I'm Probably Expecting too Much

I don't know why I keep thinking that every time I go to the ocean I'm expecting warm weather and sunshine. Maybe it was because it was going to be around 90 degrees last Sunday and I assumed that because the ocean was less than 2 hours away that it would be a decent temperature there too. I think I'm expecting too much.

Ocean Shores itself, although touristy, was still very small and pretty boring. There's a couple of strip malls to shop around in, but most of them included places to buy kites and other toys. We saw more deer roaming the area here than I'd ever seen in the mountains. But, we didn't come to hang around in the town.

When I went last Sunday, I was going to swim no matter what because I'd just spent $60 on swimwear that fit me after years of going without. When Justin and I got to the beach, and it was finally time to swim (around 2pm), the marine layer still hadn't cleared, and the promise of 70 degrees that my phone was showing me must have been from an inland town and not the shore. My car was saying 59, and I'm thinking that didn't include the windchill. Despite this fact, the beach was pretty packed, as Washingtonians are very used to this weather.

I don't think too many people know what our oceans are like. It's not like the east coast at all and I wouldn't even put it in the same caliber as California. We have rich, food-laden (and disgusting-looking) water because it's so cold. We don't have the gulf stream so if our water temperature gets above 55 it's a good day. To top it off, we're a northern state so it takes a lot of prayers and weird weather to get the beaches beyond 70 degrees, even when the interior is baking.

Mmmm, poopy. Or plankton-y. Whichever. 

It took guts and about 15 minutes for me to get out to hip deep. I drove here expecting to 'beat the heat' and that's definitely what I got; I was freezing. The ocean isn't really meant for literal 'swimming', and although I had brought my wake-boards, we didn't use them. I watched as a couple of other people tried the same thing and it wasn't working well for them either so I didn't bother to drag them out. I probably spent no more than 40 minutes in the water and immediately jumped back into the car and turned up the heat. There was no 'lounging in the sun and drying off' at this beach! At least we had the car to hide in. (that I will now spend the afternoon scrubbing down because the seats smell like dead sea creatures.)

I have got to stop expecting so much from our beaches. It's the end of July for frack's sake, and its 59 and cloudy, even when it's beyond hot less than 2 hours away. From now on, lakes will be a better bet.