We woke up bright and early after our first night of camping
at Ocean City State Park. Jay and I laid in our sleeping bags and listened to a
brief rain plink onto our tent roof. I was relieved when the moody rain fly
held up and did its job. After a short 20 minutes or so, the rain moved on, the
girls woke up, and we rotated through the get-dressed, visit-toilet, eat
breakfast morning routine. A highlight for the kids was eating Hostess mini
powdered sugar donuts from a small $1.88 bag they had picked out at the grocery
store before our trip. It’s the little things.
After breakfast, we made our first of three trips to the
beach. We drove the mile or so to the parking area by the beach path to save
our energy. The trail leading from the parking area, through the grassy sand
dunes and wetlands, to the beach was still plenty long enough–about a third of
a mile–so we got plenty of walking in.
During our first beach time of the day, we built a veritable
medieval fortress of a sand castle and splashed around in the waves. It was
cloudy and a chilly 60 degrees or less. There is something so cleansing and
peaceful about a gray misty Pacific Northwest beach in the morning. Rose was
much too cold to even consider getting her toes used to the freezing Pacific
water, so she bundled up in towels and watched us from afar. Amber and I
enjoyed wading in the small rivers left behind by the tide because they were
warmer than the big ocean.
For some reason, our vast smooth stretch of beach had no
tide pools or even any shells washing ashore, but there were crabs. It was the
seagulls’ breakfast time, and they feasted on the supersized crabs that washed
ashore, pecking them into bits. We kept dodging assorted crab body parts
swishing back and forth in the waves. Crabs must be nutritious, because those
seagulls were massive. We stayed until lunchtime, then trekked the long sandy
hike back to the car and drove back to the campsite for sandwiches. We could
have packed a picnic, but I’m not a fan of sandy sandwiches, plus the closest
bathroom was at our campsite, so it was good to take breaks from the beach
(Amber ended up needing me to dig her a cat hole to relieve herself before we
left the beach for lunch).
After lunch the kids went into the tent to relax and play
(in other words, engage in a massive, epic tent-shaking pillow fight) while I
slumped in the front seat of the van and dozed for an hour or so behind the
blissful almost-quiet of closed doors. Amber had woken up several times
throughout the night, cold or something and I was feeling it. So I dozed. Every
now and then a particularly loud squeal or shriek from the kids roused me from
my stupor. Eventually the sun came out and we drove down to the beach for an
afternoon of sand dune exploration. The sand dunes were covered in long rubbery
grass, with patches of the softest white sand. Every time we walked down a
steep sandy dune, the ocean’s roar disappeared behind the dunes and it was warm
and quiet. When we came out on top of the next hill, the ocean’s sound and
stiff breeze blasted us again. I enjoyed the contrast of sensations between
hill and valley.
We spent another couple of hours exploring and sitting in
the sunny sand. I showed Rose how to make a Zen garden. Jay built a scene from
mythology with random sea debris he collected. Amber picked flowers, dug in the
sand, rolled in the sand, and jumped down the sand dunes. I sat on the warm
sand and wove a basket out of that tall thick grass. It was a very peaceful
lazy afternoon. We drove into town to refresh the ice in our cooler, and drove
ten minutes to check out North Jetty, which is on the tip of the skinny
peninsula that creates Grays Harbor. North Jetty turned out to be another
beach, but a public, easy-access beach which made it dirty and crowded and far
less inviting than our pristine coastline a few miles north. So we left pretty
quickly and drove back to our campsite to fire up the charcoals for an early
dinner.
After dinner, it was another trip to the beach, this time
all the way down to the water. Then back to the tent for sleep by 8pm. After
the kids were ready for bed and zipped into the tent, I sat in the car and
called Jeff to chat. Amber was already asleep by the time I crawled into the
tent a short while later! She even slept through the night, which helped me
sleep better. One of my least favorite times of day to handle solo is bedtime,
so my plan to come to the beach while Jeff was out of town worked wonders: the
kids got tired enough to pass out immediately and spare me the drama of evening
scuffles, needing to find that one stuffed bunny, needing to get one more
drink, etc.
Saturday morning, day 3, we were all feeling quite tired. We
drove to the beach but right when we parked, it started drizzling, so we turned
back and went back to the campsite, where the rain stopped and we put away our
tent and packed up our gear. Then we made one last trip to the beach before
hitting the road. Everyone was lethargic from our long active previous day, so
the kids decided to play in the dry sand with shovels and our bucket. Mostly,
however, they sat there and asked me for snacks. Then Amby pooped her pants.
When Jay and Rose started playing “hide the shovel” and forgot where the shovel
was hidden, I knew it was time to hit the road. Plus, a dark cloud was rolling
in from the ocean. So I urged the kids to dig faster and find that shovel, then
we made the slow sandy hike back to the car one last time. Halfway there, a
fine mist started spritzing, and it got darker. By the time we were on the
road, rain started in earnest. It was the perfect end to our beach adventure–we
were too tired to really play at the beach anyways, so mother nature gave us a
nudge towards home with a handy rainstorm.
Noteworthy: Jay’s fever never returned, although I did give
out ibuprofen like candy on this trip. Single mamas need children operating at
full capacity! I took ibuprofen before entering the tent for bedtime both
nights. There’s nothing worse than lying awake in a tent with a tired headache!
We drove 2 hours and 15 minutes to my parents’ house in Bonney Lake and crashed
there to await the upcoming family reunion. Jeff arrived from his trip at the
lake house late that night.
- Waiting for the girls to wake up. I love quiet early morning tent time.
- Breakfast.
- Beach, round 1
- The kids discovered that the sand needed to be packed firmly to be dumped out in a smooth bucket-shape, so Rose took over stomping it down while Amber shoveled sand in. They had a whole system worked out: Amber shoveled and every 3-5 scoops, Rose would stomp it down. It took a long time, but they were so happy and cooperative, I was happy too. Jay took charge of designing the castle and building the walls.
- Happy cooperative play without arguments: my favorite!
- Jay went historic with his design, with a central tower in the middle of the fortress, “as a last defense if the outer castle wall is breached,” he explained matter-of-factly.
- Castle complete! My contribution was adding parapets to all of the towers.
- The next order of business: freeze in the water! Amber was jumping for joy, curls bouncing.
- Rose was not so sure about toeing the water.
- Jay waded right in to those stormy gray waves.
- Poor thin Rosie was so cold, she went back to our chairs and burrowed into towels while the rest of us waded.
- Beach river: I’m sure there’s a more official name for these watery swaths.
- Easily ten degrees or more warmer than the big ocean.
- Amber’s curls adored the wet sea breeze and sprung into perfect ringlets. Dreamy!
- Seriously, the crabs were bigger than my size ten foot.
- Shivering Rose. She did not believe me when I suggested that if she got up and ran around, she’d warm up.
- I checked Amber regularly for signs of hypothermia, or even just too-coldness, and when we hiked back up the beach, she came willingly to her warm towel and jacket.
- LUNCH with the mosquitoes. I forgot bug spray.
- Back at it, to the sand dunes.
- Pictures don’t really do justice to the ups and downs of the dunes.
- Picking flowers. She would pick a handful of blossoms (no stems) and then present the crumpled fistful to me with a cheerful “here you go, Mommy.”
- Zen garden number one: Rose and I designed it together.
- Jumping down the steep sandy hills.
- Zen garden number two: Rose designed it by herself. She loved the treasure hunting it took to find all of the pieces to her design.
- My basket: I wove a flat mat of grass, then braided the ends and gathered them into a bundle on top so it was kind of like a hanging bird’s nest. It took forever, but it was a calm relaxing interesting activity to occupy my hands while the kids played.
- Climbing rocks at North Jetty: I curtailed this activity quickly, because giant boulders are dangerous with slippery sand all over them, and the last thing we needed was a broken bone or some stitches.
- Waiting for dinner was hard.
- Smores!
- The reflections were incredible at the beach after dinner.
- Where does the sky end and the beach begin?
- Foreboding yet beautiful.
- Saturday morning, day 3: I slept in my full-on 20 degree rated mummy bag in the 50 degree night air. I always need extra warmth to sleep. Heaven forbid we ever camp somewhere that gets colder than 50 at night!
- Ocean City State Park was a great place to camp! Minus the mosquitoes, of course.
15 minutes into our drive. My work here is done.
