Traveling Days

We’ve been on the move since our visit to Forks.  We stayed two nights, Thursday and Friday, at the Hoquiam River RV Park in Hoquiam, Washington.  It’s an interesting little town located on the eastern edge of Gray’s Harbor which is just about in the center of the west coast of the state, but there isn’t much to do there, so our two days in the area were spent first on one side of Gray’s Harbor, in Westport, and the second day in Ocean Shores, on the north side of Gray’s Harbor. 

This was a glimpse of the Pacific Ocean on our way south on Highway 101 from Forks to Hoquiam.

It was a 100 mile trip, complicated by about 10 construction zones.  Thankfully, not all of them meant a delay, but about 4 of them we did have to stop and wait a while.

We got to the rv park, got checked in and set up and headed out towards Westport and the beach:

Jim got there first and took this picture of Mark, Rod and I arriving on the beach:

Near the beach, but just a little inland, is the Westport Light, the tallest lighthouse in Washington:

After our beach stroll, we stopped and had a seafood dinner at a local place before heading back to the rv park to settle in for the evening.

Friday morning we all caught up with a few things around the house and then headed the other direction to Ocean Shores, which is on the north side of Gray’s Harbor.  We headed right to beach, where Dortha immediately went to get her feet wet:

And Deb started taking pictures:

The surf was really high, but I started right out to get my feet wet too.  Until – a wave came in further and faster than I was expecting.  I started backing up, lost my footing and got knocked down backwards by the force of the wave – and of course, my camera was over my shoulder. We are going to take it to a camera shop as soon as possible, but I don’t have a lot of hope that it’s going to be able to be repaired.  Meantime, I’ll be using my little Olympus camera.

Even though I got pretty well soaked, I managed to get myself dried off and most of the sand brushed off, at least enough to stay and walk the beach a little more, go shopping in some of the local stores, and then on to the casino.  I got a little balance in my day when my name was drawn for a prize.  I had to draw a card each from two different bags and ended up winning $100 cash.  That offset the $40 I lost to the slots, anyway, plus a little.

When we first checked in to the rv park on Thursday, we were informed that Saturday morning the road through town would be a mess because the town would be celebrating Logger’s Play Day with a parade and all sorts of activities.  Since that was our planned travel day, and the road through town is the only one out, we needed to be out of there pretty early to avoid the expected traffic jams.  Somehow we all managed to get up and out a little before 8 a.m. this morning –yes, even Deb and Rod!

We had a very easy 100 mile drive to Kelso, Washington, where we’re staying at Brookhollow RV Park for 4 nights before going on to Oregon.  From here, we’ll visit Mt. St. Helens and the northern Oregon Coast.  This is a really nice rv park with level concrete pads and nicely landscaped grounds. 

Tomorrow is opening Sunday of the NFL, so that is what the guys have planned.  The girls (Dortha, Deb, and I) are thinking of checking out the nearby mall!