The Beach!

Growing up we went to the beach all the time. During high school it was the "hang out place". Then, I spent the past 7 years landlocked.
I have always missed the beach since I moved out to Colorado. Anytime I'm back in California, I always make an effort to get out there, at least to see it, to smell it. There's something about the ocean that's so magical, feeling like you're looking out into forever, that maybe if you just kept looking you'd be able to see the other side of the world.
Of course, it's all just water out there. With lots of animals and plants swimming around in it.

I have made a list of three things I want to do before I leave Olympia.
1) Go up the Space Needle
2) Go to the wolf sanctuary
3) Go to the beach.

Today was absolutely gorgeous. Sunny, 60 degrees, beautiful weather. It reminded me more of Colorado than Olympia.

Lately I've been very anxious about the move. I know I have two jobs lined up, but we still don't have a place to live and that scares me to death. We are very close to renting this one house, which sounds almost like a dream house. I am so afraid it is too good to be true. Yesterday one of Zach's friends Josh was supposed to go look at it for us and tell us if he thinks (knowing the two of us) if we'd enjoy living there. Unfortunately Josh got sick and won't be able to see it until Monday or Tuesday.
I spent the better part of the day with knots in my stomach, afraid that the owner is going to give it to someone else before Josh gets a chance to see it. And if that happens, then what can we do?
Zach's been wonderful and helping keep my mind off everything that's giving me anxiety. Last night we went out to a nice dinner at Olive Garden (thanks to the gift card my mom sent him for Valentine's Day) and then drove up to Shelton to the Little Creek Casino. I really like this casino for two reasons. 1) They have a smoking and non-smoking section, so Zach can smoke, and I can stay on my half, without dealing with smoke. 2) In addition to Blackjack (my game of choice), they also have Pai Gow. I love pai gow! They don't have it at any of the casinos I've been to in Blackhawk. When we went last night the blackjack tables were full, so I played pai gow all night long. You don't necessarily win big (unless you get really lucky on one of the side bets), but I think I played there for four hours without ever needing to pull more money out of our gambling fund. I think that's quality entertainment, and it's a "safe" game. Plus, in blackjack, if you're at a table with people who don't know what they're doing, it can really screw over the whole table. Pai gow, your fate is in your own hands/cards.
On the way home from Shelton, I was telling Zach about my three things that I wanted to do. Of course the wolf sanctuary is closed right now (see previous blog), but I told him that if it was really nice weather tomorrow then we should go to the beach.

I woke up this morning so excited because it was absolutely gorgeous out!
We gathered up the dogs and headed on west. We didn't really know where we were going, but knew the ocean was west of here. We get into Aberdeen (Town motto: Come as you are. Town's famous person: Kurt Cobain. One of Nirvana's more popular songs: Come As You Are. Coincidence?) and see two signs, one north, one south. Going north there's a town called Ocean Shores, so we figure that might be a safe way to go. About 30 minutes later we get to the beach! OK, first of all, you're allowed to drive and park on the beach! I've never heard of that before!!! I guess if they did that in LA, it would become complete and total chaos, especially since the summer months there's barely enough room for all the people, let alone vehicles. But the beach was fairly crowded, at least for February. We got out there, took off our shoes, rolled up our jeans, and decided to give the dogs their first ocean adventure. I think they still hate us. But Zach and I had a blast, running around in the waves, trying to get the dogs out fairly deep and then have waves splash up against them making it even deeper, trying to find really nice shells that were in tact that we could bring back to Colorado (we didn't find any), and just having fun, acting like we were little kids. It was the best day I've had in a very long time.

I get home, open up my e-mail, and there's more information about the beach! My best friend Stephanie is getting married in August. This week a bunch of us have been e-mailing back and forth discussing her bachelorette party, which, up until today, we all assumed was going to be in Las Vegas. Well, I received an e-mail today saying that we are going to Catalina in May to celebrate her bachelorette party! I'm so excited! I don't even think I've been to Catalina since I was in 7th or 8th grade when we went on a class trip. But that means two days and two nights of sun, ocean (yay!), kayaking, snorkeling, and, of course, partying! I am so excited I can hardly wait! I've already started looking up flight information, which is kind of difficult because there are only a few times that the ferries leave and getting from the airport to the harbor, and all that fun stuff. But I think it's going to be a blast and I can hardly wait plus I'll get to see many friends who I rarely get to see, although I have a feeling I'll be seeing a lot of them this summer, with the wedding and all.

So the past two days have been wonderful, my anxiety has gone down. Absolutely no progress has been made with packing but fortunately most of what we own is still in boxes from moving out here because there was no room in our apartment.

So we have two more great adventures between now and when we leave: Seattle and the wolf sanctuary. Looking forward to both of them and hope they can be half as enjoyable as today was!