(I wrote this Thursday night, but internet access is spotty using my phone as a hot spot, so I'm posting it Friday morning.) Wednesday afternoon Lea and Dennis met us at our house, we
loaded up the car and headed for the ocean. We were on our way!  After stopping for dinner at a little café in Randle, we finally arrived at "The Beach House" about 9:20 PM. It wasn't quite fully dark yet, so we spent a few minutes exploring this rental house that will be home the next few days, then unloaded the car. Before long we were all in bed looking forward to Thursday.

We awoke to the typically cloudy days of the Washington coast, but we could hear the surf and smell the ocean. The Beach House is situated about halfway between Westport and Grayland, just behind the dunes, but with a view of the ocean. Looking out the west window you can’t see the houses next door (and there’s nobody there this week anyway), so we feel like we have the whole beach to ourselves.
After a leisurely breakfast, we all went for walk on the beach. Jetson, the guide dog in training that Lea is raising, loved being able to run a bit on the beach. About a half mile down the beach we came across an older gentleman who had gotten his little import car stuck in the sand after veering off the hardpacked beach access. With all four of us pushing we moved it all of about 18 inches through the soft sand. 
Then a couple in a four wheel drive truck came by and towed the car out. The older man tried to pay us all, but we refused. Just neighbors helping neighbors.

The beach is nearly deserted in early June on a weekday, so it was very peaceful, just sitting on the porch watching the waves come in. We saw a bald eagle perched on an old snag, perhaps a hundred yards from the house, just watching the beach as if he were the king on his throne.

Dennis and I drove to the local store to fill the gal’s grocery list. We noticed that gas is $4.09 for regular, and $4.39 for premium! The store was not real well stocked – they had a sale on 2 liter Cokes, but there were none left, and the clerk said they didn’t have any more in back. Some of the other shelves were also empty. We did hear that tomorrow is the start of the salmon sportfishing season, so I imagine business will start picking up soon. Charter fishing is the economy here. Ann and I came to Westport last August to go tuna fishing (about 40 miles out in the Pacific), and had a blast. We brought back 32 tuna (there’s no limit on tuna in Washington) averaging about 20 lbs each. After cleaning and getting canned or frozen we figure we had something over 230 lbs of tuna. We brought some with us this trip and we had a
wonderful tuna dinner tonight!

Our ride starts officially tomorrow, but we wanted to get our legs loose today, so we mounted up in the afternoon and headed up the road toward Aberdeen figuring to do about 20 miles. 
It was a great prologue to the upcoming stages. Mostly cloudy, but a few sun breaks, temperature probably in the high 50s. We averaged 15.7 mph. We won’t go that fast on longer rides (unless we have great tailwinds), but I have to remember this ride isn’t about speed!

While we’re excited to start riding, today was VERY peaceful and it would be nice to have more days like today. But tomorrow’s ride is only 60 miles, then Lea will pick us up (somewhere around the little town of Pe Ell) and we’ll come back to the beach house for one more evening and night on the beach.