10 May The Beach
Over the years I’ve been to a lot of beaches, some warm, some cold. I’ve wiggled my toes in the sands of Mexico and Hawaii, but none of them will ever earn the title of ‘The Beach.’ That sole title goes to Long Beach, WA. It IS The Beach. It doesn’t just describe the actual physical vastness of where the sand meets the water, but the pace and style of life in the town. On the nicer days, this means that we are going non-stop, playing frisbee, hiking, running around on the beach, playing games in the lawn, biking around the simple streets, and late night fires in the backyard. On the yucky days, it means lots of board games in the family room, a crackling fire keeping us warm, hitting up the small theater, and getting dragged to the all the little shops with the girls. Good or bad weather, the beach is the beach, rain or shine, we are having a blast.
The town is very much a tourist-based economy, the place is a ghost town in the colder months, and packed in the warmer ones. Walking around during the off-seasons, entering restaurants and stores, you quickly realize a very consistent theme, you are the only one in them. It makes you wonder how they manage to keep the businesses open, but then it makes you realize just how busy they are in the warmer times of the year. Because of the crummy weather we are still experiencing, the town was still very much dead. This meant that we practically had the town to ourselves this last weekend.
I’ve been fortunate enough to have grown up with very great friends and families around me. A couple of those families own beach homes down in Long Beach, so over the years, I’ve spent quite a few weekends and holiday breaks relaxing in the town. The last couple years the timing hadn’t been right, and I’ve been absent from the beach visits with the clans, but when I got the call a month ago about another journey there, I was sure to mark it on the calendar. Somehow it had been about five years since I had made it down to the beach, man I hate how fast time goes. Another reason why I’m glad I’m a photographer. I get to document and photograph the people, places, and events around me as they whizz by. I was sure to bring my camera bag this time around to snap some shots. I would have gotten a lot more photos, but the weather was very iffy and I wasn’t about to get stuck out in the rain with my equipment, so I only brought the camera along when I knew we weren’t going to get stuck in a down-pour.
We did get some breaks in the weather and ventured out to the beach and a couple of the lighthouses. I thought I’d share a couple of the photos I took during the trip.
