Saturday July 8 (Grayland Beach and Westport)

It was another glorious day, pleasant with a sunny sky but it would be cooler at the beach so I wore jeans rather than shorts.

Well, what a day out it was!! We were on our way to the Kite festival at Grayland Beach, just south of Westport, WA. 

We had a decent run to the I-5 and then came across a huge traffic jam across all three lanes. 

I looked on the Internet and there was a trooper involved shooting near Lacey, it was a "Suicide by Cop" incident and had happened before 7 am. 

It was probably not worth trying to take a detour to another country route as that would have been crowded as well.

We stopped/started for several miles and, after a while, I needed to use a restroom! I spent a very uncomfortable 45 minutes, felt every bump in the road, lol, until we finally reached the crime scene area. 

Cheryl counted at least 24 cop cars, many of them unmarked, the car involved had its number plate covered up. There as a build up of traffic on the other side of the freeway, rubberneckers!! 

Finally, we were able to drop off the expressway and find a shell station. 

There was a queue, of course, but a couple of guys let me go ahead of them! Phew, what a relief! Back on the freeway and traffic was clear, yay!

We were heading to visit with some friends of Cheryl and Jim's who have a travel trailer in a lovely spot they own, we arrived almost two hours later than anticipated. 

We walked down to the beach and it was a wonderful sight with multi coloured kites of all shapes and sizes up in the air against the backdrop of a beautiful blue sky. 

We wandered along the beach taking photos and then walked back to watch the Teddy Bear drop for young children. 

A bear was tied to a parachute Kite and hoisted up high, a name was drawn and the kiddie was supposed to catch the bear as it floated down. A couple of them did manage the catch but they all received their bears!! 


We had some extra entertainment on the way out, a car was stuck in the sand and a truck was trying to extricate it, the truck driver had to stop as his wheels were spinning violently. They then decided to tow the car our backwards and that was successful!

We returned to the friends camper and had hamburgers for an early tea. We then drove to Westport and it was ice creams for most of us, very nice too!! 

We had some photos taken and then made our farewells before heading home. We had to stop for a bridge that was letting a boat through, restrooms and then a Starbucks for me, lol!

We also passed the two Satsop Nuclear Power Stations that have never been commissioned, one is 95% ready and the other 35% ready.

We travelled home via the "back" road and at one point we had a gorgeous view of Mount Rainier with the sunset giving it a beautiful pink aura. We arrived home lat after what turned out to be a great day out, with some adventures thrown in for good measure!!