At the end of spring break, we went to Rockaway Beach for three nights. We hustled to get there on Thursday because it was warm and sunny. The kids ended up running in the waves and digging in the sand for a few hours. We weren’t quite prepared and didn’t have sunscreen or swim wear. But we did get to have ice cream thanks to G and Pa. That night we had the quote of the trip- Pa got clams with is dinner. Soren asked to try one, then another, and more still. They did a trade- a clam for a few french fries. Pa wasn’t listening to Soren at one point when he asked for another. Soren finally asked in exacerbation “Can any one give me a clam?” And Pa was the only one with clams.

The next few days had a dreary forecast but we managed to catch dry chunks. On Friday, we went to Kelly’s Marina and rented crab pots to crab off the dock. It was so much fun- friendly marina cats, carnival cutouts, and a couple firepits. Adam was a champion pullers with the kids lending a hand getting the slack out. We caught 2 keepers! We also got some more clams and a couple dozen oysters. They boiled our crabs and when they cleaned them, they offered us the crab hearts to try. Sloane loved it! And Adam watched the technique for future crabs.

We had some pretty walks on the beach and a nice trail to a huge trees. We played some Yahtzee and only set off the smoke detector once trying to build a fire. Rockaway Beach was a funky little town- some old style gift shops on the main drag along with a crystal shop with a bubble blowing machine on the sidewalk. We also had fun relaxing at the house.

On the drive home, we saw some snow on the shoulder on the coastal mountain pass. I joked to my parents that we had showed them all the extremes of weather- a sunny 70, hailstorms, typical PNW snow, and then a little snow. But we were in for a surprise the next morning.