sand off of our bedraggled children in the convenient camp showers, and then Rose curled up in the tent for a 3 hour nap. She slept HARD.

While Rose slept, it started to rain. Burrrr. Camping in the rain is miserable. I took all of our wet towels and  clothes over to the laundry room and tossed them in the dryer. Jeff went to charge the Kindle in the tiny lobby-trailer. Jay and I hung out in the car together. We opened the door every now and then to see if Rose was making any noise. We ate snacks. We talked and giggled. Finally the rain let up and Jay went out to play while I read a book in the tent. Eventually the sun came out (sort of), we played basketball, and Rose woke up.

Have I mentioned one of our favorite on-the-go meals? Nature Valley Crunchy oats and honey granola bars with Jif peanut butter slathered on top. Yum, although after 3 lunches in a row of  ‘em, we were ready for a change.

BACK TO THE BEACH: After our kids had somewhat recovered from their cold morning beach experience, we went back that afternoon.

We planted a Rose.

Rose kept trying and trying to do a somersault, and she finally succeeded. She was so surprised! It was cute.

We parked in the dry sand this time, and it was a little warmer there. We took some family pictures, but I’ll save those for another post because this one already has too many.

Jay decided that he needed a break after a while, so he wrapped up in a towel and snuggled up in a chair to recover his energy.

Nice sandy goatee, Jay.

As we were leaving the beach for the last time, the clouds actually parted and our last look at the beach was sparkly and beautiful, in its gray-brown way.

I love how the fire looks bigger than the tent in this picture—oh, perspective. We went to McDonald’s for dinner on Thursday night because we didn’t think that we’d be able to get this good of a blaze going after all the wetness of the day. But when we came back to our tent, I decided that camping in the wet without a warm cheery fire was too depressing. So I braved the swarming mosquitos and went on the wood warpath. Miraculously, I made a one-match wonder. So we toasted marshmallows. I like burying a piece of chocolate inside my marshmallow so it melts while I roast it all over the fire. Gooeygoodness.

This is our wet breakfast on the morning we left (granola and yogurt). The mosquitos were merciless, and Jay looks like he has the chicken pox now, poor boy. Do you see those puffy eyes? This trip wore us all out!

A note about the mosquitos: When we were eating our peanut butter-coated granola bars one day, Jay and Rose kept swatting and rubbing the mosquitos on their heads, effectively coating their hair in sticky peanut butter. Mosquitos are not deterred by peanut butter—possibly their one redeeming quality.

 
In front of our awesome tent—Jeff and I agreed that we’ve never been so dry in a tent before. Jay was going all boneless from tired frustration while we took this picture, if you can’t tell. It felt so WRONG to roll up that nice tent all wet and grassy (thankfully when we got home, it dried in about 10 minutes flat under the ultraviolet Yakima Valley sun rays).

 

At last we were going…

…and gone.

We had a great time exploring another corner of the grande, gorgeous state of Washington. It may be a few years before I’m ready to sleep in a tent for 2 nights in a row again, though. It may also be a few years before we get rid of all the sand we carried home with us from the beach! It keeps turning up in the most unlikely and absurd places.