Long Beach Weekend March 3-5, 2006
So we just passed our 3 years together which is quite an achievement in both of our sketchy relationship pasts. So we decided to take a trip to Long Beach, which is about 3 ½ hours from Seattle (very close to the Oregon border) for the weekend to celebrate. And to relax and get out of town!
Long Beach is, well, long. It’s a really skinny peninsula that sits next to the Pacific. We stayed at this place called Lighthouse Oceanfront Resort about halfway down the peninsula. Apparently “resort” is quite a loosely used term since there were just a bunch of cottages and townhouses with no amenities except for the beach access. There was a completely amazing view from our unit. We got there around lunchtime and had a quick bite and then jetted over to the south end of the peninsula to see the 2 lighthouses there. John is obsessed with lighthouses. We went to the first one we came to which was the North Head lighthouse. It was so cool because there were seals out in the water by the lighthouse. You could also go to the top of the lighthouse, but I was perfectly content just to hang out outside. John went and chatted it up with the woman inside and found out you could stay in one of the houses right there – that would be so cool.
Then it was on to the Cape Disappointment lighthouse. We drove up to where it said the Visitor’s center was and the road was closed. So we turned around, parked in a lot at the bottom of the hill and walked up the road. At the end of the road there was a fence. Hmmm, something seemed wrong. So we turned around and went back down the hill asked someone. Apparently the parking lot up there washed out during all the rains, so there was a trail you could take up to it. So we did a bit of bushwhacking since apparently people hadn’t been through there in a while. We eventually got to the Visitor’s Center and ran into some people that had just skirted around the fence at the end of the road and were able to get to the Visitor’s Center overlooking the lighthouse. The people said you couldn’t get to the lighthouse but we were determined. After going around a fence and some colored tape we made it to the lighthouse. It was really lovely up there. And we were the only ones up there. Gotta love that.
Cool Gate near Willapa National Wildlife Refuge
The next day we went to the other side of the peninsula. After a quick brekkie stop, we entered the state park and saw all these cars parked on the side of the road. So we pulled off too with dreams of seeing a cult or something interesting…well, it was kind of interesting…people were fishing in the bogs…so anyway, we pulled up to the first parking area we came to and took a quick glance at the map. Which kind of sucked because that was the only map we would see on our little “walk” and we ended up wandering around for 6-7 miles including wading through REALLY COLD water (I ended up crying). After we managed to find our way back to the car we took off to grab lunch and ride the go-carts (woohoo!). After the go-carts we went back to the resort for a while. But then ant-in-his-pants John says “how far is Astoria”. It always cracks me up that John, almost every morning before work says “I wish we could just stay in bed all day”. Like that has ever happened. Anyway, we ended up going to Astoria, Oregon (20 min.) and saw the movie Ultraviolet. Pretty darn sub-par but fairly entertaining.
The next day came and it was time to head home. We stopped at this bakery we had been eyeing all weekend and just about overloaded on sweets. We ended up having breakfast and taking mongo cookies and a slice of carrot cake (John’s fave) home. What a fun, relaxing weekend.
Tags: Long Beach
JohnCin
Congrats for the 3 years!! We are very happy for you two!
I have been wanting to go Long Beach, WA! Love the pictures you guys took…. and “ant-in-his-pants John”…. really!?!! John, No, never! 😀
Thanks for posting your adventure. This will be great for us to follow you guys around the world!! We are very looking forward to your big trip!!