Ocean Shores

  In 1989 my parents, Lee and myself went on a trip to Ocean Shores, Washington. It is on the north spit of the opening to Greys harbor.  If you look at a map of Washington State, Greys harbor is the big mouth looking inlet on the coast.

   Now that you know where we were, maybe you can understand just how cold the weather is out on the coast. Washington’s coast isn't like California’s warm beaches or the sandy shores of the gulf coast off Florida. It is cold almost year round. Oh, sometimes you might get lucky and find a day the sun breaks free of the clouds and the sandy shore will warm up to 75, but those days are far between.
   We ended up there finding most of the motels booked. We had gotten a wild notion to vacation and wanted to get away. This trip was special. We had no idea life was going to change in just the next year.
   My brother would get into a long term relationship and they would have a child. Within a year I would be married and divorced and back at CWU. We had no idea how hard it was going to be to get away by the time the next summer came round again.

   We had brought fishing gear. Not sure why, we ended up fishing in the surf, it was cold from what I remember. My mother was a real trooper; she got in right with us and fished like a professional. We had fished lakes, rivers and streams. This was new for us all, the waves every once in a while would flow over the top of us and we would run back in. The rip tide tried to pull me out more than once, a long with the crabs pitching my toes under the waves. Mom and Lee caught a Sea Bass. All I caught was a cold.
   That day wasn't long enough soon we had to come in and drink not chocolate to get our core temperatures back to normal. We sat under the blankets in that little motel room shivering for hours. Now that I think about it, I wish I was back there. Mom and Dad are gone now and I find myself missing them more and more each day.

   I have been writing these articles for a while now and I sometimes I share a moral or an ethical point, but this time I only have this; treat everyday like it is your last, live life to the fullest. No one knows what tomorrow will bring.