Ocean Shores Weekend

We enjoyed a wonderful weekend away at Ocean Shores along with Grandpa Marv, Grandma Verna, Aaron & Dani and the girls. We stayed together in a nice condo and were lucky to have really nice weather the whole weekend. We left bright and early for the ocean Friday morning, arriving at Ocean Shores before anyone else had even left home. We spent the morning doing some geocaching around the area. Above Marina and Dakota found a small cache behind this "Soft Sand" sign.

Marina signs the log.

Wading through the high grass we found the next cache in a large ammo box under a log out on the dunes. This one was a puzzle-cache so we had to figure out some math to find the final waypoint and the cache. We laughed and laughed- our day off to a great start.

Next we headed for the biggest cache we've ever seen: "Mondo Cache". When we finally found the area where the cache was hidden we found signs noting recent cougar sightings in the area. Despite Dakota's serious reservations we set off for a bit of a hike to the big cache. One of the landmarks in the hints for the cache was a bench where the trail turns. Marina decided to be the center of attention in the picture I took of Carol & Dakota on the bench.

Here we found the cache. It was in a large 10-gallon Rubbermaid tub and was full of really cool cache prizes. Best cache we've found in a long time.

A big cache calls for big prizes... here Marina tries on a pair of Mondo sunglasses found in the Mondo Cache.

Heading back to the car. Dakota stayed good and close to mom! Searching for the next cache location we noticed a large number of deer in the area. Here we saw two young bucks lying in someone's yard. We searched and searched for this one. It shouldn't have been so hard to find but somehow we overlooked it several times, tangling ourselves up in one spiderweb after another. Dakota finally made the find.

Behind him you can see the small lagoon that the cache was named after.

Marina at the marina.

Geocaching does help us find and see a lot of things we wouldn't otherwise ever see. Here is something called the "lone tree", located by the Ocean Shores Marina, which used to be used as a landmark from the ocean.

We have always known the jetty was here but didn't realize we could walk out onto it until we found that there is a cache out there. It was cool walking out on the jetty!

Found under a large rock, this was another fun cache.

Another of Marina's favorite caches of the day, this one was called "Marina Mountain". The small film canister cache was hidden up inside this pipe sticking out of a hill next to the marina. A funny little bent wire attached to the cache allowed it to be stuck up into the pipe and still be accessible.

Marina is putting the cache back in place while mom and Dakota and the Geo-Monkey look on patiently.

Next we spent some time at the Ocean Shores Discovery Center. It was surprisingly large with a lot of interesting things to see and touch. Here is a sign outside the center describing the history of the area.

After leaving the Discovery Center we got a call from Grandpa Marv letting us know they had all finally arrived. We met them at Home Port for lunch and then headed to the beach to play.

Grandpa helped Dakota and Raeden build a sandcastle.

It was barely windy enough to fly kites but we didn't waste any time getting the kites out and giving it a try. Marina had good success with Grandpa's kite which only requires a slight breeze to fly.

Reece loved playing in the sand and picking up shells, sticking them into her watering can.

Splashing in the soft sand.

Dakota and Raeden are proud of their fine castle-building work.

They also admired the castle built by some people next to us. Here they pose trying to look like this was their own impressive work.

Dakota hanging out in the condo.

In the evening we went over to the beach to watch the sunset.

Aaron and Marina playing King-of-the-Log.

Letting down our hair at the condo in the evening.

Good morning, Reece! Enjoy that delicious banana for breakfast.

Dakota and Raeden playing with Playmobile 4-wheelers on the blow-up bed back at the condo.

Aaron and Dani made a delicious dinner: shish-ke-bobs, tasty potatoes and watermelon. Yum!

Group picture on the beach... it was already our last day at the beach!

Quick... Reece is about to start crying like crazy!

Raeden flying her kite one last time.

We sat up on the rocks and saw a giant grey whale right off shore along with several sea lions. It was so exciting!

Marina was entirely thrilled to get to see a whale.

I didn't manage to get a very great picture of the whale but here you can see his dorsal fin in the lower right portion of the picture.

A shoe-full of sand.

After lunch Grandma & Grandpa and Aaron & Dani headed home. We wanted to try and miss traffic by leaving late so spent a little more time on the beach and found one more geocache in the dunes.

Posing in the dunes.

We did a little more shopping in town at Sharkey's and then headed for home. It was a really fun weekend. We were so lucky to have such perfect warm weather.