Beach

I feel like I’ve been neglecting The Fathoms for some time now, living without the inspiration of the water. I finally went back to the beach last week with my dad and sister for a short stint and managed to get some writing done in the early mornings. I never saw another person pass me by on my trips out to the waves. It was just the great Pacific and me.

Even though I live with my dad, I still take every opportunity I can to spend time with him. He has terminal Stage IV thyroid cancer. I don’t see my sister often— maybe once every three months or so, so it’s nice to spend time together.

If you’ve never been on a Washington beach, you might be wondering why we are bundled up in the middle of July. Well, my friends, Washington beaches are cold and windy year-round. This picture was taken at sunset when the cold started setting in. That night, I was so cold that I had what I think was a little case of hypothermia. I woke up with blue lips and toes.

There was a strange lack of seabirds the entire time we were there. Just a spare seagull here and there. No sandpipers (my favorite) to be found. My sister did get a picture of some pelicans among some seagulls. She didn’t know what they were and I had to reassure her that they were pelicans, not herons!

I felt serene and powerful. I used to come to this specific beach with an ex, so it was littered with memories. I wasn’t sure how I would do once I got there, but everything just felt like letting go. In the best kind of way.

In the early morning, I would trek through the dunes to a bench and write. This was my view. That house was loved and lived in, and I loved to see that. You can see a speck of moon at the top center of the photo. This photo was taken around 6:00 am. Unbeknownst to me, there were a ton of biting gnats biting my ankles. I’m still recovering from those bites!!

One of our favorite things to do at the beach is to fly a kite. I admit that I didn’t know how to fly a kite until 2021. Here’s my dad with my kite, “The Macaw.”

And both kites are overhead.

Some other things I did:

• I bought the ugliest windchime of all time. It is made up of ceramic horses.

• Saw Jake, the Alligator Boy. (Look this up if you don’t know what it is.)

• My Dad posed with various Bigfoot statues.

• Drove to and fro the ugliest mermaid statue in America.

• Ate afagatos.

• Hung out by the fire a lot.

• Our camp had the fanciest bathrooms I’ve ever seen. White marble and rainfall showerheads.

• Saw a lot of weird taxidermy.

• I ate A LOT of fish. Not fish we caught or anything. I’m not that cool.

To all my readers,

Thank you for sticking with me. I hope you have a beautiful rest of your summer.

- Melanie