Elrod Family Vacation- the Pacific Ocean

 We had a lot of fantastic weddings that we got to be a part of this year, but that also meant we are out of vacation days- so spontaneously about 4 months ago I found a cheap hotel on the Pacific Ocean in Long Beach, WA, called hubs asked if I could book it for Labor day, he said YES, so Elrod Family Vacation was a go.

I've never been to the Pacific ocean so I was really really excited.

Our room had an ocean front view too so we could soak it all in as much as we wanted.

Joshua said it was beautiful but Oh my it is BEAUTIFUL. It is a much more wild, natural, breathtaking view than the Atlantic.

The first day-

We went biking down the paths through the wild grass with the ocean peeping through,
Hiked 9.4 miles across the whole southern part of the penninsula,
Saw 2 lighthouses, (and ran into a coworker at one!!)
walked through a scary bunker (only after we saw someone else do it :)
and overall exhausted ourselves!
So we napped and took firewood, s'mores, and kites to the beach to watch the sunset and sit by the fire until the stars came out

With all the weddings and visitors it was such a blessing to have the weekend to focus on us, and our relationship, we talked the whole time, spent hours at dinner talking about what we're learning, what we want to work harder on, and about the blessings God continues to reveal to us

Day 2-

Of course I brought my tripod and wanted to take a few pictures of us :)

Sorry I think they're too cute so I shared some of them.

 

We also drove to Astoria, OR for the day. We climbed 150 spiral stairs to the top of the Column there to soak in some absolutely amazing views.
Had a slow breakfast
happened upon a farmer's market
and looked back over what we had hiked yesterday

We ended the night with another fire- we loved that we could have them on the beach. There are literally no rules posted for the beach.
O and this is apparently the longest beach in the world, but it's the Pacific Ocean so it's the beach where the waves are big, the water is cold, and only children under 10 brave the water past their knees.

Day 3-

We drove down the whole north end of the beach (we wanted to say we had seen the whole thing)

And it ended in a state park that had a few hikes, the north end was very swamp like and had this beautiful, quiet quality that made it a really great place to spend the morning.

We also went to a u-pick blueberry farm! You pay on the honors system into a box with a $ sign on it. For some reason all of those things make me happy.
Plus we ate almost all of them that night while we fell asleep on the couch after driving home.

Conclusion- I love the Pacific Ocean and family vacation. If you want to come check it out we'd be happy to go with you :)