Babymoon in Long Beach, WA

      Before we bring this little darling of ours into the world, we (okay mostly me) wanted to take one last getaway trip while it was still just the two of us.  So, we planned a trip for Long Beach, WA back in October.  It's taken me a little while since I had a few good pictures on my phone and wasn't sure how to get them to the computer.  Now that I've discovered how to do so I can share with you what we did.

     We left on a Saturday and headed for Astoria, OR, where we would stay the night since our check-in day with the place in Long Beach wasn't available until Sunday.  I have to admit that I was a little giddy about being in Astoria because part of the movie "Goonies" was filmed there.  Huzzah!  Yes, I'm one of the biggest movie nerds you'll ever meet.  :)  When we got in, it was pretty late and very dark so you really couldn't see much at that point.  Trying to make this a very affordable vacation, I chose a rather cheap motel for the night.  I didn't take pictures of it, but you can look it up here.  The room was VERY small, but it was only for one night so there wasn't too much to complain about.  Though, after a night's sleep on the hardest mattress ever, I was even more ready to get to our final destination.

      The next day was Sunday and we got ready to go to church.  I couldn't believe how steep the hills were!

 

      I thought, "There's no way we would make it up these hills alive if it were covered in snow."  How do people live like this?!  Finding the church wasn't too bad, but finding parking was ridiculous.  The parking lot was EXTREMELY small and many people were forced to park in the street or neighboring parking lots, which were few.  I hope they are somehow able to get more parking someday.

Ty in front of the Astoria church building.

      The members were so friendly and really tried hard to convince us to move.  Apparently, there are 700 homes for sale there!  Geesh!  Talk about a buyers market.  It's a beautiful area, but those hills would kill me.  Haha.  We still had a ton of time to waste before our check-in time so we changed and drove around seeing a bit of Astoria.  We decided to make our way over to Long Beach and do some driving around, maybe stop and make lunch somewhere, and then see if we could check-in early.  Driving on the Astoria - Magler Bridge, to reach the Washington side, was sort of crazy the first time.  I'm assuming they have a lot of ship coming through there and need the height.  It feels like you are ascending forever and then reaching the peak, to look down was quite the sight, then back down where it eventually leveled out.  Needless to say, driving in Astoria, was like being on a continuous roller coaster.  So glad I was over the morning sickness at this point.  Haha.

      Since we had copious of amounts of time, we wanted to take whatever detours we could.  This led us to Cape Disappointment.  Do not let the name fool you as it was quite the gorgeous location.  The trees, the river, the forest, the ocean.  It's only downside was the fee parking.  There was only one spot we found that didn't require this.  Though it didn't last long because of the winds, being so high and also closer to the ocean.  But my, was it beautiful!

      All this driving and sightseeing, however, STILL provided us with a great deal of time before we could check-in.  We decided to keep driving to Long Beach, which was a short distance, see if we could find a place to sit down to make sandwiches and eat.  Being that we, again, were so close to the ocean, it was still very windy.  So, we ate in the car and were exhausted so we took a brief nap.  Luckily, we were able to check-in a bit early and we were grateful.  We stayed at the WorldMark resort in Long Beach thanks to my parents generosity and extra points.  Compared to where we had stayed the night before this was a castle!  Haha.

     The bathroom (though not pictured) was huge.  Not the tub/shower really, but there was sooo much space in there.  I'm not exactly sure why, but you could definitely fit a party in there.  At this point, we get pretty boring.  Ty and I are very leisurely when it comes to vacationing.  That combined with the outside of tourist season and the area being quite small, we didn't end up doing a whole lot.  Part of this was really my fault.  I should have planned to go before I got to the stage of pregnancy where it was all just uncomfortable.  Walking, standing, sleeping, sitting even.  I felt so guilty for wanting and planning this trip and then not allowing us to experience much.  We did, however, get to go out for some short excursions about the town and see the extremely close neighboring towns.  You seriously would drive 3-5 minutes and be in another small town that lasted about 2 minutes.

     When we got to the WorldMark they asked us if we were members or friends/family of members.  They then asked us if we wanted to hear their spiel about WorldMark and get a free $75 gift card and my parents would get a complimentary 1000 points.  Ummm, YES!  We got a free lunch along with the presentation and though I felt bad for not signing up after all the work the girl put into it, I was glad we did it.  Hooray for free money!  We decided to use at least part of the card on a dinner at a restaurant just across the street called the Lightship Restaurant.

     While the view of the ocean was lovely, the actual dining experience lacked as a whole.  I was surprised considering all the great reviews I had seen on Urbanspoon.  This may have been due to them just having a bad night, but considering the service we had, I wouldn't recommend it.  The true highlight of the trip for us was a bakery called Cottage Bakery & Delicatessen.  Who is really surprised by this?  Anyone?  I didn't think so.  ;)  Not only were their pastries delicious, but they had them in giant form!  I also loved the doll cupcakes.  So cute!

      We ended up going there twice because it was so yummy!  I really wish we had more bakeries in our area.  The rest of the trip was mainly spent lounging and trying to be comfortable (at least on my part).  It was fun to go off on a trip, but I was glad to get home and be in my own environment.  If we ever do a trip like this again (meaning a "before the baby is here" trip) I'll make sure to do it earlier in the second trimester so I can be a little more comfortable.