"Please, please, please, let us move somewhere near a beach," I said to Joe as we were driving along the Oregon coast.
Joe looked at me. Instead of saying, "Are you out of your crazy mind woman?" like I expected him to say since that is pretty close to what would normally come out of his mouth when that topic of conversation comes up, he said with a little smile, "we'll see."
Joe. Said. "We'll. See."?
I felt like I had won a battle. The war is not won. But a battle, definitely. I'm breaking him little by little. And I feel so happy.
I owe it all to this past weekend at Cannon Beach. For Joe's birthday a few months ago, I surprised him with a weekend camping trip to Cannon Beach with a bunch of friends. It was fantastic.
We drove along the Washington and Oregon coast and soaked up all the beautiful scenery we could as the sun set Friday night. We got to camp and set up without a drop of rain.
The next morning the rains came down and the floods (maybe there were just puddles), but the floods came up. It rained just as the weather predicted. Since when are they right? But it didn't spoil our fun. In fact, I think we all had a little more fun because of it. Especially the kids. They were playing in the dirt, rain and mud and no one was making a fuss about it. And the nice thing was, it wasn't cold. Just wet.
We decided since we were mostly wet, that we would head to Haystack Rock on Cannon Beach and play in the sand awhile. Our camp site was two small blocks from the beach, so we put all the kids in their impromptu trash bag ponchos and walked in the rain. So much fun. We hardly made it to the beach, the puddles were half the adventure.
Once we set foot on the sand though, the layers of clothes were peeled and the rain stopped. The next several hours were filled with building sand castles in the sand, collecting shells in the sand, writing in the sand, avoiding stepping on the millions of dead jelly fish on the sand, and trying to cover every square inch of our bodies with sand. Success.
The fog lifted for a bit and we we're finally able to see Haystack rock. It's phenomenal. I can not get over the beauty of the beaches here. I could sit all day and never get enough of how stunning they are. The rain and fog just added to the beauty. I love that we had to wear boots and hats and coats to go play on the beach in August. It's part of the charm. And the kids just don't care. Rain or shine, the beach is fun.
And add to the beach the fact that there is camping and good friends, and life couldn't get any better.
Kids just come to life camping. No rules. No responsibility. Lots of freedom to roam. Gourmet breakfasts. Tons of s'mores to eat. No showers. Late nights. Sleeping bags. Headlamps. The list goes on. Our girls love it. They keep asking me when we are going back to "camp."
After years and years of not knowing where we'll settle as a family, I finally realized that the best compromise would be to live on the beach in a tent. I'd have my beach. And Joe would have his camping. And the kids would have a ball. We''ll see.
Anyone want to live next door?
Note: Just to clarify, it's not the beach Joe is opposed too, but the crowds and traffic that seem to come along with it. If we could find a small town beach community, we'd take it!
