As you know, I’ve been sad. It has been hard to get back into life. I know I have three wonderful boys and a terrific husband, but I dearly miss those babies we were supposed to have this year. I don’t know why – in 2005, we lost a baby and it was hard, but it didn’t seem this hard. This last time, especially, I really thought the baby would make it, so that was difficult. I’ve been wishing to get away for a while now. I kept telling Jeff we should take a trip to the coast. He didn’t really want to, but he was also busy with work. This past week was especially hard. The sadness comes in waves, it seems. Jeff really didn’t like that he wasn’t with me when I was sad. He sent me flowers (I’ll post pics of those later) and then called to tell me we could go away this weekend, just the two of us.
I began looking for places to stay at the coast. Washington has a great coastline, but there isn’t a whole lot of access to it. You can go to the coast in the south, across from Astoria, OR, or you can go to the coast in the middle, at Ocean Shores/Westport. The rest of the coast to the north isn’t populated, and it is part of the National Park system, I believe. If you go all the way up to the tip, you can go to First Beach/Rialto Beach. In between Ocean Shores and there, though, there’s nothing. All that to say, my choice was pretty limited if I wanted the ocean. Ocean Shores is the only place close enough. I looked a little around Port Angeles, because the Twilight movie is coming out, but that was still an hour and a half away from the ocean. Forks, WA doesn’t have a whole lot to offer, and they are still 30 minutes away from the ocean. I really wanted a place where I could hear the waves from my room.
Anyways, I looked and looked and got worried, because I wasn’t finding what I wanted. On Thursday morning I woke up and decided to call the Caroline Inn. We’d seen it on a previous trip and tried to get it for our 5th anniversary, but they were booked. The guy who answered, “Reservations”, told me the Caroline Inn was booked; however, they managed other properties, and was I interested in one of those? I asked if he had any B&Bs. He said no, and there are only two in town. He asked if I’d like the website of a new one. I said sure.
OH my GOODNESS!!! Talk about an answer to prayer – literally everything I wanted was offered at The Collins Inn and THEN some!! They have a special for two nights’ lodging, breakfast (of course), and dinner in their dining room one night. The room had a king-sized bed and a jacuzzi! I called and asked and THEY HAD A ROOM!!! I was so excited.
Friday evening we left town (the trip is a whole other story that I won’t go into). We arrived at the Inn around 7PM. We were offered a different room than we booked because it wasn’t in use. The Pacific Room didn’t have a view of the ocean, but the Spiaggia did. SO we chose the Spiaggia. Here’s what our room looked like –
Our room at Collins Inn @ Ocean Shores.The jacuzzi was lovely. The inn was very nice. Jim & Rose were good hosts. They even put a fruit plate in our room when we arrived. We really enjoyed our stay here. Jeff said today he wished we could stay another day … my thoughts exactly. We’ll be back, though – today we found (well, there were people walking on it, so we didn’t officially “find” it, it’s just new to us) an incredible beach. We want to bring the boys back & I have to tell Diane about it (she doesn’t like the other beaches because people drive on them). 🙂
