Raymond, South Bend, and Ocean Shores

Debbie had an assignment for work one Sunday in Raymond, WA. Rather than just make the trip there, work, then drive back home, we chose to make a weekend trip out of it spending time in Raymond, South Bend, as well as traveling up the coast to Ocean Shores. November brings wind and rain to this area, but that didn't stop us from enjoying ourselves.

Make the jump for more story and pictures!

While Debbie's work was in Redmond, we were told to stay at the Seaquest Hotel located just a mile or two down the road in South Bend. Turned out to be very good advice. The hotel, while small, was exceptionally clean and our  room was very nice. Most importantly, they were pet friendly.

As it turns out, we were there on the opening day of elk hunting season. The town and hotels were all packed with hunters getting ready to head out first think Saturday morning. Surrounding the towns of Raymond and South Bend are thousands of acres of Weyerhaeuser timber lands
which are kept open to the public unless there is extreme fire danger. In these timber lands are plenty of elk. Since we weren't hunters looking for elk, and we didn't want to disturb any of the hunters who were stalking the elk, we chose not to go up into the forest lands this particular trip.

We decided instead to head up to the Ocean Shores and Grays Harbor area to check out the beach and the breaking waves.

Once we got there, we found the wind blowing about 30 mph from the ocean to land. It was cold, wet, and fun. Waves were breaking between four and six feet. Together with the wind there was some pretty fierce ocean spray.

We weren't the only people there though. A surprising number of people were out walking along the beach and the exposed sand bars. Like us they were checking out the crashing waves, the old trees which had washed up on the beach during other storms and high tides, and listening to the crashing waves. Between the wind and the waves, it was almost deafening.

 After walking on the southernmost sandbar at Ocean Shores, we got back in the Jeep and headed further up the small peninsula to see what else we could find.



 As we drove we found a small herd of deer which were quite tame. I guess in this area there are no real predators for them to worry about. So as long as you don't move too fast or make too much noise, you can get within twenty feet of them before they wander off to distance themselves from you. Around Ocean shores you can find them just about anytime on empty lots between the houses.

Further north from the deer, we happened upon a small park area that was quite busy with people walking around, taking pictures, and ocean spray coming over the sea wall. So we joined the crowd to check it out.

Here along the sea wall the wind was blowing directly out too the ocean head on into the waves coming in. Between the sea wall, an ocean break, and the land, the water was churned so hard from the waves pushing through the wind, that it sounded like a locomotive driving through. Add to that an algae bloom and we saw an excessive amount of sea foam as well.

Sea foam was blowing everywhere and sticking to everything. Including us!

Further up the beach we found a car acess point where we could drive the Green Monster out on the sand. Since the sand was firm there wasn't really an issue of getting stuck, so we took the chance. We didn't stay long. With salt spray and sea foam blowing everywhere and sticking to the Jeep we decided it best to go directly to a car wash where we spent the next hour washing the spray and sand off the Jeep including the underside.

We hadn't been able to let Emma run free while on the beach because of the dangerous surf, so on the way back to our hotel we found a large parking lot next to a closed down sawmill to let Emma work off some energy.

Turns out that seagulls do a better job giving her something to chase than any ball or Frisbee ever could.

Back in Raymond with a couple hours of daylight left we went off to take a look at the abandoned railroad bridge which used to connect the mill with the rest of the railroad. It was a rotating bridge instead of draw bridge to allow barges through to other mills upriver.

It would have been interesting to go out on this bridge, however, with it being turned 90 degrees to the connecting points, only a boat or a good swimmer could get here. With no boat, and neither of us wanting to swim in 35 dregree water, we took a pass on it.

What's an internet post without cats? One of the abandoned mills had A LOT of feral cats running around. When we say "A LOT" we are talking somewhere between 50 and 100. Sitting in the building, chasing things around, chasing each other, hiding in,on, and around equipment and other buildings. To be honest, it was a bit creepy.

And on that note...



We have quite a few more pictures for you to browse through:
Pictures: Raymond and Ocean Shores