As long as I can remember, I have always loved the seashore.  I grew up in Seattle, on Puget Sound, an arm of the Pacific Ocean.  In the summer, my sister and I would join our maternal grandparents and our Portland cousins for a week at Seaside, on the Oregon coast.  In the 1980s, I went to music camp at Fort Worden in Port Townsend, on the Olympic Peninsula.  In the 1990s, I went to chamber music camp at Seabeck, on Hood Canal, another arm of the Pacific Ocean.  My boyfriend from those days lived in Port Angeles, on the north Olympic Peninsula, and I visited him often, taking the Washington State Ferry from Edmonds to the Kitsap Peninsula.  In 2003, my new husband and I honeymooned in Victoria, British Columbia, on the Strait of Juan de Fuca.  One of the ways of getting there is from Vancouver, through the Channel Islands on the BC Ferry.  He grew up in New Jersey, and we have visited the East Coast a few times, and seen the Atlantic Ocean on the Jersey Shore.

I never tire of walking along the beach, watching and listening to the sound of the sea, endlessly casting its waves up the sandy or rocky shore.  I remember, many years ago, my first husband described what happened when his uncle from North Dakota first saw the Pacific Ocean on the coast of Washington.  He stood there, transfixed, and then he said….”Just a ‘workin’ all the time…”  We took our first cruise, to Alaska, in May of 2005.  I discovered that what I liked the most about cruising was sitting on the deck of the ship, or in the aft lounge, just watching the ship cut through the water, and listening to the sound of the sea.  I would have been happy never to go ashore!

So here are a few pictures of my favorite places, along the seashores of our Greatest Nation on God’s Green Earth.

Meadowdale Beach Park is at the end of a steep, one-mile-long trail through towering evergreens, and under a shoreside railroad track.  Getting there is more than half the fun.

Edmonds is just a few miles further north along Puget Sound.  Just to the left of this picture is the ferry dock, for the Kingston Ferry.  At the other end of the Kingston Ferry is the Kitsap Peninsula, and the Olympic Peninsula.  One of our favorite places to go on a day trip is the Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge.

There are rarely big crowds, and in the off-season the beach at Dungeness can be pleasantly empty, except for sea birds, like terns, loons, and seagulls.

This is what you see on the way to Victoria, BC on the BC Ferry.  And this is what you enjoy when you arrive.

In 2012, we visited the East Coast, and the Atlantic coast at Cape May, New Jersey.

Hard to believe, this is October.  It was 70 degrees out-very pleasant.  And these fellows greeted us there.

Sometimes you forget that cities can be on the seashore too.  New York Harbor isn’t that far removed from the Atlantic Ocean either.

Last, but surely not least, is one of the country’s more famous beaches, Newport Beach, California.  We were there in February, and it was bright and sunny, perfect for showing off Southern California.  It doesn’t get much more beautiful than that (until you read the sign requiring you to pay for parking!).

I feel very fortunate to live here in Washington State, never more than a few minutes from a seashore.  I can indulge my love for the seashore any time I want to, all year round.

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