A Trip to Ocean Shores
June 30, 2008

Realizing that we've not been to a wedding since our own, three years ago, we were excited to get the invitation for our friend's wedding. Our trip actually began on Thursday evening after Frances finished work. Try as she may, there was no getting out of the office early! We made it to Cle Elum later that evening and had a nice visit with Frances' folks before bed. We then spent Friday in Cle Elum where we visited the local antique shops, peeked around the folks' garden to decide what plants we wanted clippings of, and then had a nice BBQ dinner before watching "Dan in Real Life" for the evening entertainment.

Saturday morning saw us up early for the long drive to Ocean Shores. We drove over with Frances' folks, took a detour to see a larger-than-life coffee pot (this is becoming a habit), and took a planned side-trip to the state capital building in Olympia where we had a picnic lunch before exploring the legislative building – where we admired George Washington's bust (giggle). Then it was back to the car for the ride to the coast, stopping along the way at a very non-scenic scenic viewing tower. Once we made it to Ocean Shores, we settled into the hotel before meeting with Celeste and Royann's families and the folks for a pre-wedding meal at the local Mexican joint. No chippies in this sea-side town (oh, how Frances longs for fish-n-chips from Seaton Carew)!

When we finally made our way to the Judith Ann Inn for the wedding venue, the rain decided to join in for the celebration. What was meant to be a lovely evening ceremony on the second-floor balcony of a sea-side inn turned into a just-as-lovely ceremony in the dining room; it was a small, intimate gathering, so "Plan B" worked just fine. And, in the end, the bride and groom jumped the broom – which is what the event was all about in the first place.

Day three (Sunday) we got up and toured the beach along the jetty for a bit, where we searched for (and found) some nice beach rocks and shells for our garden. While we took the opportunity to add more photos to our "We Forgot the Tripod" gallery, Frances' dad managed to snap a picture of the two of us in what seems to be a compromising position – but when we look at the sequence of events, we realized that Dad's photo captured the moment that Paul made Frances perk up for the camera!

We then found ourselves at "Our Place" for breakfast. For those who may not know, a bit of trivia: When Frances' folks opened their café in Cle Elum (way back in the late 1980s) they wanted to call it Our Place. But there was already a restaurant operating in the state under that name, so they chose "Cook's Place" for a name instead. Until stumbling upon Our Place, we never knew where the place was. It was great food though, and we would certainly recommend it to anyone happening by!

On the way back to Cle Elum, we made a stop at Ikea for their "it only happens twice a year" sale where we managed to find a new coffee table (thanks to Swedish ingenuity, the whole table fit nicely on the roof-rack of the folks' rig) and we finally found our "perfect" martini glasses. Even the folks managed to find some things of interest.

By Monday morning, we were ready to see "home" again. We got up early and "stole" some plants from the garden and loaded them into the car along with several bits-and-bobs for around the house – a "new-to-us" axe, an electric sander and various tools that Frances has stored at her folks during our apartment-dwelling days, and a few borrowed tools to get us through until our next trip to the hardware store. We also loaded a picnic lunch to have during the journey home.

We were pretty beat by the time we left for home, but still managed to make a quick stop to see the Wild Horses near Vantage on the way. We packed a lot of miles into four days, and Frances was pleased to get back to work for the rest. Of course, with summer really and truly upon us now, we know that we'll be clocking up the mileage a bit more … check back soon to read about our latest summer adventures …

See more photos of our trip here.