We Love To Watch Rehearsals

   And really enjoy Andy with his Eastside Youth Band…. He seems to have so much fun with them!  Every Tuesday evening….all school year.

    These are photos from two rehearsals, Nov 21 and 28.

   

Clayton’s 21st Birthday Party

We had a lot of fun.  We had decorated our condo a little bit and fixed dinner, then gave presents.  They really enjoyed the MAD Lib game book about Seattle.

   

The Ghost Lighthouse and 11,300 Steps!

The Ledbetter Point State Park is on the northernmost tip of the Long Beach Peninsula.  The concierge here told us that just south on the west corner of it is private land but we could park on the adjoining residential street and walk up the beach to the lighthouse.  “Great,” we thought, “we love lighthouses.”

       We drove to the end of the street as she had shown us on the map.  The street ended at a HUGE gate.  “Oh,” we said, “wow!  There’s the gate for the private land,” so we turned left toward the beach and found a place to park at the end of the road where we saw a beach path.

    It’s a little ways over the dunes to the beach and when we got to the beach we looked north.  Far away, in the fog and mist we saw the tip of the lighthouse.  (Can you see it in the photo?)   

      

Yes, it's there.  And also a dark spot of the large tree trunk driftwood piece.

    We started walking.  It did not seem to get very much closer as we walked and walked; thus, it was like a ghost.  But finally it did.       

      We also looked for a light, but No. 

 It finally did get closer, and we wondered if there would be a path to it.  Still we saw no light, but more and more windows.

Ron walks past it to look at those signs.  They say, No more motor vehicles, only clamers.

We see more buildings over the dunes.

  We finally got there:  more than 5,000 steps!

Proof: we made it!

We wondered if there was a public path to it.  Unmarked, we did see a path, so we walked a little closer and then also saw a large house, seeming to match the architecture of the lighthouse.  We wondered if that was the owner’s house who might have remodeled the lighthouse for a living space, so we didn’t go too much further, since it looked like it would be private property.

Ron noticed it looked like living space now with all those windows.

The more pressing issue on our walk today was the wind was SOOOO strong, at our backs as we walked north, so we knew that walking back would be worse with the headwind in our faces.  (Normally, we choose to walk into the wind first, so it is at our backs coming back; but No.)  But we walked backed, fighting the wind.  

Walking back in the wind.  And the lighthouse is a ghost again.

Thankfully, the sun came out, shining on the waves, so at least it felt warmer.   

Here's the marker for our path someone had made

We watched carefully for the large driftwood pieces that we had passed going north, hoping to get back soon!  We finally saw the last large rooted tree driftwood piece and then looked for the marker that had been at the end of our path.  [When going from a path to the beach we always need to know where the particular entrance is to get back; otherwise, easy to miss it and walk forever?  (Guess how we learned this.)]

      We were pretty happy that we had made the trip (but we hadn't known it was more than a 2 mile walk one way) and so we extended our walking distance to 4.5 miles!!!!!  It's off-season and we did not see anyone else on the beach.

     Later, we looked on the satellite map and saw the large estate, and yes, that was the house, even so far into the property.  More research showed that the lighthouse was never a real lighthouse, but rather built in the entire 600-acre estate by business entrepreneur Craig Tillotson of Nu Skin.  It is known as Leadbetter Farms, which is available for rent.  More photos and information are on their website and also FB.  

On the other side of the property, on SR 103 on the way to the Ledbetter State Park, you'll see their other gate.

“The Wells Fargo Wagon Is A-Comin' "

UPS is incredible. Once again, an overnight shipment to a small town, from Amarillo TX. We were waiting for the package and saw the UPS truck - We were so excited since it is UNBELIEVABLE!! Thus, it was like when the Well Fargo wagon would deliver......

(As posted before, we had also received a package in Cable WI overnight and no one there could believe it actually arrived. It had been flown from TX to MSP and then to the corporate airport at Rice Lake, WI and then put on the truck for the two hour trip.)

Here, the package was flown to the regional airport at Astoria OR (Warrentown) from Portland and put on the truck there to drive north.

So great to track a package:

Delivered On: Tuesday, 11/07/2017 at 6:20 P.M.
Left At: Office Received By: MOON

Shipment Progress

LOCATION DATE LOCAL TIME ACTIVITY
OCEAN PARK, WA, US 11/07/2017
6:20 P.M. Delivered

Warrenton, OR, United States 11/07/2017

11/07/2017 9:45 A.M. Out For Delivery Today
11/07/2017 9:22 A.M. Destination Scan
11/07/2017 9:00 A.M. Arrival Scan
11/07/2017 8:55 A.M.

Portland, OR, United States 11/07/2017
8:15 A.M. Departure Scan

11/07/2017 5:52 A.M. Destination Scan
11/07/2017 5:44 A.M. Arrival Scan

Louisville, KY, United States 11/07/2017
4:14 A.M. Departure Scan

DFW Airport, TX, United States 11/06/2017
9:09 P.M. Arrival Scan

Amarillo, TX, United States 11/06/2017
7:40 P.M. Departure Scan

11/06/2017 6:31 P.M. Origin Scan

United States 11/06/2017
5:46 P.M. (ET) Order Processed: Ready for UPS

Worldmark Surfside Inn, Ocean Park WA and Walking on the Beach

    Way north on the Long Beach Peninsula, we are enjoying this unit and resort, a typical Worldmark one.  

All units have an ocean view and on the third floor (of the three-story building), the view is the best. 

We wanted a place to do our jigsaw puzzles, so we brought in the balcony table into the kitchen, where there was plenty of room, and then could put our puzzle on the larger table.

Just ¼ mile to the beach and then the total long wide beach sandy is available.  We walked our two miles on it yesterday.