Well we went to the coast of Washington State this weekend! an area called Ocean Shores! took us about 6.5 hours to get there from the other side of the state.  The drive over was pretty uneventfull but it was clear skys and excellent weather.  Upon arriving to the Ocean Shores area... we decided to go down to Grayland its a bit south.... Anyways when we pulled upon the beach they have there annual kite festival going on .... what a site! 1000's of kites everwhere! man these people take there kite flying seriously! were talking they might as well have been harley riders at sturgis! hahahaha anyways the saying "go fly a kite" definently has a new meaning! we took Angus our German Sheppard and this was his first time on the beach, boy oh boy he went buck crazy! He loved the water, loved the sand, and loved all the goodies on the sand! I look over and hes crunch crunch crunch......... (see enclosed pic) hes eating the damn crabs that have washed up! Iam thinking great! just great, we are going to have a sprinkler system coming out of his butt real soon.... wonderful! continuing on we ended up meeting Katies parents and siblings latter that night (Friday) and Saturday who also brought there 4 dogs, we had a dog circus! but they really enjoyed the water! and each others company.  We did some serious eating at a local restaraunt in Grayland called Bennetts, if your ever in the area look this place up the guy is a kick ass chef! ended up sitting on the beach all day Saturday, did a bit of site seeing in the morning... went to a place called Westport and cruised around the shops on the beach.... pretty neat little town.  Boy did I get burnt on Saturday! WOW I was a crispy critter We did a nice bonfire under the full moon of a ultra clear night! right on the beach about 15 feet from the water  (11:50pm at night) then as time went on..... 10 feet from the water.... then 5 feet from the water.... then woosh fire is gone.... hahaha DAMN TIDE!!! HAHAHAHAH anyways that was the cue to go! did I mention that on saturday we stayed at a nice home that Katies siblings and Folks rented on the beach? nice and secluded.... wish we could have seen more of it but... alas,  after a day and night at the beach, going to sleep and waking up and going to breakfast.... we where on the road back to Spokane...... we decided to take the scenic route back on Hwy 12 and go by Mt Rainier and finnaly to Mt St Helens! took up about 3 hours to get to Windy Ridge, an observatiory on the volcano.... we where 5 miles from the crater and could actually see steam coming from the new dome of lave being built! (see enclosed pic) it was awesome, scary, weird, and fantastic all at the same time.... it was really weird driving up to the mountain..... heavy heavy woods..... then ya turn a corner and it BAM for as far as you can see trees laid over all in the same direction (away from the blast) it was crazy.... and at that moment I surely felt small compared to mother nature..... I have enclosed some pics of this area I hope you enjoy.... well after getting our fill of the mountain we finnaly got back on the road around 7 pm (when we got back down the the main freeway) we arrived home around 11 pm... whew we are tired... anyways... I will write more about this experiance latter but this is my short story..... Kirk out! oh yeah check out the tired Angus the dog pic on the way home.... its cute!