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Long Beach Day TripJul 29, 2009
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Astoria Bridge to Washington
Restaurant View
It's 106 in Vancouver
Today we succeeded in escaping the 106 degree heat in Vancouver. We headed north and west toward the Pacific Coast and the town of Long Beach. We have had week-long stops at Long Beach on two occasions in the past.
We took the Oregon route on highway 30 west along the Columbia River to its mouth at Astoria, OR. From there we crossed the long bridge across the river into Washington and up highway 101 to Long Beach.
The temperature upon our arrival was in the 60s and stayed there throughout the day. Long Beach was busy even on a Wednesday. We stopped for lunch at the Lightship Restaurant that sits on the second floor of a motel with a view of the beach. The beach here stretches from Cape Disappointment at the mouth of the Columbia to a point about 27 miles to the north.
We opted to take a walk from the restaurant south along the beach toward the Cape. We really enjoyed the cool weather as we walked a couple of miles south before turning around. There had been a major change on the beach since our last visit – horses. A stable has been established in town and they lead horseback rides along the beach on a regular basis. This practice has not been good for the beach which is now strewn with “deposits” from the horses. The normally white waves were brown-tinged in this area although we couldn’t be certain that there was a direct connection to the manure. As we headed north a fog blew onto the beach a created a photo of the horses and their riders that was the one positive aspect of their presence.
After our walk we went into town to walk through the shops in the area. We spent about an hour and a half in this activity. We drove the couple of miles south to the small riverfront town of Iwaco where we had dinner overlooking the harbor.
We drove back on route 4 in Washington to I-5 before turning south to return to Vancouver where the temperature had dropped to 90 at our 9:00 arrival time.
