We enjoyed Ocean Shores: shopping in all the little tourist shops, eating a fresh Dungeness crab sandwich, walking on the beaches and visiting the interpretive center. They had displays of all the wildlife and sea life of the Pacific coast. And yes...they even had a Sasquach display. There was the infamous footprint, and even photos of a nest someone found. The Olympic Penninsula is famous for Bigfoot sightings and most people we talked to were believers. We went out to the beach early in the morning by the jetty and saw about a thousand birds: Pelicans, Cormorants, Seagulls and a host of others. It made me keenly aware how much I want a better camera with a telephoto lens. By the time I got close enough to focus, the birds flew away.
By Friday, my friend told me she was having trouble breathing and was getting a little panicked. She had had trouble each night since we arrived, but tried to tough it out, but by Friday afternoon it was getting really bad. We high tailed it to the fire department and they checked her out and gave her a breathing treatment. We decided to go to the emergency room where we spent the next 6 hours. It was Friday, a full moon and there were about 15 critical code blue patients that came in. Of course when she got the bill the other day, they charged her as a critical patient, which was funny since no one even came and looked at her for 5 hours. We finally figured out there was mold in the walls of our condo, because it smelled musty and kind of funny when we got there. You couldn't see it, but you could smell it. So we got back about midnight, went to sleep and got up the next morning. We went off to town, and walked around and created another great memory. I got out of the car, ran my toe into a cement parking strip and WOWOWOWOW did it hurt. I said some bad words...REALLY bad words. I was hopping up and down on 1 foot and totally losing my testimony. I got in the car, looked down and my baby toe was facing totally the wrong direction. So back to the fire station we went, where the fireman told us he was not permitted to set any bones. So he told Shannon how to do it and as I bit on my purse strap, she popped my dislocated toe back into place.
At that point we decided to leave and went to the condo manager and got a refund because of the mold. We decided to go off to Seattle for our remaining 2 days. Got the last room in Tacoma and spent the night, then off the next morning to Belevue where we found a really nice reasonable room at La Quinta Inn. I highly recommend it. The beds were very comfy and it was in a great place to get back and forth to Seattle. We went off to Woodland Park Zoo after checking in. Had a great time. It's a wonderful zoo...all natural exhibits. Then the next day, we went to Pike Place Market and had a great day kicking around downtown Seattle. Early dinner at Georgia's Greek Cafe on 85th street. It was one of the places on Diners Drive Inns and Dives on the food network, and Bill and I visited it before. Fantastic authentic Greek food. The best octopus I have ever eaten in my life!
The thing to remember when going on vacation is that stuff happens. It is always good to have a plan B. Or be open to creating a plan B if something goes wrong. A trip to the emergency room and a dislocated toe are no reason to give up a vacation. When Bill and I went to Portugal and discovered that it would cost us $4000 to rent a car for 2 weeks, we decided to go to plan B. We took a bus up the coast, and the taxis we paid for to get around were a lot cheaper than that rental car. Just change things up a bit and you can have a great time in spite of those things. Flexibility is the key to really being able to roll with the punches and to make lemonade when life gives you lemons.
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