Day 65 - Ocean Shores, WA - 4253 Miles

An exciting weekend in Ocean Shores. During our morning walk on the beach I noticed an SUV belonging to Ocean Shores finest hooked to a Suburban from North Beach Towing in the "soft sand" section of the beach. I found it ironic the police had to rescue the towing vehicle. Then I saw it was the tow vehicle's wheels turning so it was the police SUV being rescued. That was ironic in it's own right. Surprisingly the tow vehicle was two-wheel drive so all it did was dig itself into a hole until they were both stuck

Next a random guy in a four-wheel drive pickup wandered by and pulled the tow vehicle out of the sand before it rescued the SUV.

 

Sometimes I amaze myself at how easily amused I am.

The big action, though, was the Sand and Surf biker rally. Ocean Shores has clearly solidified itself as, maybe not Sturgis, but definitely the Sturgis of Grays Harbor County, WA.

My First "Biker Salute" in 40 Years

Stunt Rider

Stunt Rider

Stunt Riders

Terry Shopping for her Leathers

Parking

Motorcycle Drill Team

Who wouldn't want to get their ink from a cash-only tattoo parlor on wheels at, essentially, a flea market?

Tattoos

Vendors

Essential Fashion Accessories

We ended the weekend with dinner at a supposed biker bar. Since I finished off the bars in Ocean Shores we have to travel farther to find a new beer place. We went to the Green Lantern Pub a few miles up the coast at Copalis Beach.  From the parking lot I could tell it definitely was a biker bar. Now I've always viewed bikers as a pretty bad-assed group of folks. At some point in time, though, a switch flips and they cross the line from bad-asses to old people in costume. The clientele at the Green Lantern is getting dangerously close to that line.

Green Lantern, Copalis Beach, WA

Dinner View at the Green Lantern

 

Day 61 - Ocean Shores, WA - 4210 Miles

I know what you're thinking.

"Their days must be so action packed and full of adventures that Gary can't spare the time to do a blog update."

Well, you would be wrong. The truth is our days are so laid back there is nothing noteworthy enough to bother documenting. The only exception might be the successful completion of my "beer in every bar" quest, but that's about it. I thought that feat might warrant an interview with the local paper, but I was wrong. Now I'm adding bars a little out of town and places that didn't make the original bar list, like the convenience store where I bought a beer to take down to the beach with dinner. I also hear the bowling alley in town has beer so I'll try that as well.

We made a return visit to Seabrook, the Stepford-like town I mentioned about half an hour up the coast. (If you have time to kill, Google "Seabrook Stepford" and you'll see that this is a common comparison). We had a meal (and two beers) at the only bar/restaurant in the village. Two guys at the bar with Seabrook T-shirts made and received cell phone calls. The whole time we were there our phones both showed "no service". Draw your own conclusions. I always feel a little creeped-out there.

Things should get exciting this weekend. Its the Sun and Surf Motorcycle Run. They're expecting over 4000 bikers. Beer, bikes, music, and food. What more could you ask for? I'm trying to get Terry to enter the Biker Babe contest but so far I sense a bit of reluctance. The web site says, "Vendors are stopping at Sun and Surf Motorcycle Run on their way to Sturgis, don't miss your chance to see them!"

I have no idea where these vendors are starting from that we are on the way to Sturgis. In fact, no matter where you start or where you are going, Ocean Shores is out of your way. No matter. I plan on wearing my Sturgis ball cap, my Knuckles Saloon T-shirt from Sturgis, and renting a moped at one of the local places so I fit right in.

Day 52 - Astoria, OR - 3947 Miles

Thursday Terry's brother, Mick, and his family came to visit Ocean Shores. 

Mick and Family

During dinner the talk somehow came to health insurance in retirement. Mick's daughter, Maggie, said, "So are you guys on Medicare?"

I said, "No, we're a few years away, but thanks for thinking we would qualify."

She paused a minute and said, "Did I ever tell you you're my favorite aunt and uncle?"

But the damage had already been done.

Tuesday was a day trip to Astoria, OR. The woman who owns a coffee shop we go to described it as her "happy place". We figured that justified a 2 1/2 hour drive south. Astoria sits just across the Oregon line at the mouth of the Columbia River. It was the western end of the Lewis & Clark expedition in 1805. It was the site of Fort Astoria, a fur trading venture, in 1810. It was a stop along the way for the Guenther expedition in 2014.
 

Astoria Column

Astoria from Astoria Column

Guenther Expedition at Astoria Column

Guenther Expedition at Astoria Coffee Shop

 

Day 48 - Ocean Shores, WA - 3708 Miles

Settling back in to our slow Ocean Shores lifestyle. Here are some random cruise pics.

The Original Whale Tail

A "Hanging Glacier" in Tracy Arm Fjord

Tracy Arm Fjord

Tracy Arm Fjord

Tracy Arm Fjord

 

Seal Resting on Ice Floe

Glacier - Tracy Arm Fjord

Tracy Arm Fjord

Skagway Excursion

Skagway Excursion

Skagway Train

Skagway Train

Mendenhall Glacier - Juneau

Juneau Area

Mendenhall Glacier - Juneau

 

Juneau Pigeon

Juneau Area

Random Inside Passage

 

Day 46 - Ocean Shores, WA - 3701 Miles

Musin' on Crusin'

You always run into unique people, like the woman in the elevator who said that someone smelled particularly fresh that morning and started sniffing everyone. Fortunately we only went two floors so we escaped before she got to me.

The captain endeared himself to me during the lifeboat drill. He said the reason there are so many intestinal problems on cruises is that cruisers are a filthy, filthy lot and we should wash our God damn hands every now and then. I may be paraphrasing a bit, but that was the gist of it.

I endeared myself to the crew when I called to complain the safe in our cabin - I mean suite - didn't work. It said to slide a credit card or driver's license to lock and unlock the safe. I tried two credit cards and my driver's license. I slid left. I slid right. It didn't work. Maintenance showed up and I showed him the problem by using my driver's license.

He said, "Your card's upside down. The magnetic strip has to be facing up."

Next time you call tech support and they lead with, "Are you sure it's plugged in?" you can thank people like me.

Suites are nice on a cruise ship. We had five floor-to-ceiling windows and the double doors to our expansive balcony also had floor-to-ceiling windows. It made me think back to our cruises where we debated if it was worth the extra money for a porthole versus drapes covering a blank wall. We used the walk-in closet, the double sinks in the bath and the TV's in both the living room and bedroom. We didn't use the Jacuzzi tub. We also used the priority boarding. It was nice bypassing the serpentine line waiting to go through security to go to our own x-ray and metal detector. I'm not sure they were even plugged in. We just breezed through. This was our first, and probably last, experience with livin' large.

Cruise ship food, like hitting every bar in town, is not condusive to dieting.

People on cruise ships like to share complaints with others on cruise ships and I find it highly entertaining. Some folks complained the foghorn blasting once a minute (as required by maritime law) in thick fog was disturbing their rest. If you cruise you need to recognize that the itinerary described in the brochure is merely illustrative of what could happen. Weather, mechanical problems, and other issues will alter things. Although events involving flames or the underside of the ship being exposed to sunlight cross even my line. You have to be able to roll with the punches. Of our four destinations, three didn't go as planned. An ill passenger being offloaded to a US Coastguard vessel at the entrance to Tracy Arm Fjord changed things. Rain and rock slides shutting down both the rail line and the only road to Skagway changed things. A passenger being airlifted out by a Canadian Coastguard helicopter on the way to Victoria changed things. Juneau went off without a hitch. C'est la vie.

I'll probably put up a few more Alaska pics if I can find the time now that I'm back in the hectic Ocean Shores lifestyle.
 

Day 42 - Juneau, AK - 3400 Miles (Oops! Thought I had published this from the phone.)

Beautiful day in Juneau. Not a drop of rain. Low 60's. We were so excited to see a few bald eagles in Ocean Shores. In Juneau bald eagles are basically pigeons. We saw dozens of them. Shore excursion was Mendenhall Glacier, a salmon hatchery, and a salmon bake. After all you have to do something with all those salmon they hatch. Also panned for gold but about 15 seconds was more than enough. I ended up with muddy water. Not sure what the going rate for that is.

Day 44 - Victoria, BC - 3400 Miles

The last stop on the cruise was Victoria, BC. The cruise director explained over the PA that US law required the cruise to make a stop in a foreign country. I'm guessing what he was really saying was, "By stopping in a foreign country we get to avoid a lot of US regulations."

Our stay was cut short by 2 1/2 hours due to one extremely inconsiderate guest. She felt it was more important to be in a stretcher hoisted to a Canadian Coast Guard helicopter in the middle of the night somewhere off Vancouver Island to be flown to a hospital than it was for me to have another beer or two in a Victoria pub. Not to mention how hard it was to sleep with a military helicopter hovering 50 feet over our balcony. That was just rude. Fortunately we've been to Victoria several times before.

BC Parliament Building

Empress Hotel

 

Empress AND Parliament

 

Happy Hour in Victoria

  

Day 41 - Skagway AK - 3400 Miles

It's rained the whole time we've been here. It's rained for 36 straight hours before we got here. Our excursion went from 5.5 hrs into the Yukon to 2 hrs to where a rock slide shut down the highway just inside Canada. An annoyance to us but a very big deal if you live here. It won't be open until Sunday. We thought maybe we should have done a rail excursion until we heard the train was also shut down because of a rock slide. Bad for the tour operators but the shops in town were rejoicing. Everyone on our bus from the NCL ship had to get off since the shorter tour wasn't an option. That left us half full. Sucks for them. Good for us.

Our tour guide was just winging it as he went. Someone mentioned coffee so our first stop was a Starbucks about 200yds from the pier. He also pointed out a restroom and oddly enough all 12 of us took advantage. Mind you we were about 90 seconds into our tour at that point. That tells you something about the collective bladders of cruise ship passengers. Clouds obscured a lot of the scenery but he did take us past a lot he was planning on buying and building a house on. It was one of those days where if you wanted to complain there was plenty to complain about but if you wanted to enjoy the day there was plenty to enjoy. The scenery was great and with all the rain the waterfalls were roaring. But then that's why there were rocks and mud on the road and railroad tracks causing our problems to begin with. 

Since we had extra time I decided to add my own personal pub crawl to the tour options. I had a beer in every place on the main street of Skagway with either bar, brewery, or saloon in the name. It wasn't as difficult as you might think.