Day at the Beach

It was too windy to sail, so we decided to go west to the coast. Fearing everyone in the Portland area would also have this idea (it was sunny and 80s on the coast which is rare), we headed north to Long Beach, WA. We had been there once before and decided to go back.

The water was cold - very cold - but it was warm enough that this is the first time we've gone to the Pacific and "played" in the water. We jumped waves a bit, played frisbee on the edge and built some sand castles.





So far, all the beaches we've been to in WA allow cars to drive right onto the beach. This definitely creates a different feel to the beach experience. After almost 3 hours, it was starting to get a little too crowded. The tide was coming in, pushing our chairs and towels too close to the driving area, so we left. We walked around the town a bit, but didn't find much other than this giant frying pan.

We drove south, thinking we would find an Oregon beach to hang out on. But as we crossed the bridge at Astoria (at the mouth of the Columbia River), there was a really long, low line of clouds and the temperature had dropped into the 60s. It was the weirdest thing. We did finally make it to a beach south of Astoria, but it was cloudy and cool so we didn't stay. We headed back to Astoria.

We wanted to find something new to do in Astoria, so we went up to the Astor Column. The view was beautiful and even more amazing from the top of the column.







You could buy cheap little gliders to send flying off the top of the tower. It's a pretty popular thing to do, and we were able to find several off to the side in the bushes. The girls had fun on this hill, flying their gliders and the view was gorgeous.







At dinner (we went to Rogue Public House), I wanted a picture of Syd and Kevin, but of course they couldn't give me a serious pose. This is them being angry...


And this is one eye closed...



On our way home we had this beautiful view of Mt. St. Helen's. This is looking down on the Columbia, where we passed back into Washington for a while.


The girls were being silly with my sunglasses...Sydney slid hers down on her nose and said, "Do I look like a grandma?"