Cache Dash Splash II, Long Beach, WA

September 16th - I shopped at Safeway at 7:30am for some bottles of Sparkling Ice, NBC Cracker Wheat Thins, and Tillamook String Cheese for my son, Christopher, to take on the trip.  Christopher and I left about 8:00am for the Long Beach Peninsula.  I cut across St. Johns and the St. Johns Bridge to Hwy 30.  Mist shrouded the hills.  I stopped in Clatskanie to find a large geocache.  I drove across the four-mile-long Astoria-Megler Bridge from Astoria, Oregon to Point Elice near Megler, Washington. 

We found the WSHS 125 Cache at Chinook School.  We found a library cache in Ilwaco and then checked in at the Chautauqua Lodge in Long Beach.  I was able to get a suite on the 3rd floor.  Clean and reasonably priced (used the password).  Christopher had a bedroom and bathroom.  I had a bathroom, kitchen, dining area, living room and bedroom combination with a view of the Pacific Ocean.  We had lunch at the nearby Lightship Restaurant.   We solved the multi and mystery caches in preparation for the next day and found a few more caches.  We attended the Pirate's Pizza Event in the evening.  It was a warm September day but by evening I knew the weather was changing - and not for the better.  I saw the Harvest Moon from the room balcony.

September 17th - It was a very blustery morning.  We stopped at McDonalds in Long Beach for breakfast.   We found 33 of the 40 CDS caches.  tumbleweed2 cached half the day with Corvette Kent, Cache Finder 6000 and Sheppard4, then hopped in the back seat of my car for the afternoon/evening caching with Christopher and I.  I stopped at the Chinook Country Store at 6:15pm for sandwiches which we ate at a picnic table at Fort Columbia State Park.  We got back to the Event at the Chautauqua Lodge in Long Beach very late but just in time to get a couple pieces of the delicious chocolate cake. 

September 18th - I ate the other half of my sandwich for breakfast.  I stopped at McDonalds for Christopher's breakfast at 8:00am.  We found the seven remaining geocaches for the CDS Event.  We headed east on Hwy 4.  We stopped in Grays River at Duffy's Irish Pub for lunch.  Fascinating place.  I had a great time this weekend however Christopher did not enjoy the trip.  I like traveling alone as I only got to please myself. 

"But it's all right now, i learned my lesson well.
You see, ya can't please everyone, so ya got to please yourself"  - Ricky Nelson's "Garden Party"