Ocean Shores
For those that don't know the story, Ocean Shores is a small resort community on the ocean at the entrance to Grays Harbor. Pat Boone started the community back in the 1960s and even had a celebrity golf tournament there. In the summer of 1988 M and I lived in a camper in the parking lot of a restaraunt and bar owned by the father of a navy buddy of M's.We liked the place and contemplated buying some of the lots that were so cheap back then, thinking that the place was so nice it should take-off someday. As you can see from the picture above, at least the deer like the place.
We drove by the old restaraunt which is now a second hand store not well taken care of. Just down the road however is a brand new three-story brand name hotel right on the beach. We drove on the beach down to another brand name hotel and stopped in for a drink. The view was tremendous and the atmosphere and service so-so. All-in-all the place had not seemd to change much. We drove around the streets reminiscing about places that were still there or noth there any more then headed back to camp.
The next day we called for a tee-time first thing, then went to breakfast. It seems every place we stopped to eat we would comment on how lousy the service was and the restaraunt we had breakfast at was no exception. The price for 9-holes seemed a little high, but we played anyway. I did much better than expected since I hadn't played in a few years. We enjoyed the round, I think.
After visiting the jetty and the marina, we drove up the beach to Copalis and had lunch at a nice little restaraunt on a bluff overlooking the ocean. Back at camp we mounted our bikes and headed in to town for a cycle tour of the city and surrounding area. We stopped and got some real estate brochures from the local IGA still there. The prices for the lots we used to think about buying did not seem to go up more than your average investment, so unless we had built something on them we probably did OK not buying them. Ocean Shores has what they call camping lots where you can just buy a small lot and park your RV on it whenever you want. Some people put small trailers in carports also. The lots are usually in heavily wooded areas around the lake. Seems like that would be a cheap way to live.
The streets were all blocked off for a parade of show cars as we headed to the mall. The parade was soon over and we did some shopping for gifts then headed back to camp. After a short ride to the beach to get some sunset pictures, we went to a local seafood restaraunt. After 30 minutes of our 15 to 20 minute wait, they opened up the loung and let us eat there. The place was really popular. I had blackened fresh red snapper with cajun spices. I was surprised at how big the portions were and this was the first time I really enjoyed cajun spices. They weren't too hot for me.
After another night playing scrabble around the campfire and riding our bikes into town for breakfast, we decided to head aour separate ways. M was headed back to Cottage Grove and I was headed on my trip. I wanted to stay at Fort Canby State Park which I had fond memories of from a previous stay.