Family Travel // Long Beach, WA // December 2014

Neil’s birthday is coming up in just a few days and since it is so close to Christmas we usually forgo giving gifts and instead we do something fun. When it was just the two of us we traveled to snowy, beautiful Quebec City with a side trip to one of our favorite destinations Montreal. Another year we took the train to NYC for a long weekend where we found ourselves running around the city, quite literally (after eating a huge Indian feast) when I forgot our passes to Top of the Rock. We also spent Christmas at Disney another year and then this year we headed to the coast. We actually had decided not to a trip this year when at the last minute I decide that I just wasn’t ready to leave Alder for a date night (our original plans) and I ended up finding a deal for two nights at the Adrift Hotel in Long Beach, WA (just over the bridge from Astoria).

We decided that while we could really use a date night (still on the must happen in the next month list) that we also really needed a little bit of a getaway as a family. So we made the reservations and packed ourselves up and headed to the coast. Unfortunately heading to the beach doesn’t mean it’s going to be sunny and warm, although I really think that should always be the case and Edith agreed as she insisted she needed to bring her bathing suit with us. (Side note her tankini bottoms did end up making their way to the beach with us).  Anyways it ended up being super cold which meant that the time at the beach was limited but that didn’t matter because we had a beautiful view of the ocean from our room and we were able to explore Astoria aka our favorite travel destination.

The first evening of our trip was spent freezing at the beach, eating the most amazing pizza (currently deemed the best pizza we have eaten on the West Coast) and fries and veggies at [pickled fish], we watched a Baby Einstein movie from the DVD selection at the hotel and then once the babes were in bed we shared a beer, chocolate and watched …I have no idea something on TV. Then we spent the remainder of the night attempting to sleep with little help from Alder.

Monday morning we headed into Astoria for coffee and breakfast at Street 14 Coffee one of our favorite destinations. The drip coffee is decent, the pumpkin and apple bites are amazing and the other breakfast options are good. After properly caffeinating we headed to the Columbia River Maritime Museum one of our favorite spots to visit. We ended up getting a membership because it really is the best deal if you plan to visit a few times in the year. We are able to go to the 3-D movies as part of the membership so we watched Sea Rex, or rather we all watched the first 23 minutes of it before Edith and I made our grand exit and Neil stayed with a sleeping Alder to watch the remainder of the movie. We looked around for a bit after the movie before heading to Buoy Brewing for lunch and birthday beers. Then it was back to the hotel for naptime which ended up happening in the car so instead we had a little relax on the couch with tea and watch shows time because it’s too freaking cold to play at the beach. Once we had too much screentime we made the poor decision to head to Fort George for dinner because we had a gift card but dinner was kind of a bust so it was a less than fun experience.

We ended our trip with more coffee from Street 14 Coffee and a little more playtime at the maritime museum before making the trek back to our freezing home. While this wasn’t anything like our exciting city birthday adventures of the past we did enjoy spending time as a family in a place that we love. I have to say next year I hope we can maybe make the destination to a beach that is a little bit warmer *sigh*  at least a girl can wish.

How do you like to celebrate your birthday? Any big plans this year?