A brief return to "work" ~ Aug. 24th & 25th

Friday morning, we said farewell to our beach retreat and headed north for our next destination of Ocean Shores, Washington. We went back the way we came up to Seaside, again stopping at the cheese factory in Tillamook for another perusal of the gift shop. A pepperoni "outlet" nearby helped supply our in-van lunch of cheese, crackers and assorted pepperoni. (Eating on vacation is so much better than at home.) Anyway, we'd hoped to make a few stops along the way but all the twists and turns of the highway took longer than we thought. The last Oregonian town of Astoria looked so appealing to explore but we had to add it to our checklist for "next time."

"The Bridge to Nowhere" from Astoria to Pt. Ellice in Washington, spanning
 the Columbia Rive. Pretty wild to cross, as it's over 14 miles long...

We bee-lined through Grays Harbour county, making it to Ocean Shores just thirty minutes before Scott needed to be present at the Leadership Summit weekend for his Taekwondo Association. After his meeting, we drove down to the beach area. After spending time on Oregon's beaches, we felt a little spoiled and maybe couldn't appreciate this famed beach area of Washington as much.:) However, it was kind of fun to drive down onto the beach for quite some distance. Or at least until we were stuck in a soft area... We were all getting quite concerned as the wheels spun... thankfully taking the traction off finally got us out our pit!

Watch out for those seagulls... bombs away!

Having learned our lesson, Scott parked the van and we walked the beach...

Love that sand!

Just in time for another sunset.

The wind was picking up by now...

Thomas just goes with the flow.

The next day, Nora and I were on our own at the hotel as Scott and the boys were attending different seminars at the convention centre in town. Scott, AKA "Master Karpiuk", was also teaching. We strolled the few blocks around us visiting all the gift shops and bakeries, but were finished by noon.

Beach dunes just behind the hotel.

Nora was happy enough at the start of our day, but I found this to be the most challenging day of our vacation, as I stuck it out in the room as she napped, and then while we waited for the guys to come back for dinner. We were both a little stir-crazy by then. (By Sunday morning I was remembering why I don't like to go on working vacations... but hey, I can't complain about the free room!)

Nora's only souvenir.

Making funny faces.

Scott had more evening events to attend to, so I went and did what most families do in Ocean Shores...  take the kids mini-golfing. The boys found the game was made more challenging by not only trying to get the ball in the hole, but also by not hitting the small child who frequently ran onto the green during play.

And they all came out unscathed...

 Spending quarters at the arcade to delay our return to our room!