Thursday, October 07, 2010

Old Memories and New Beginnings to Small Town Delights

Fun story, I was always in love with Sunnyside Beach. Especially during low tide when you could walk all the way down to the opening of Chambers Creek. With my adventurous spirit, I decided that going to just the train bridge wasn’t enough, I had to see the other side. So with my crazy sidekicks, we discovered multiple ways to get across the creek. This included seeing how far we could walk across the creek during negative low tides, or sometimes this turned into having to swim across the top of the water and screeching at what could possibly touching our feet. Seaweed, kelp and other creatures are frequent in the Puget Sound. At other times, when the weather just wasn’t quite right for us to skim across the frigid waters we would climb up to the train bridge. Look both ways, listen for the sound of a train whistle and run across. Or at least I did, until I was safely on the rocks on the other side. Train tracks make me nervous and we would get hollered at by the railroad employees if they saw us. Such rebels ha-ha. The beach on the other side was always amazing, a sand shore that you could wade out into without it going above your knees and a sand dollar paradise. Our own secret cove and with an old gravel pit nearby, exploration could take hours.

But in recent years, the old gravel pit we used to sneak into as teens has turn into this strange, Scottish themed golf course. The new favorite pastime of my mother and I is to walk the trails or enjoy the view while sipping wine from the restaurant above. It’s a place that truly captures the beauty of the Puget Sound, but they have also opened a gorgeous bridge to my secret beach. That is no longer much of a secret, if it ever was. This makes me happy and sad at the same time. Who knows how much this is going to turn into a crowded beach or another busy Sunnyside. Although, it is much safer to access this part of the sound, the adventure no longer exists. But it is also no longer considered private and this means the wealthy on Sunset beach cannot complain when we are walking on the opposite side of their club house. Because this is now a public beach. Which makes me smirk, just a little.