“I’m SO Clark Griswold!”

That’s what Jack said after we got home from our beach trip at the end of the kids’ last summer visit.

We thought it would be fun to take the kids to the beach for a day on their last day with us. It was hot in town, 85 degrees or so. Usually when we go to the beach we grab extra clothes, extra everything, you know… but since this was just a day trip, we figured we’d save the trouble of packing a bunch of extra stuff we usually don’t need.

We hopped in the car with nothing but our tank tops and shorts. Well, except Kevin and Katherine. They decided to wear their jeans and bring a sweatshirt. We headed for Long Beach, WA. The kids love going there especially since they have cool go-carts!

As we grow closer, we see cloud cover off to the west. Jack looks to me and says “those look like rain clouds…” I say “yeah, but it’s warm, it shouldn’t be too bad”. Ha.

We arrive in Long Beach to discover that not only is it pouring down rain, but it’s c-c-c-cold! Ok, fine, we won’t let that stop us. First stop: a store to find some cheap jackets. This annoys me, because the last thing my kids need are more jackets. Jackets are one thing we are NOT short on in this house. All of their closets are packed full of various types of jackets we’ve collected over the years. Hand-me-downs, gifts, deals-I-couldn’t-pass-up, etc.

We find a store and they are having a sidewalk sale. Under tarps of course. We find some cheap jackets and set off. As we drive by the go-cart place we see they are indeed open and there’s a line around the block. Yay! But we’re hungry so we run to McDonald’s for a quick lunch. We immediately went back to the go-carts and discover no line! We park, hop out of the van, and go for our tickets. This nasty old man comes out and says “we’re closed”.

We all stood there stunned for a moment. Then he said “45 minutes went by and no one showed up and it’s raining, YOU do the math”. He was quite rude about it. I was like “fine fine” and we sent the kids back to the car. Majorly disappointed.

We decide to go to the arcades and the mini amusement park instead. After a few games we bought tickets for the rides. The kids chose the Octopus first. I took Cody, Jack took Casey, etc. and off we went. Cody and I were first to get on. He was so excited he bolted through the gate as soon as it was opened, only to run directly into the handle that operates the ride and bruise up his face but good. I tried to stop him as I saw it coming but he was too quick for me. He cried a bit. You could tell it hurt! But he got over it as soon as we got on the ride.

This was Cody’s first ‘big kid’ ride and he had a blast! He got scared once and clung to me and almost cried but I kept pointing out how fun it was and by the time it was over, he was all smiles, his bruise forgotten. Jack didn’t fare so well. He came off the ride 3 shades of green. He said no more rides for him. We only had a few tickets left so we let the little ones ride the Merry-Go-Round. Jack sat off to the side on a bench trying not to throw up.

We went for an ice cream cone after that and it settled Jack’s stomach. We played some more video games at another arcade. Casey won some tickets and turned them in himself. He came up to us with a bag of goodies. When we asked what was in the bag he proudly says, “a Chinese finger puzzle, a parachute guy, and 18 flies!”. Eighteen flies?? Yep, 18 plastic flies… lol. Alrighty then.

By then it had stopped raining. It was getting late too (around 4:30 PM on a Sunday) and shops were about to close so we decided to head for the beach. We piled everyone back in the kidmobile and set off for the sand. I love that you can drive on the Washington beaches!

We got out on the sand and drove around, looking for a good spot to stop to let the kids out. There weren’t many people there. That’s not surprising considering the weather and time. We see an SUV parked in the sand and decide that looks like a good place to stop, so Jack heads that way….. THUMP!

“What was that?” I ask. Jack says, “Um, I think we just sank…” So we hop out and sure enough, we had sunk. Jack tells the kids to get out and we’d try to push the car out. No luck. So they try digging. No luck. Nothing we tried work, and we soon discovered that NOTHING we did was going to work because the van had sank to the axle and the front tires were spinning freely.

This wouldn’t have been a big deal if the tide wasn’t coming in (we were only about 30 feet from the water) and there were lots of people to ask for help. But it was coming in and there were NO people, other than the one SUV. And they did try to push us out, but since neither of us had a tow strap, it wasn’t happening.

Melissa started crying. It was scaring her that the water was getting closer and closer. She asked, “Are we going to die?” Casey of course smiles and says, “YEP!”….. grrrr! We explained the worst case scenerio is we watch the car float away but we would not die.

I got on the cell phone and called for a tow truck. They tell us it’s going to be $95 bucks to pull us out and it’s charged before they even leave to come get us because too many times they get called out there only to find the people gone already. (They’d find someone else to pull them out.) I explained there was no worry of that.. no one was there!

One man did come by on foot, and tells Jack he’d seen a lot of people get stuck this year. That the sand was unusually soft. Gee, thanks for the warning!

Tow truck arives, pulls us out backwards, we follow him to the shop and pay the outrageous tow fee (plus tax) and decide it’s time to go home.

I would say the whole trip was a bust, but it wasn’t. It makes for a good laugh… now. The kids did enjoy themselves for the most part. And Casey got his 18 flies!