Northern Exposure

Trey Smith

After a soap opera that has spanned several months, it looks like Della and I f-i-n-a-l-l-y have a landing spot: Ocean Shores, Washington. We learned on Monday that all of our documentation apparently has passed muster and we have been given a move-in date of Friday, September 20. While it is quite a relief to know where we're headed and it is in a location that we like, we really don't feel like celebrating. We're leaving South Bend only because we have to -- this is not the sort of outcome we had hoped for when we moved here.

For those of you unfamiliar with Ocean Shores -- my guess is that this will include almost all of you -- here's a photo of the town.

Ocean Shores is located on what is called the Point Brown Peninsula, a six mile long spit of sand that represents the northern entrance to Grays Harbor. In the photo above, the water to the right is the harbor and the water to the left is the Pacific Ocean. Our apartment complex is situated near the far end of the photo only about 500 yards from the ocean beach.

Ocean Shores is an interesting place. It is home to a lot of wealthy people as well as a lot of poor people (we will be in the latter). A good number of the poor people service the rich ones! Most of the jobs in the area are in the service industry (motels, hotels, restaurants and the various accoutrements you would expect to find in a resort community). I read that singer Pat Boone has or used to have a home here.

The population is listed at around 5,600 or nearly 4,000 more than South Bend. My guess is that a lot of the residents are snowbirds, so the population in the winter months probably is a lot less.

Besides the fact that getting used to [cramped] apartment living will be a major stressor for me -- our 2 bedroom apartment will be less than one-half the square footage of this house -- there is another aspect of this move that will be heart wrenching. We have 3 pets and only 2 can go with us. We have decided that those two will be our dogs which means we need to find a home for our 13 year old cat. Dylan is Della's baby, but knowing his eccentric personality, we both agree that he is not cut out for apartment living. We're just worried that his age and sometimes odd behavior will make it difficult to find him a new home.

As with all things in life, there are positives and negatives with our situation.