The beach at Seabrook

I know - after my last post you were wondering, "I thought they went to the beach?" There was too much - I had to save the beach stuff for a separate post. So, when you drive into the Seabrook neighborhood, you first come upon the Market and Cafe, and this is the view from there...

It is hard to tell because it was pretty foggy, but those trees are at the top of a bluff, and on the other side of them is this...

We spent our first evening exploring the 'town', and hadn't been down to the beach yet, so after breakfast on Friday, Husb said...

I said, "Actually, it is a Nikon," prayed for God to protect me, and complied, hopping on the back of the death-tandem bike. It almost made it worth all 'thrilling' rides when we made the boys take a turn on the back and they practically screamed like little school girls.

Anyway, the view at the bottom of those bluff stairs looks like this to the north...

That is the neighboring town of Pacific. It looks big in the picture, but it is dinky. Nothing but a few houses, some beach bluff rentals and a couple cafes, gift shops and businesses.

When we started our beach walk it was foggy and cloudy and cold. But as the day went on, I noticed a sliver of blue sky. I kept taking pictures of it and by the end of the walk it had cleared very nicely. This was the sliver...

The beach was very pretty. Most of the Pacific Northwest has rocky beaches and the Puget Sound has no big waves since it is protected by the Peninsula, so I always love to go to the actual coast and see the 'real' ocean and big waves.

I handed off the camera to get a picture of Ty and I. Why do we always look 13?

We headed south, down the beach.

One thing about sandy beaches; there aren't as many critters. At our Puget Sound rocky beaches, you can turn over rock after rock and find so many cool creatures. On the sandy beach? Sand shrimp. Or sand fleas, but that's just gross.

If you scraped the sand with your shoe they would all crawl out - I think they were getting mad. I felt like I was covered with them crawling all over me when we got back. We also found one whole sand dollar out of the millions of crushed ones and some sort of jelly fish and a couple crab remains...

Then we came upon the sea-brook, where a little creek runs into the ocean and the sea gulls have a feeding frenzy on something in that water. Husb had to go on a mission to explore it...

Lewis & Clark found the outlet and we headed upstream and into the woods to take a trail back to the cottage.

So that was the beach adventure portion of the trip. Stay tuned for a big house / decor post coming up!

Seabrook gets an A+ from me!

Okay, I just spent a wonderful weekend at a lovely house in the beach community called Seabrook on the rugged Washington coast. Have you heard of it? It seems like people have heard of it and there is a bit of buzz about it - and all for good reason, if you ask me.

Seabrook is basically a housing development. With a cafe. And a little market. And, all the houses are adorable. Seriously, when is the last time you strolled or drove through anywhere and saw only cute homes? Well this little neighborhood is like that. Plus, free use of bicycles. And a 5-minute walk to the beach. It was refreshing and relaxing!

It was worth the organizing of four different family members to take shifts with the kids, to give Husband and I three days and two nights of kid-free vacation. I bought groceries, and picked up these amazing slippers...

and headed southto do this...

That adorable picture was in the house and I love it. If I had a beach house, I would have to hunt it down and get me one. But I don't have a beach house. So how blessed am I that some friends rented this one and let me crash their party!?

We all chipped in and made a couple meals. Our cottage was called Sea's the Day. It is available for rent here. Want to see more of our cottage? Feast your eyes...

I didn't shoot the bedrooms but they were nice and you can see them on the above link. It had a spacious king size master suite upstairs, and two bedrooms downstairs; one with two sets of bunk beds and one with a queen size. It worked our really well for our group. Anyway, after we scoped out our own pad, we girls headed out to scope out everyone else's houses. Because that's what we girls do. And Natalie suggested she take a picture of me and Leah, bless her heart! If you had to rely on photographic proof, you wouldn't even know Leah and I were friends because we are always each behind our respective cameras, taking pictures of all sorts of things, mostly for our blogs. It's kind of weird.

I know she is closing her eyes but she was closing her eyes in all three photos, so I had to keep it real. It was easy for me to keep it real because I have windswept hair in that picture, which never happens to me. That'll teach you to close your eyes, Leah. ;)

The boys wandered around with us a bit. There are several little clustered groups of cottages, which have different focal points in the centers including a large grassy park, a brick and stone outdoor fireplace, and one with a bocce ball game...

When they got bored with that they enjoyed riding their bikes in front of us while we took millions of pictures of houses.

The bikes were really fun. If you have never ridden a tandem bike, you should. You should wear a helmet though because it is frightening. Maybe I am getting old. Husband said it was a team-building exercise... I thought it was faith-building.

Let's go on a tour and see some houses...

The white-on-white beach house area was my favorite neighborhood.

<--- My favorite house!!!

This home had an amazing outdoor fireplace. I wanted to go party on their porch!

The pathways are all sweet...

There is an area where all the houses are sort of English...

Then the Market and Cafe...

Then an area that reminded me of the Waltons or Little House on the Prairie...

Woodsy cabins...

Then a bunch of modern / beach / farm houses - most of them with amazing sunrooms [see the porch windowed in?]...

It was a sweet little community with lots of families and everyone seemed to know one another.

It certainly had everything needed for some rest, relaxation and renewal. I could definitely get used to this getaway once a year!

Thanks so much Eric and Leah, for inviting us along!

And thanks to those who cared for my children!

We had a wonderful time!