Where's the Craft Show?

Pam's sister and her husband came to Ocean Shores yesterday and saw signs for a local holiday craft show.  All six of us piled into two cars and went in search of the craft show.  We came into town and immediately saw the signs, very nice signs.  The signs pointed out the day, the time, the location, and even the address.  The problem was that since we were visitors to Ocean Shores, we didn't have any idea where that address was.  The signs did not include any arrows or any other clues to what direction we should head in.

One of the signs said that the craft show was going to be held at the community center.  Since we didn't know where the community center was location, we thought that maybe they meant the "Convention Center".  We drove by the convention center, which is located right in the main area of town, but we saw no indication that a craft fair was being held there.  We drove on out of town, towards the marina area, and then back again, a total of ten miles.  No signs, and no sign of a craft show.

We stopped at the library and asked a librarian if she new where the community center was.  She directed us to the Convention Center.  I was kicking myself that we should have stopped at the Convention Center to begin with.  Both of our cars parked at the convention center, we went inside and asked some women sitting at a table if this was the craft fair.  "No," they said, "This is an AA Convention!".  They didn't know where the craft show was being held.

We finally found some local people who were looking for the craft show at the Convention Center, too.  When we told them it was at the community center, they were able to give us directions, which, naturally, led us five miles back to the marina area. 

We finally found the community center, and yes, a craft show was being held there!  I spent a whole dollar and bought a very over-priced tea light candle from a young boy. 

On our trip around and around Ocean Shores (in the rain), we saw at least six deer.  We got a few glimpses of the ocean and the b ay through the trees and houses, and we visited a very nice Convention Center and also a very nice community center.  Now about those signs....

Power? Who Needs Power?

This morning, Friday, just as we were getting up, the power went out.  It turns out that someone had an accident and hit a power pole.  Even though we prefer to have power for our motorhome, we can get by just fine (for a while) without power.

Yesterday we made the 45 minute drive north from Grayland to Ocean Shores.  We are staying at another state park, Ocean City State Beach.  We had a lot of rain yesterday and there were puddles everywhere since this is another older state park which doesn't have sufficient drainage.  But, again, we have full-hooks and are paying the off-season resident senior fee of $6, so we aren't complaining.

Our friends, Charlie and Pam, arrived at the park a couple of hours after we got here.  We visited for a while and then decided to go to Quinault Casino which is located near the state park for their $4.95 dinner special.  The portions weren't large, but were adequate.  We also decided to go back today for the $1.99 breakfast special. 

Quinault Indian Casino in Ocean Shores, WA

This morning after we this area lost power, we were glad that we had decided to eat breakfast at the casino.  The casino didn't have power either, but they had generators going, so the slot machines were all working.  Breakfast was served by candlelight, and the toaster didn't work, but we were served eggs, sausage, and hashbrowns.  Dave won $12 while we waited for breakfast, so he was able to treat us all to the breakfast special. 

After Charlie played some blackjack and Pam won $5 playing a slot machine, we all drove north on Highway 109 to Taholah where the maintained road ended.  We checked out a few RV parks, including two Camp Club USA 1/2 price parks, and enjoyed some views of the Pacific Ocean.

We stopped for lunch at a little place in Pacific Beach.  The weather was so nice today that we were able to eat lunch outside in the sunshine.  Pacific Beach State Park is one of the nicest parks in the state system, located right on the beach.  This park is always full in the summer even though it doesn't have full hookups. 

Charlie places his order at Falcon's Nest

When we got back from our drive around 2:30, the power was back on, so we are once again happy campers!

Wind Warning

I happened to be reading rv.net yesterday afternoon and noticed that someone had posted a wind warning for the Oregon and southern Washington coastal areas.  I looked at the weather report on Yahoo and saw a severe weather warning.  Due to predicted wind gusts of up to 80 mph, we made a quick decision to leave Cape Disappointment last night instead of waiting until this morning.  We ate a quick dinner and left the park a little before 6 pm. 

I stopped in at the ranger station to let them know that we had vacated our sites (Charlie and Pam left early also).  I was so surprised when the ranger said that we were entitled to a refund since we left early because of the wind warning.  The refund needs to be mailed to us from the state park headquarters in Olympia, so we'll see if we ever get that check.

We didn't have much wind on the drive home and arrived home last night around 9 pm. Since we drove south the last hour on I-5, it didn't matter as much that it was dark since we know that road well.  We unpacked a few essentials and saved the rest of the unloading until today. 

We didn't get to have a campfire last night, but it would have been too windy at the park to have one.  We enjoyed a fire on Tuesday night and on Wednesday night.  Pam supplied the marshmallows.

Dave's excellent fire at our campsite.

Cape Disappointment, Final Full Day

Dave and Charlie decided to play golf today.  Long Beach has a nice 9-hole golf course,  Peninsula Golf,  just north of town.  There are two sets of tees, so they played 18 holes.  Pam's parents came to visit.  They used to live in Ocean Park so like to revisit the area. 

Dave, Carol, Jonathan

This picture was taken about 7 years ago by our friend, Michael Groark, when we camped at Driftwood RV Park with Michael and Annie on Memorial Day weekend.

I watched a Netflix DVD that I brought along, Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont.  It was a cute movie.  After lunch I went for a walk on the beach.  I forgot to check the tide table and discovered that it was high tide.  I was able to walk for 1/2 hour, but the waves were reaching my feet, so I scurried back to drier ground.  I finished my walk by walking around the campground loops.

A few years ago the state redid the full hookup area of this park.  They asphalted all the sites and changed the electrical boxes from 20 amp to 15/30/50 amp.  Very nice.  If there was Verizon cell service and/or WIFI, this would be a perfect park.  We changed the external antenna to the driver's side of the coach and it works better now, so I've been able to update my blog every day. 

North Head Lighthouse at Cape Disappointment State Park

Cape Disappointment, Day 3

Last evening the rain stopped long enough for us to have our first campfire of the year.  It was cold outside so we huddled fairly close to the fire.  We cut the fire short when it started raining again around 8:45 pm.  We had rain during most of the night and rain again this morning.  But around 10:45 this morning, the rain stopped and it didn't rain again just now at 5:10 pm. 

We took a drive to Ocean Park, Nahcotta, and Oysterville.  We drove along the beach north of Ocean Park and saw this private lighthouse.  When we tried to track it down, the entrance had a large gate that was closed.  Guess they don't like visitors.

This part of the Washington coast allows cars to drive on the beach.  Since we have a 4-wheel-drive vehicle, we like to drive on the beach occasionally.  This is the view of the ocean that we had:

After we got back from the drive, Dave and I went for a 7-mile bike ride around the park. 

Here's a picture of Dave and me that Charlie took yesterday.  Cape Disappointment Lighthouse is way in the background above our heads, and the jetty is right behind us. 

And here is a picture of Charlie and Pam:

Cape Disappoinment, Day 2

The sun is out for a few minutes and children are out on the bikes riding around the circle loop.  This week is spring break for some of the Washington schools so there are lots of families camping at the beach. 

Pam and I went to the laundromat at the store at the park because she needed to wash some towels.  When they winterized their motorhome they opened their taps and forgot to close them again when they arrived at this campground.  Their bathroom floor and part of their carpet got wet, so she had to mop up the mess with towels. 

The park had only one dryer, so we went to Ilwaco to dry the towels.  While there we walked around the marina and shops.  The town is a combination of a traditional fishing village and more recently, an artists' area.  This is where the Columbia River meets the Pacific Ocean. 

The following picture of a sculpture of a California condor depicts a writing of William Clark's (of Lewis and Clark fame) in which he wrote about seeing a "buzzard" with a 10-foot wing span.

And here's a picture of one of the fish markets:

My obligatory lighthouse picture features the Cape Disappointment Lighthouse:

And the amazing clouds:

Cape Disappointment State Park, WA

We arrived at Cape Disappointment State Park in Washington, which is about three hours from our house.  It's one of our favorite state parks because of its location at the beach.  The only bad thing about this park is that I have absolutely no Verizon cell service at this site (#21).  Dave hooked up the external antenna and was able to get two bars of service, which is barely enough to access the internet through his phone.  But here I am, online, and doing a crossword puzzle from a book while waiting for each screen to load. 

The weather is stormy, windy, rainy, with occasional glimpses of the sun.  In other words, normal weather for the Washington state coast in March.  Charlie and Pam, the couple that bought our 2000 31W Bounder, are camped next to us.  All four of us, plus their dog, walked on the beach this afternoon during high tide.  Walking north on the beach was great, with a great view of North Head Lighthouse, but turning around to go back to the campground was a different story.  Windy!  We made it safely back to our motorhomes and while Dave helped Charlie install his satellite receiver, Pam and I continued walking.  We thought we were on a trail to the amphitheater but we ended up at the dump station???  The guys teased us about that one. 

Here is a picture of the winter storm debris along the path to the beach:

And a picture of Dave at our campsite:

That's all the pictures I'm going to post for now because the connection is too slow.  Maybe (miraculously?) the signal will be better tomorrow.

Thanks for reading!