Retirement is hard work and we needed a break…we recently had a fun week vacation on Washington’s Long Beach Peninsula.
Before we headed up to Long Beach, we went to McMenamin’s Cosmic Tripster Party at Edgefield in Troutdale. We got to spend a little time with Jerry Garcia, but he didn’t have much to say.
Beer flowed freely…
…, and we got to meet up with some friends.
Long Beach is about 28 miles long and you can drive on most of it, so we did. It isn’t the most environmentally enlightened recreation, but it was fun.
The surf has claimed many vehicles and we were almost witness to another victim. A two-wheel drive car made the mistake of stopping in the wet sand and sank up to the axle with the tide coming in.
I offered use of my tow strap but they said they had one. I parked well above the high tide mark and watched the show. Good thing I stuck around as the strap they tried to pull the car out with broke and a few minutes later the person helping them drove up and sheepishly asked if they could borrow my strap. Minutes ahead of being overtaken by the incoming tide, they finally got the car free. When they returned my tow strap they asked if they could use it if the car got stuck again. Instead of getting off the beach at the nearby access road, they headed further up the beach. We left…they can figure it out if they got stuck again.
Just as fun but at a much slower pace, we hiked around the Leadbetter Point Wildlife Refuge at the north end of the peninsula and Cape Disappointment State Park on the south end. North Head Lighthouse, Fort Canby, and the observation bunkers were very interesting.
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Long Beach has beach and wind, a perfect match for kites. After visiting the World Kite Museum, I wanted to go fly a kite. I forgot to bring my kite from home, so I bought one in town, a nice single line dragon. Just a bit to much wind for it so next day I bought a different style kite, a Delta Conyne style single line kite that flew like a champ. I decided 150 feet wasn’t enough and I needed more line. Line obtained, back at the beach. The wind was a bit lighter so it took a bit to coax the kite to the end of the first 150’ string. Then I hooked on the second 150’. Looking strong so I tried hooking on the next length.
A point to remember in future kite flying: When two people are holding on to a flying kite, it is important that they do not both let go at the same time.
It was sad, and yet fascinating, to watch my new kite with 300+ feet of line slowly drifting over the ocean waves, slowly descending, finally settling into a watery grave well past the line of waves that might have washed it back to shore.
My only regret is if some sea creature gets tangled up in the kite string. I didn’t have the heart to go back the next morning to see if the jumbled wreck of a kite had managed to wash ashore. We just packed up the motorhome and came home.
Good food at Hungry Harbor. Good beer at North Jetty Brewing. Good time all week.
Dan Stoe
Discover With Dan
