This weekend instead of a sailing project or trip, we went to Long Beach, WA for a friends birthday. It’s about a 3.5 hour drive from Seattle, so we were in for a while in the car. The scenery once you get past Montesano is some of my favorite in Washington State – the tide flats and wildlife areas that the road winds next to are pretty amazing just to gaze at and wonder if you could walk across, or sink out of sight. The birds and other animals that frequent them are also in abundance year round.
The trip took us to Long Beach proper, but we also ventured out to Cape Disappointment State Park and other nearby spots. For the entire trip, it still felt like we were on a sailing adventure as we were constantly near water!
Along the way, we stopped in Raymond for a driving break. The guys needed to use the restroom, so we ventured into the Northwest Carriage Museum. Inside, you will find two large spaces filled with carriages that have been lovingly restored and maintained. Some were used in famous movies like Gone with the Wind, while others were used in everyday life. I highly recommend stopping just to see a method of moving around from our recent past.
Josh in front of an opulent carriage
Famous Carriage
Carriage
An older carriage with the author, also old
Carriage emblem
Gone with the Wind
Carriage used in Gone with the Wind
My favorite specimen – dark blue and meticulously maintained
The weather the first day was amazingly windy and not good to be outside in. The video posted above shows the tail end of the storm on the beach. No one was driving on the beach or even barely outside – the truck in front of us was the local Sheriff watching for people who were in distress.
I’ve been down to the ocean beaches many times, and seen some good storms, but the wind with this one was particularly strong – the sand blowing across the beach earlier in the day was almost a white out (sand out?) condition, and you couldn’t be outside even at our condo without being peppered by sand, a mile inland. Glad I was on land!
While visiting, I wanted to get some good quad copter footage similar to what I had done during July 4th of the same year (not posted yet) but the quad had issues with an ESC board, and required open heart surgery. She would not fly this trip…
Quad during surgery
Our trip took us, as mentioned above, to Cape Disappointment State Park, which is a huge space complete with two lighthouses and plenty to see. We opted for a late afternoon visit to North Head Lighthouse, and were not disappointed!
View from the lighthouse down towards the Columbia River Bar
Latitude and Longitude of the lighthouse.
View to the north from the lighthouse.
North Head Lighthouse
The wonderful sunset from the lighthouse
This area is referred to as the Graveyard of the Pacific, and gives me chills every time I visit. Thinking about how many sailors have lost their lives alone on the Columbia River Bar is sobering. I don’t ever expect to sail the open ocean – I’m more of a gunkholing and coastal cruiser kind of guy – but if I do, I will steer clear of this area.
The trip was capped off by a beautiful sunset after the weather departed, and we left the next day for the trip back home.
Long Beach sunset before we left the next day
