Last weekend while I was in Tokeland and also spending time with family across Willapa Bay in Ocean Park I decided to come back today. So I took the 3 days off we work next week to get 9 days here. Not a bad ROI, if I do say so myself.

I packed everything up, including Colby, and headed west. Fortunately the doom-n-gloom of winter weather avoided Tacoma but I did see a small dose of it in the hills outside Olympia. Roads weren't a problem but the trees had a coating of white stuff that, I admit, made me want to go snowboarding and reminded me of the drive up to Crystal Mtn. on Hwy 410.

This ride out I wanted to try something different with Colby. He's my boy and I don't like to hear my boy cry. About half way through the drive I parked, took him out of his cat carrier, coddled him for a bit, then got him to sit in the passenger seat where he stayed the rest of the ride. It was great because he didn't feel penned in and I got to scratch his chin and pet him a bit while we drove.

Once Colby was inside and I'd mostly unpacked I headed south to Ocean Park. Despite it only being 12 miles as the crow flies from Tokeland it's an hour-and-a-half drive back inland, then west again, then south, then over to the Long Beach peninsula, then back north. Still, I had to head back to Jack's to pick up a fantastic propane heater for my cabin (and a PC power cord and power strip -- because I suck and forgot mine). I stopped a couple times along the way on a stunning, sunny day out here to snap some photos and just before heading back drove out onto the beach to watch the sunset. This being the case, the drive back was mostly in the dark.

At one point on Hwy 105 heading from Raymond to Tokeland a large, light-ish object caught my eye from the corner of the windshield. Before I realized what it was it flew nearly directly in front of the glass and didn't deviate. At that instant I realized it was a pretty good sized owl, slammed on my breaks just enough that I was able to stay about a foot or so away from it until it cleared the passenger side and off into the darkness. I wasn't too freaked out because nothing ended up happened and actually thought it was kinda cool to see. It isn't, however, every day that I can honestly say I almost hit an owl in flight tonight.