Okay, okay–I know it’s not actually autumn yet, but hear me out. I say fall = September, October, November. C’est logique, non?
Here in Las Vegas, if we wait for crisp weather before breaking out our cardigans and pumpkin spice, we’ll be waiting until late November, time for frou-frou peppermint coffee thingies and ugly holiday sweaters. But, being a Pacific Northwest girl at heart, I’m in the mood for fall, even if I have to crank the AC down to enjoy my soup, muffins, and fancy lattes.
August was a fun month, filled with travel. We visited Washington State, home of my heart, and I got a much-needed hit of delicious, cool green. I did very little writing on this trip, but I did slurp up lots of inspiration for my next Trappers Cove romance book, working title: Love, Legacy, and Little Green Aliens.
Trappers Cove is really a conglomeration of various PNW beaches I’ve loved, including Long Beach, WA, where we spent three glorious days in August. Here’s my writing space outside our hotel room at The Breakers Resort:
The beach is just over the dunes in the distance. Don’t you love staying where you can hear the surf at night? That’s one of my all-time favorite experiences.
Here’s Marsh’s Free Museum, the funkiest beach souvenir shop I’ve ever encountered, and inspiration for Crazy Gus’s Souvenir Planet, a Trappers Cove landmark. In addition to an excellent selection of seashells, rocks & crystals, and all the typical seaside souvenirs, Marsh’s boasts a collection of antique machines, penny arcade games you can try, and some bizarred examples of taxidermy, including JAKE! (Trigger warning, creepy, possibly human remains.)
Alligator man? Complete fraud? Somewhere in between? You decide. Of course, at Marsh’s you can buy Jake’s image on T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, beer steins…
Of course, we took several long walks on the beach, easy to do since the Long Beach Peninsula is the longest contiguous beach in the U.S. at about 28 miles. It’s a looooong, flat stretch, and visitors are allowed to drive onto the beach. You can also take a horseback ride!
For a sweet & tender romance based on these beach horses, check out Tender Tide, from the Willow Bay Romance series by my author friend Laurie Ryan: https://www.amazon.com/Tender-Tide-oceanside-romance-Willow-ebook/dp/B09VF2SH8M
Another highlight of each Trappers Cove Romance is a visit to Ivan’s Hollow, a secret, cliff-hugged cove accessible only at low tide, based loosly on Beard’s Hollow near Long Beach. Alas, I only took video footage of the Hollow, and WordPress won’t let me insert video, but here’s the path to Beard’s Hollow.
Can’t you just smell the sea and all that glorious green? After two years in the land of beige, my soul has been thirsting for this.
Thus endeth another visit to the Washington coast. I plan to return soon–in fact, I’ll be in Westport, WA in October for a writers’ retreat. Can’t wait!
