Events of Saturday, May 2nd, blogged Saturday, May 9th

Side Note from May 9th: I’m so fricking tired. After much deliberation with my rapidly shrinking bank account, I bit the bullet and decided to spring for a hotel room last night primarily so I could have WiFi for the blog. Usually that means I can play catch up and do one at night and one in the morning. I’m so exhausted that it’s less than an hour until checkout and I’m just starting the first one. Yesterday marked the final two weeks of the journey, and it’s been amazing and more than I could have hoped for, but I will be so glad to just STOP somewhere and BE.

Anyhoodle . . . I had originally planned to camp when I got to Long Beach, but a quick perusal of the campground at Cape Disappointment was, well . . . disappointing to say the least. There was also a place that looked interesting where you could stay in vintage travel trailers spread across a large field. But it looked a touch skeevy. So I went with the cheapest motel, where the comforter was so polyester that after trying both beds, Annie eventually opted to sleep on the floor. 

But there was a free hot shower and a little laundromat, and the folks who worked there were super nice. AND, it was parked right next door to the holy grail of tacky beach emporiums!

 
I mean this place has it ALL! A dime store Indian with a headdress made out of feather lollipops, vintage coin operated peep shows, mystery urns, EVEN A TWO HEADED CALF!!!

  

    

But the piece de la resistance, the focal point, the Mona Lisa of the whole operation, had to be JAKE THE HALF MAN HALF ALLIGATOR!

  

 Words can not express my profound joy. Trip over, go home now, we’ve reached the pinnacle!

And the hits don’t stop there. This place is just oozing  craptastic kitsch even on the OUTSIDE!

You can pose with the World’s Longest Chopsticks…

  

 The World’s Largest Frying Pan (which is actually a non working replica, because the original – which WAS used – broke, but no worries, they have the handle for you to touch!!

  

 AND! The World’s Largest Razorneck Clam!!!

  

Which . . . wait for it . . . spits water for the low, low bargain price of only twenty five cents!!

 

I think I need to sit down.

We strolled the main street for a bit, and then I decided that with a long drive ahead of us, I would splurge on some “‘Award Winning” clam chowder (every clam chowder I have sampled, or even seen, since Monterey has claimed to be award winning) for now, and some local fried oysters to take for dinner in camp later. (cue dramatic organ notes foreshadowing comedic despair.)

But first – no visit to a seaside town is complete without a walk on the (windy) beach!

  

At last, off we set, puttering along up the scenically spectacular Washington Coast. I stopped at a mini-mart to stock up on groceries and almost left empty handed when it appeared they had no cans of Diet Coke for sale, only my nemesis, the “P” word. Luckily, the lovely cashier stopped me on my way out, asked me what I needed and pointed me to some obviously clandestine boxes she must have tucked away, out of sight of the cola police. Loaded up with a few days worth of supplies, I returned to Marigold, only to find a black and white snout snorfling around the oyster bag which I had completely forgotten about. Luckily, it appears I returned before any damage was done.

On we went, enjoying the sunshine and lovely weather, only to do a double take upon spotting a sign for the tiny hamlet of Humptulips!

 

I drove a bit further, then decided a town with A name like that MUST sell T-shirts, so did my quickest three-point turn and headed back to Humptulips! Interestingly, not only did they not sell Humptulips T-shirts, they only sold Alaska T-shirts. The one clerk working there had been sitting outside enjoying the sunshine and in the name of customer service followed me inside when I entered. Because I didn’t want to seem like I only came in looking for merchandise bearing the name of their uniquely monikered locale, I decided I had to make a purchase. I bought a tomato.

That was to be the end of the excitement for a while, we drove and drove and drove some more and finally made it to Olympic National Park and the much heralded beachfront Klaloch campground! It was spectacularly gorgeous, and still early enough in the day that we had time to dip our paws in the water and frolic away! I think the thought of being basically in the same place for the next three days made both of us a little giddy!

          

So giddy in fact, that I bravely decided to once again bust out the pie iron and finally, at long last, achieved grilled cheese success!

  

It was a truly great day, capped off with yet another perfect ocean sunset-this time with birds!