Watching The Ocean

Chuck and I got away for a few days this passed week. We planned this in January and I'm so thankful we did. Born and raised in San Diego I love the ocean and certainly didn't appreciate it as much as I should have when I lived there. 

We live on the east side of Puget Sound, a waterway between Seattle and the Olympic Peninsula so we're five minutes from the water. But we're a three hour drive from the ocean.

We went to Ocean Shores and got there around 2:30 Monday afternoon. The weather was cold, rainy and windy. Oooh that wind was cold!

 

This was our view when we arrived. And it was like this for a couple days.

 

We went to the grocery store and bought stuff for breakfasts and dinners but we usually went out for lunch. We played games, read books, walked along the beach, we did whatever we wanted! By Wednesday afternoon the clouds began to part and the view was beautiful! There was so much wildlife there too. One night we drove around the peninsula at dusk and saw 24 deer in about 2 miles!

Little Sandpipers were all over the beach. It's a little hard to see them in the second photo but all those little spots are Sandpipers!

 

I walked along the beach every single day. And every day it was different! Shells and rocks, driftwood and shifting sand. Looking out the window one day, I saw a bald eagle! 

All bundled up and ready to go out!

There were two paths going from the back of the building by the pool, out to the beach.

Looking back, our room was on the top floor. I spent a lot of time out on that balcony!

 

In this picture you can see on the right side, the affect the wind had on the sand compared to the ocean washing up on it.

 

Then on Wednesday afternoon the sun came out!! Oh you guys, it was glorious!!

 

Walking back to the condo, I'm coming to the end of the path and run into this... they really were everywhere!

 

On Thursday, I pulled the chair up to the window and I sat there for three hours. I didn't stress about work. I didn't think about things going on in the world. I just watched the water. I watched the waves crash. I watched the tide come in. I just sat and watched the ocean.

 

And I thought about how blessed I am: I have a loving family; I've had amazing opportunities that many haven't had. This trip being one of them. The Lord has been so good to me and I'm humbled by the grace He pours out to me day after day. 

Have you had an opportunity recently to just 'watch the ocean'?

He Tried To Get Breakfast To Go

Chuck went back to work last Thursday. He went from not working at all for 2 months, straight into 13 hour days! Two good things though: 1. he's got the stamina to do it and 2. he's racked up enough overtime this week alone to be able to take a short, last minute vacation the first part of August!

  

Taken in 2019  

I officially started back to work last Thursday as well but today the entire staff was there. We had a staff meeting to talk about what things were going to look like the next few weeks and we were sitting so far apart from each other our pastor had to use a microphone! The new normal for 2020.

I looked out the window the other day and saw something laying in the driveway.

Diana used to have a Westie and that's kind of what it reminded me of but when I got closer I could see it was a bird, it looked like a seagull. It was big so I called the Department of Fish and Wildlife but it was the weekend so I was only able to leave a message. 

Then yesterday morning I'm sitting at the table and I hear a huge flock of crows just making the loudest noise, there must have been a dozen or more and I jumped up thinking they were all fighting over the bird.

Instead I saw this:

A bald eagle had picked it up and was trying to fly away with it! The crows all attacked the eagle so it dropped the bird and flew directly toward my window!  

We've lived in this house more than 19 years and this is only the 2nd time I've seen an eagle this close! I kept watching to see if it would come back but it never did. At least not then. When I got up this morning the bird was gone!

We had our first official church service this weekend. We could have 50 in the Sanctuary and 100 outside so the custodians and I worked on Friday to prep everything and get it all ready to take outside on Sunday morning. We had racks of folding chairs and masks and disinfecting wipes and kleenex and trash cans... there was a long list of things we had to comply with. But we did it and it was so good to be back together. Although I use the word 'together' somewhat loosely.

I can't wait for the day when we're ALL in the Sanctuary!

So what are you looking forward to the most once this social distancing ends?

Have you ever seen wildlife up close?