Chapter 62: Grama Goes to Long Beach

Once Upon a Time there was a grama that wanted a change of scenery for a few days. An invitation came along to go to Long Beach with her children, Bob and Tanya, so she packed her bags and hopped in the car. She did not, however, hang her head out of the window with tongue lolling like another regular passenger, Bear Dawg.

Each year, the city of Long Beach sponsors the 28 Mile Long Garage Sale. It gets it name from the fact that the Long Beach peninsula is 28 miles long and everyone on the peninsula has their sale that weekend. So the next day Grama and Tanya followed garage sale signs until they were weak with hunger.

Tanya bought a couple of picture frames to put put pictures of Payton up in the cabin.





Later that day, Grama and her children all trouped into Astoria, Oregon to pick up supplies and have lunch at the Wet Dog Cafe' and Brewery. Bob and Tanya like the Wet Dog Cafe'  because it has a stunning view of the mouth of the Columbia River. Unfortunately there were no pilot boats coming or going, no sea lions, or freighter ships at anchor waiting to go upriver to Portland for Grama to see. 

The next day Grama and Tanya walked beach boardwalk to feel the sea breeze in their faces and to check out the sights in downtown Long Beach. To Grama, this meant one place: Scrapaccino. To Grama, Scrapaccino is all the good things in life wrapped in one store: Scrapbooking supplies, coffee, and fudge!

 

Grama also found some sunglasses she liked but Tanya talked her out of buying them. Geeze. Doesn't she know her limits? The end of the trip showed that Grama had walked over two miles in one outing! Grama's family is very proud of her.

While Grama and Tanya were in town seeing what there was to see, Bob was back at the cabin unearthing a long-lost front sidewalk. After digging, scraping, and cutting sod, Bob and Tanya now have a sidewalk from the cabin to the original Model-T garage.

As you can see below, the quality of said sidewalk is a bit 'iffy' but at least they can walk to the car without soaking their shoes in the wet grass. Grama thinks it adds a 'certain something' to the quaintness of the cabin. Not sure what that 'certain something' is, but Bob and Tanya are glad Grama liked it.

 Grama and her children spent that evening playing Wii and listening to the scanner to eavesdrop on the community of Long Beach to see what was happening. One of the calls was about a man having chest pains and he was transported to the local Ilwako hospital. Grama thought this sounded like a fun way to meet people so she developed an bladder infection so she could go to the hospital as well.  This was perfectly timed to meet the man with heart problems she heard about on the scanner. Geeze. 

One of the other police calls that Grama heard on the scanner shortly after dark was a surf rescue of two men trapped on rocks in the surf of Beard's Hollow by Cape Disappointment Lighthouse. Grama heard sirens from the local fire and police stations. Emergency surf swimmers, the local sheriff, and Medix were dispatched to the scene. 

Emergency surf rescue swimmers were launched into the sea to rescue the endangered men. Grama and her children gather around the scanner waiting to hear if these two imperiled men were going to survive until they were rescued. Finally, the dispatcher came on the radio to say the surf rescuers had made it to the rocks where the victims were located and were walking them back to shore. Walking??? Paleeeese. Let's do an intelligence check on the 'victims'. They were out after dark. . .on rocks... in the sea. . .in an area known for dangerous waters......and the rescue swimmers walked them off the rocks! Bear in mind this was also on an outgoing tide. You, the reader, can put the those pieces together yourself.

The next day Grama relaxed around the cabin with Tanya while Bob tore the existing closet out of the main bedroom. The goal is to get rid of the curtains that masqueraded as closet doors. Check out how big this closet is once Bob removed all the layers of previous remodels: 

Then Grama and her children took a drive up the Long Beach peninsula. The first stop was Oysterville which was the very first community on the peninsula. Obviously oystering was the major industry of the town. Grama liked the historic architecture of the original settler's houses. The next stop was to drive as far on the peninsula as possible. This took them to the Willapa National Wildlife Refuge where they turned around.

On the return trip Bob spotted a black bear. He slowed the car down so Grama and Tanya could take bear pictures. They were so close to him. Isn't he cute?

The bear doesn't even look real, but he does look like a certain aptly-named Bear Dawg.

With the addition of seeing a coyote on the same trip and a deer on the way to Astoria, Bob and Tanya won the "Wildlife Trifecta". Grama was trying for the "Farm Animal Trifecta" on the way home, but could only find horses and cows. She needed a goat or pig or llama or...to complete her trifecta.

After winning the "Wildlife Trifecta", dinner was in order. They all walked from the cabin to The Lightship Restaurant and had a wonderful meal. The view from The Lightship Restaurant was amazing. It's right on the beach with an expansive view of the Boardwalk and all that is going on below.

All-in-all, Grama and her children had a terrific extended weekend. Adventures were had by all. Special moments were made. Hopefully Grama and her children can take another outing soon.

Consider this an invitation to all by Grama to do it again.