Life in Long Beach

Ok so this blog is kinda a mess because of all the pictures so sorry about it not looking so great. I always have issues with the photos so if someone has a trick that makes it easier to move photos around I would appreciate it! :) So the first few photos are of our room. It is a WorldMark Resort and it was brand new as of August this year. Kim and Jason gave us this trip as a wedding present and we got to spend the weekend with Jason and Marlis. It was a one bedroom unit with a full kitchen and a patio with a BBQ. Extremely nice! The lamps were pretty cool and I loved that extra detail in the room for the beach theme!












This was a view from our balcony of the beach!











On Friday we went Horseback Riding first thing in the morning for a 2 hour beach ride. Jason was pretty mad at me since I made the reservation and he had a bad experience and wasn't too excited about having to go. Ray also had never been on a horse before so it was a new experience for him. Marlis was raised with horses so she was a natural on her horse! I had ridden a few times but it had been a long time. I was quite proud of the boys and myself for how well we did on the ride! I let mine run a little ways which the worst part was having my boobs fly all over the place. They were already super sore from all the hormones I'm on so that didn't feel good! Ray did a really good job for it being his first time. The funny part was at one point I was way ahead of them and I head the other girl in our group scream and all the horses started galloping. I found out from Ray later that his horse was the one that started everything because he started bucking and going crazy. Our guide told him that his horse was kind of retarded too...how sad! Jason did really well even though he had a horse that HATED having another horse near him. As soon as a horse would come up to pass him his would put his ears back immediately or start running away. We were soooo sore after the horse ride that we could barely walk! It was a very beautiful ride all the way down the beach!

After that Ray and I walked around town for a bit and bought our licenses for the clamming that night, along with a clam gun and buckets. We had lunch at Castaway's and it was pretty good. I had a clam chowder bread bowl and Ray had fish and chips. The clam chowder was no Morris' in Cannon Beach but it was definately satisfying. So there is a store there in Long Beach called Marsh's Free Museum. They have this Alligator Man on all of their marketing stuff and all over the store. It's pretty funny. The store was kinda strange because there were stuffed animal heads everywhere and that freaks me out! We didn't really find anything that day but continued to walk around town a bit.

That night we had dinner in the room again to save some money and then we went clamming on Saturday night. The only problem is that we didn't find any clams so we were frustrated! We went home and watched some Youtube clips on clamming and so we knew exactly what to look for the next night. We then played Scene It Squabble and the girls won the 1st game and Jason couldn't let that happen so we played a short 2nd game and they won cuz we got stuck in the Honey Do section forever!

We had to check out of our room on Sunday since we only had 2 nights but stayed with Jason & Marlis on Sunday night since they had 3. There was a murphy bed in all the rooms so we slept on that. On Sunday we walked around town and did some shopping. We also found a hat store and another store that had a bunch of hats & glasses and had a ton of fun 'dressing up'! We bought a few presents while at Marsh's for my dad and Joan. I think they will love them! :) After walking around most of the day Marlis and I went to find a seafood market to find something for dinner. We drove to Ilwaco which was about 5 minutes South and found a good place to stop. We bought crab cakes, salmon and prawns. We made pasta with the salmon and prawns, had the crab cakes and salad and bread. It was a delish dinner! :) We mostly hung out after that and watched TV and the Sunday Night Football game until time to go clamming again.

We left around 8:00 and we went farther South down the beach in hopes we would find some clams this time. Well first we got stuck in the sand and they all had to go out and push the car while I gunned it and drove to the hard sand. We searched and searched and searched for some holes but found nothing again! I was extremely frustrated! We had even bought a lamp at the store earlier to see better and that didn't work well! Just annoying that we couldn't find anything! Then when we got back to the hotel we were getting in the elevator and these 2 women came up with tons and tons of clams and we were talkign to them about how they found so many and we hadn't found any! Well, maybe next year! :)

When we got back Marlis and I went down to the hot tub while the guys played pool. It was so relaxing and it felt great on our sore muscles from the horse back riding. We were all pretty tired when we got home so we lounged until we all went to bed.

We headed out on Monday after we had cleaned up and did all the dishes. It was another long ride home and some winding roads so it was nice once we got back to I-5! I can't wait to go back again! It was a great weekend and I enjoyed spending the time with Jason & Marlis!

*again sorry about the post not being organized, the pictures are driving me crazy!*