Day 46 - Ocean Shores - 6245 Miles

Today was a day of simple pleasures. We finished checking out places here for next summer so we had nothing pressing on the agenda. We started by buying breakfast and parking on the beach to eat and watch the waves roll in.

We followed that up with a trip to the local Indian casino. Unlike the one near Olympia, this casino was fairly similar to a Las Vegas casino. You could actually play for a significant amount of time before losing your money. Also on the two days we visited I only saw one walker and no oxygen tanks. After we collectively spent 3-4 hours on machines, we walked away with a $2 profit - enough for a 20oz Diet Pepsi and fifty cents in my pocket.

I forgot to mention that yesterday we stopped in a candy store that carried all your old-time favorite brands I didn't know still existed. It took me back to my days in elementary school when, on the way home, I would stop at Elsie's Variety store where I would spend 15 minutes making candy selections to maximize the flavor sensation I could create with my nickle. In this store my best find was candy cigarettes. I hadn't seen these in decades. The clerk said they were still good despite now being politically incorrect. They also had bubble gum cigars to top off the effect.

Spokesmodel

We then drove a little way up the coast to drive onto another beach.

 

On drives like this I enjoy spending a little time in the small towns to get a sense of local life. We were able to stop in two towns. One was Pacific Beach. In it's heyday the economy was powered by lumber and a naval base. The base is gone and lumber is weak so they are trying to survive on tourism. Much of the former base housing has been converted to vacation rentals. Survival still seems tenuous. We heard the story from the woman behind the counter at Emily's, a place we stopped at for coffee and a cookie. Emily's was also the local post office and served as the Farmer's Insurance office. Much of your life could be handled within the four walls of Emily's.

The second town was Seabrook. It can only be described as upscale creepy. It was established on the coast in 2004 as a master-planned community. I'm not sure who the master is. It came across as a mix between a New England village, Stepford (of wives fame), and the village from The Prisoner, a 60's spy TV show. The whole thing seemed like a movie where, as the viewer, you're trying to figure out why it is taking the stars so long to figure out the whole thing is a front being run by a cult leader, or the devil, or an alien. We passed an area that was obviously a children's playground. Despite this, they felt the need to hang a simple sign on the fence with 3' letters saying "PLAY." It was more of a command than an invitation. We passed a dog park with a similar sign saying "WOOF." The last few minutes we were followed by a guy in a golf cart and a walkie-talkie. Coincidence? Maybe, but as we drove away I kept checking the mirror to see if we were being followed by a black Escalade with blacked-out windows. I never saw one.

We finished off the day driving back onto the beach to watch the sunset.

 

 

Tomorrow we head back to Mick and Linda's house in Olympia, whether they like it or not.