Another day in Ocean Shores
Yes, I blog about Ocean Shores a lot. My parents live there, so what can I do? We drove over on Saturday afternoon and dad made a great dinner of sausage, sauerkraut, apples, bacon, and rolls. Delicious if you like sauerkraut. While we could have gone to the beach before sundown, we were very tired from a trip to Point Defiance Zoo that morning, so we opted to stay home and catch up with Parker’s grandparents, who recently returned from a long trip to the east coast and were in dire need of some grandkid time.
It’s adorable watching Parker grow up, and I notice it in the little things…like each trip to Ocean Shores he remembers something different, or finds he can now reach a certain counter that eluded his grasp before. This time, as soon as we arrived, he asked Papa, “Are we going to the jetty? I want to see the jetty!” See, the last time we went to Ocean Shores, the weather was nice and we took our shoes and socks off, rolled up our jeans and Parker and daddy did some wave jumping. He remembered that, and wanted to do it again. I had to be the bearer of bad news…not only was the weather much colder this time, but there was what can only be described as a “muck tide” going on that left the beach covered with brown, smelly algea. Not something you want to wade into. Wait. Scratch that. Not something rational adults would want to wade into.
On Sunday, after a delicious breakfast of waffles, bacon and fruit salad, we made the short drive to the jetty. Despite my directive not to play in the water, Parker (and the rest of us) ended up tracking the muck tide algae back to the car with us which stunk up the car to high heaven. But it was tolerable. Kelly and I also met an old man out walking his dog…a 16-month-old sheltie mix named Grace who desperately wanted to play with Kala, our seven-year-old Australian Cattle Dog mix. After some brief introductions, we let the two of them off the leash and let them frolic. The old man was from Seattle and just visiting for the weekend. The poor guy clearly had prostate issues because his nose was running like a faucet – a noticible sign in older men that they are taking Flomax. My grandfather had the same nasal issues before he died, and I know other men who are taking the drug who have the same unfortunate side effect. This guy, however, was obviously on a higher dose and sadly found himself without a tissue.
After a long conversation where he handed us a few life lessons about dogs, kids and relationships (old men are funny that way), we parted ways and Kelly, Parker, mom, dad, and I headed back to the car. We had decided in advance that Parker would skip his nap that day, so we all had lunch at Galway Bay, an Irish pub in Ocean Shores with absolutely wonderful food and beer (Smithwick on tap!), but mind-blowingly slow service. After lunch we went for another beach walk on Damon Point, where I agreed with dad that it was the most enjoyable beach in the city. There was so much stuff to be found on the point, from colorful rocks to empty seashells, and from dead birds to live crabs. Before we left, we asked another beachgoer to take our picture on a large piece of driftwood that seemed to be begging for us to sit upon it.
After the beach walk, we spent more time at the house relaxing and looking at photos of their east coast trip. They showed us historic Boston, New Hampshire (where my brother, Matt, lives), Cape Cod, Provincetown, and their cruise to Halifax, Nova Scotia. Interestingly enough, here on the west coast we think of Nova Scotia, Canada, as being ice cold and up in the north Atlantic Ocean, but look at a map and you’ll find that much of it lies below the lattitude of Washington State. It’s temperatures are more similar to Oregon. In fact, the highest point in Maine, USA, lies farther south lattitudinally than Blaine, WA.
One other note: as we were driving around that day we saw lots of deer and even a few raccoons. The wildlife in Ocean Shores isn’t really scared of humans anymore. In fact, my parents caught sight of a pack of coyotes in their backyard just the other day. You can read about that encounter here. I remarked to Kelly that I’ve seen hundreds of deer in Ocean Shores and they’ve all been does. Well wouldn’t you know it? Shortly after I said that, we spotted a young buck grazing on the side of the road. He had three spikes on one side, and two on the other, clearly a teenager (in deer years, if there were such a thing). Still, it’s good to know that there are a few out there.
Finally, it was time to leave…but in true Ebel fashion, we couldn’t get out of town without one more trip to a restaurant. We settled on the Golden Dragon, one of two Chinese restaurants in Ocean Shores. While I found the food to be descent and the atmosphere typical for a Washington State Chinese restaurant, Kelly (who grew up in Las Vegas) found it sorely lacking in the “ethnically accurate” category. Good food, but it wasn’t real Chinese food. Still, there were lots of leftovers and we said our goodbyes and drove home. Parker was asleep before we even left the city limits. Another fun trip to Ocean Shores.