Up in Smoke

Monday, July 3^rd,through Thursday July 6^th, 2023 – Long Beach, Washington

We travelled to Ocean Park, Washington this week to celebrate the Independence Day with family. We had two Airbnb rentals with adjoining yards about a block from the beach.

We walked to the beach several times and once we reached the beach, it was another block to the water.

The beach is named Long Beach and is advertised as the “World’s Longest Beach.”

So, this is kind of cool, the longest beach in the world. But then we found this list of the longest beaches on the Internet.

Praia do Cassino, Brazil – Approximately 254 km (158 miles)
Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh – Approximately 150 km (93 miles)
Padre Island National Seashore, Texas, USA – Approximately 130 km (81 miles)
Fraser Island, Australia – Approximately 123 km (76 miles)
Ninety Mile Beach, New Zealand – Approximately 88 km (55 miles)
Playa Novillero, Mexico – Approximately 82 km (51 miles)
Long Beach, Washington, USA – Approximately 30 km (18.6 miles)
Long Beach, Vancouver Island, Canada – Approximately 16 km (10 miles)
Long Beach, Koh Rong Island, Cambodia – Approximately 10 km (6.2 miles)
Meads Bay, Anguilla – Approximately 5 km (3.1 miles)

So, Long Beach, Washington comes in seventh. However, in other references, it is stated that Long Beach, Washington is the longest drivable beach in the world. They probably couldn’t fit “drivable” on the sign.

We traveled to a wildlife refuge at the north of the peninsula and on the way, we saw a large porcupine, but it scurried off the road before we could get a photo. At the wildlife refuge, we saw that the most prevalent wildlife were mosquitos, and it was feeding time, so we moved on to the town of Oysterville.

We spent a couple of hours walking through the small town of old houses and a local art fair before heading back to Ocean Park.

On the Fourth, we took a trip about ten miles south to the town of Long Beach which was crowded with tourists like us enjoying the weather and festive atmosphere.

The vigilant local volunteer fire department.

It appears to be a surplus military deuce-and-a-half truck.

Here’s a sign you don’t see every day.

Returning to Ocean Park, the festivities were beginning.

Doc’s Tavern. It isn’t clear whether Doc or the Tavern is ninety years old. Besides being draped with Old Glory, loudspeakers were blaring patriotic music. We may have visited Docs a couple of times during our visit.

Then it was time for the fireworks. We took our meager collection, only about $250 worth scraped together between our four families and walked, again, to the beach. We arrived just as the sun was setting.

It was mostly quiet with only sporadic explosions. After the sun disappeared, the tempo began to increase.

It increased through the evening peaking at about 10:30 pm.

Here are some videos of the action. Warming up.

Twenty bucks up in smoke.

In full swing.

Finally, things started quieting down until about 11:00 pm, when someone set off a finale. All these displays were privately funded, so whoever set this off shelled out big money. The display lasted for eight or nine minutes and didn’t abate until the end. Here is a two-minute video from the middle of the display.

By the end, most on the beach were watching the display. The performers got a round of applause and cheers at the end. It’s the least we could do when someone burns up fifteen-thousand dollars for us.

When we arrived at the beach, the town officials had moved in two large dumpsters and were handing out plastic trash bags for the fireworks debris. As we left, we picked up everything that we could find that we brought and put it in the dumpster. We noticed there was a slight haze of smoke coming from the dumpster. Later, someone in our party sent us this photo.

Yep, a true dumpster file, and evidently, there were some fireworks in it for good measure. The fire department arrived and put it out. Evidently, it’s a common occurrence.

On July 5^th, the residents gather on the beach at 9:30 am for a debris cleanup and we were up and ready to participate, but other things got in the way, and we did not get there until 12:30 pm. What a difference twelve hours makes.

Things were very clean and only a few vehicles ventured out.

However, there was still a lot of little stuff. We scoured the area and wandered around picking up everything we could see.

We felt silly without our vests and pickers, but we managed.

The day before as we were walking back to our place, Chuck noticed a guy with a picker picking up around the restrooms. Chuck asked him if he got paid for picking up trash and he said that he didn’t. Chuck thanked him and told him we do the same thing. A good conversation ensued, and we parted ways. Today, we saw him again wandering the beach and had another good discussion.

We learned his name is Bruce and he lives nearby and spends a lot of time cleaning up the beach and the surrounding area. It was good to meet a kindred spirit. Because of his domain, he doesn’t find as much money and he didn’t even mention roadkill, but he showed us a knife he just found in pristine condition. An advantage to finding something in the sand. It could be run over, but who cares?

So, yes, even though we were on vacation we did pick up some things. We saw trash, but nothing compared to the Seattle area. Except for the beach, we did not actively pick up trash. However, we did find a set of keys on a lanyard by a parked car.

We don’t know if the keys belonged to the car’s owner, but hopefully it got to the rightful owner.

As for roadkill, the closest we got was to the porcupine, but we did find money. Janet found two pennies while shopping. She claimed that since we were not picking up trash it belongs in her own piggy bank and cannot be counted toward TrashWalking. However, during the beach cleanup, we saw something shiny about twenty-five feet away and found it was a quarter.

It had obviously been lost during last night’s reverie and then uncovered by the ever-shifting, wind-blown sand. We spent about five minutes sifting through the sand with our fingers but did not find anything else. A metal detector would have come in handy.

Friday, July 7^th, 2023 – 100th Ave NE

Back to our normal walking week with a quiet day with little traffic. We removed two rats, a mole and an opossum from the road but found some money.

Only two cents, and yes, that’s our two cents.

A kid’s tricycle at the bus stop.

Mother: “Oh no! I knew I shouldn’t have given my little Chloe my Orca card.” No problem, you can find her, there are only two routes that service this bus stop. Unless, of course, she asked for a transfer.

Someone tossed an empty pizza box from the Pizza Bank.

And that someone’s name is BRENDA. So, if you know a Brenda who frequents the Pizza Bank and does not like pineapple on pizza, thank her for littering. And for not liking pineapple on pizza.

A nice Stanley water bottle.

But it was filled with coffee, and it was cold. Not saying much for the Stanley bottle.

We found this at the Tolt Pipeline Trail.

Yes, we found where the rubber hits the road.

This is Friday, time to check out Chuck’s vest pocket which because of our minimal walking week, is very sparse.

We don’t have any cards this week so we will start off with a simple set of nine instructions to connect a Roku. Wait, make that ten, there is an added instruction 3.5. The last instruction is 9 and it states, “May auto login to”. That’s it, no further instructions. Sounds easy to us.

A Bic Clic pen that has lost its Click. A razor blade that should not have been in Chuck’s pocket at all. A paint brush with no artistic value in our hands and a warning label to remove slowly because it’s assembled in Mexico.

Based on its condition, it appears that someone did not heed the warning.

A Graduation toothpick, someone’s meal ticket, and a “work hard & be nice” sticker. That’s a nice sentiment but may be difficult in practice. An uninteresting Fancy Mohair label, two hair bands and a patriotic ring, too late for the Fourth.

Finally, there’s the note, “Call me if you need [to] get out.” Hopefully the guy’s not in prison.

Saturday, July 8^th, 2023 – Riverside Drive

Today was cool and overcast which made for a good walk. We removed a small bird, a crow, and a cat from the roadway. Technically, we did not remove the cat. Since it is probably someone’s pet, we notified the Bothell Animal Control. But we did find some money.

Yes! A five-dollar bill in the park-and-ride. We need more folding money like this, not like the folded dime we found last week.

We also found a tool.

A saw blade. It was no longer on the cutting edge and got recycled. But it still counts as a tool.

Someone is giving away a free barbeque.

It looked like a good deal until we opened the lid. The grills were missing, and the burners were rusted away. So, basically the person put the grill out with a free sign to leave it on the street in good conscience. We’re guessing it will set there for a long time. We’d like to grill him on it. Not literally, to ask questions. Then we might consider the grilling.

A nine-inch nail.