Explore WA: Long Beach

My lovely mother was in town for a week and what do Wes and I do to the poor lady…. leave her for a night with the girls. I don't think she minded too much :) Seriously though, thanks for watching them. Wes and I headed south along Hwy 101 to Long Beach, WA. The weather was great and the drive was pretty with glimpses of Mt Rainier, red and yellow leaves on trees in front of dark evergreens, and the ocean. Of course I got anxious and panicked on the drive down there… the trapped feeling and fearful thoughts filled my head. I don't know why it happens or why I go down that spiral. I get frustrated. I so desperately want to have fun with just Wes. I want Wes to have fun. We are doing a new adventure together, just the two of us without the kids. Why do you have to get crazy weird, Casey? Lies, doubt, fear, and faithless thoughts flood though. Wes prays over me, friends that I text pray, and we keep driving toward Long Beach despite me telling Wes we should turn around. I struggle for the next 24 hours. Mind games basically. My friend Mary Ann reminded me that self hate is the same thing as self love. I think I historically have categorized self hate as a somewhat good thing or closer to humility but that is a distortion of the gospel. Self hate and self love are both in a sense the same as they focus on self instead of God. She gently reminded me to praise God for what He has done and not to be annoyed by this but to remember that I am being reminded that I need the Lord and He desires my entire heart and mind.  Something else I read this week that I loved from "Restless" by Jennie Allen is His glory will be revealed, and those who have suffered most will be the most overjoyed. (see 1 Peter 4:12-13) and If our worst fears come true…God… and we suffer and comforts us, we comfort others. (see 2 Corinthians 1:3-4) 
Well Wes and I still had a good time. We did all there was to do on the Long Beach Peninsula in about 8 hours. If you go there, I'd just spend about 2 nights max. It is beautiful and if you can relax better than we can then maybe a week would do you good.
Went to the Cranberry Museum and Farm…. learned a lot about wet vs dry harvest.

Then the World Kite Museum. Wes was not impressed with the museum but did think the kites carrying bombs in WWII flying over the unarmed carriers was pretty cool. Also Long Beach is known for kites as the beach is windy and huge so it is perfect for flying kites. We made one at the museum and bought one from the a store so we of course had to go to the beach to try them out. 

 Next we went to Cape Disappointment State Park. It had wonderful views and contained a lot of history which was fascinating.

 Before dinner we drove on the beach. After all it is the worlds longest drivable beach. It is huge. Driving on the beach in a 2-wheel drive vehicle is fine when you stay on the compact sand but when we tried to leave we had to go through some loose sand…. and ….. we got stuck. Wes dug around the tires and some local people helped us push the car out. I can't believe I didn't get a picture of that! The sunset over the Pacific was beautiful though and made up for our mishap.

We stayed at a Bed and Breakfast which we had never done before. We had a great experience. It was clean, comfortable, quiet and the breakfast was crazy good. It could have possibly been the best breakfast we have ever had. Wes even ate fried oysters for breakfast!