It’s Saturday morning now. Everyone is bugging out to the beach. I put Laura down for a nap. So I get to hang out for awhile until she wakes up. Low tide is coming up. But oddly, I’m ok with the opportunity to pause. I’m even leaving the dishes for the moment.
Uh oh…Wayne says Laura’s babbling. I guess I’ll be forced to have fun versus journaling about the fun and adventure we had yesterday.
Friday was Wayne’s day. He took our most sun drenched day and declared it kite day. We drove the hour north to the International Kite Festival in Long Beach, WA. Wayne said it’s always been a dream of his to go there. The visions of hundreds of kites in the air will stay with me for my life time. It was truly beautiful.
We didn’t arrive in Long Beach until 11am. It started as festivals usually do, the race for a space. We were lucky in that we got a parking area close to the boardwalk. It was nice to be able to go back and forth to the car. We started with a shake down trip to get a lay of the land. Our first view was of a 20+ stacked kite stretching up above the dunes, reaching the morning moon. It seemed surreal as the wind blew. We knew we were in festival land when the food smelled fried. Fried oysters, calamari, salmon, cod, fries, etc.
The girls were hungry so we had kettle korn. It was my parents intro to such a thing and they liked it. It fended off the munchies for a while and kept Laura (who didn’t nap on the ride up) occupied in the stroller. We walked up on the board walk to watch the view. There was a fun announcer explaining the different kites. I got to see kite ballet. There was an 80+ man who flew 3 kites at the same time. He was so entertaining that he took attention from the rest of the festival and had to be asked to stop flying.
Wayne took the girls down to the beach to watch a kids fling about Cat and the Hat (which Sara has been reading here at the beach house). Mom and I pushed the stroller back to the cars to procure lunch. We picnicked at the festival area and Sara got cotton candy (Laura’s first).
This is where we all split up. Mom took Laura on the Discovery trail in the dunes to let her sleep. Sara, Dad, and I wandered among the kites while Wayne went down to the beach to fly a kite and talk to other kities. Dad drifted in and out of our company, photographing as inspired. Sara and I watch a huge crab kite consume some tourists and helped them out. Wayne took Sara to the beach to fly kites for awhile and I got to photograph with Dad. That was nice.
Finally, we wandered down to the beach. Sara and I had lots of fun playing in the surf. The girls had all worn bathing suits all day for this time. We didn’t get that wet (the water was cold) but it was fun to get splashed. Laura woke up and Dad helped Mom get the stroller on the beach. Laura saw the sand and started running around in circles and cackling with glee.
The tide started to come in and we decided to call it a day. We all had battle wounds from the day. Sara has a rash on her leg from falling in some prickle grass. I got sunburned behind my knees and on my nose. Laura had a bad heat rash on her neck. Wayne just felt “bone tired”.
Despite all that, we decided to do a town run. We really wanted to go to Cannon Beach town on Thursday afternoon, but ended up exploring Ecola State Park instead. So we took our opportunity. We didn’t arrive until 5pm. We started with dinner at Pizza a fetta at 231 Hemlock. It was pretty good. Laura was silly tired and kept climbing on me. It was a little hole in the wall and good for the kids. Geppetto’s Toy store was open. What a cute little place. We found “sea cucumbers” for the girls and bath animals for Laura. Sara got a horse set complete with grass, tree, and corral.
We tried to get to a kite store, but they were all closed. We found an idyllic playground instead. It was right next to the Cannon Beach Christian Conference center. I got some brochures. Don’t know if I’ll go, but it looks very cute.
We got home tired. Wayne unpacked the stuff and I took the girls upstairs for a bath. We were having such a great time, trying out all the new toys. Laura was relaxed, too relaxed. She pooped in the tub. Out everyone came. Laura started shrieking as I wrestled the poop infested toys out of her hand and scooped the kids up and headed for showers downstairs. It took awhile for the shrieking to stop. The kids weren’t as enamored with the shower, but we eventually got them clean. I put Laura to bed at that point. No one wanted to clean up the poop in the bath. It sat there for about an hour before I girded my loins and dealt with it.
Eventually I slept.