A Little R&R--Our Trip to Long Beach Washington

A Little R&R--Our Trip to Long Beach Washington

My hubby, Larry  and I wanted to try something new for our annual tryst to the Pacific Coast to celebrate his birthday and our anniversary. 

This time, we decided to embark on a trip to Long Beach Washington, about an hour and a half from our Fishhawk Lake home.  Little did we know that our trip, planned a couple of months ago, would happen to land on the couple of days that 90 mile per hour winds would be hitting the very area where we would be staying on the beach!!!

A little drama, OH YEAH! We managed to arrive during the calm-before-the-storm. We headed to a place called the Inn at Discovery Coast. I read about it on Trip Advisor and it had good reports, which is what I do when I head to great places that I want to support. (They don't take Groupon, but do take Amazon Local and I saved quite a bit of money).

Anyway, it's in Long Beach, the "longest beach in the world". I ordered the "romance package" for our room.

Rose petals strewn on the bed and windowsills, candles everywhere, and chocolate. It was pretty cool; structured simplicity,with a dash of romance. We always take our dogs, so it has to be dog-friendly.

Well, it was! Hardwood floors, a deck with a sliding door that had views of the long meandering walkway to the beach.

Open spaces galore, too! We were sort of excited to see the windy, crazy wild weather that was to be expected in less than 24 hours. 

We got there mid-afternoonish, leaning towards the waning light and we were greeted with champagne in the small frig. It was lovely, clean lines. Simple, is what my husband kept saying, but he really liked it. I did, too! Whites, grays, dark tones. Normally, I wouldn't like that--too stark for my tastes, but I actually loved it. We immediately turned on the fireplace and got cozy.

There's a restaurant. The Pickled Fish steps away, which worked perfectly. They also will include a buffet breakfast--love that! 

The next day, after breakfast, we heard that the monumental winds would be "landing" about 1pm, lasting til midnight. So, we hurriedly headed to "town" right after a yummy breakfast. The main drag was desolate!

Many shops were closed, hardly any traffic. It gave me a clear opportunity to take pics of the little colorful shops sitting cheek-to-jowl, next to one another. Some were dressed up for Christmas.

I saw the gate to the Longest Beach in the World.

Some local sidewalk art gave me a good chance to leap onto a bench and take this photo. 

We headed to one of those typical apparel places with goofy t-shirts that have catchy phrases on them. I decided that it was really more fun to take pictures of them, than to actually buy one. 

Going down the ramp of the same place in an adjoining section it was filled with silly, beachy, kid stuff. I picked out plastic bottles filled with bubbles, my husband bought a remote controlled "whoopy cushion" that he could control from 100' away. Then, I heard this automated voice coming from the front of the store. Oh, my--it was ZOLTAR, wooing us to come and get our fortune told!!!!!!!

If you recall the movie, BIG, with Tom Hanks, Zoltar plays quite an important part. I had no idea that Zoltar really existed and in LONG BEACH, WA!!!!! Well, I was VERY excited to check him out!!! I took some photos of him with Larry,

and then put in the designated dollar to get Larry's fortune. It was interesting to listen to him talk, then push out the designated fortune. It was quite accurate. It mentioned Larry's patience, and other things that really were quite pertinent.   ZOLTAR knows his stuff and he's quite the fine dresser. 

We walked the streets a bit, then headed to our last stop on the main drag, Marsh's Free Museum. I walked in the door, saw a full-sized skeleton and paused to take it in, to see if it was real, when a fella who'd grown up there started a comfortable conversation with me, telling me about how he'd been coming to this place since he was kid and had I seen the Alligator Man? Well, NO, I hadn't as I hadn't been in the store before. He showed me the way to the back of the store. He proudly showed me Jake The Alligator Man.

It was creepy and fascinating and I couldn't WAIT to get a photo! Jake was very festive in his holiday hat.

I declined to have my new friend show me the two-headed goat. NO Thanks. I'll stick with Jake as it weirded me out, but I had a great time taking his picture and reading the articles of his history.  

We made it back to our room before 1pm, when the winds took over. Late afternoon, it was quite dark, incredibly fierce weather had started and my wonderful husband took the dogs out just before it got to the point of dark desperation. It's an amazing experience to have if you are INSIDE with a toasty fire going and a small opening in the sliding door, to take in the whipping sounds outside, without actually having to BE in it.  Gosh, it was exhilarating!

I took this from my deck. See how the grasses are almost sideways? 

Next morning, we found a calmness, with groups of cloud formations and a morning moon over our Inn.

Pure delight for a photographer. There was a starkness to the grassy surroundings in front of our lodging and in taking these photos, I somehow felt that this could have been placed anywhere in the midwest or part of the movie Grapes of Wrath--a total Steinbeck type of moment. 

I dropped by the lobby and took a sweet picture of the staff, which included, Jasmine, the Chocolate Lab. 

On the way over the bridge from Washington, to Oregon, I snapped this while Larry drove.

About 17 miles from home, we saw a gob of Roosevelt Elk and Larry stopped momentarily for me to get a quick shot of the Bulls hanging out in a tight group. 

(Roosevelt Bull Elk at the Jewell Elk Reserve in Jewell Oregon)

Home again and a delightful time of R&R! We packed a lot in in less than 48 hours.