Long Beach, WA

In August, Jeff and I took a weekend trip to Long Beach, Washington.  It's about two hours from Portland.  We didn't know what to expect since we had not been there, but we ended up loving it.  Long Beach is such a cute little beach town.  When we planned our trip, we had no idea the weekend we picked was Jake the Alligator man's 76th annual birthday party and boy was it a party, more on that later.  We stayed at the Adrift Hotel, which was right next to the ocean and it was great to have such close beach access.  Along the coast there is a 8.5 mile paved trail called The Discovery Trail which has monuments along the trail to celebrate the Lewis and Clark Expedition.  We had a lot of fun checking out the trail on bikes we borrowed from our hotel.  Here are some pictures from our trip.  

 

 Watching the sunset

 

 The sunset from The Discovery Trail

 A view of the coast out on a morning jog.

 We went to breakfast at Benson's on the Beach.  I had scrambled eggs with crab, but it was more like crab with a few scrambled eggs, there was so much crab!  I loved it!

 Jeff enjoying his breakfast.

We went to the North Head Lighthouse on the Long Beach Peninsula.  We also wanted to go to Cape Disappointment, but it was so crowded and there was no parking.  We didn't want to wait for a parking spot, so we'll have to put that on the list for next time. 

View from the Lighthouse

 

 It was a bit windy up there, but the weather was great.  

 

 View of the Washington Coast from the Lighthouse.

Jeff took this panoramic view near the Lighthouse. 

 As I mentioned before, it was Jake the Alligator Man's birthday and Jake resides in Marsh's Museum.  It's basically a tourist trap, and of course we had to check it out.   

 And here is Jake the Alligator Man, yep, he's half man and half alligator.  

As part of the birthday celebration for Jake, there is a Bride of Jake contest.  Women come from all over to win Jake's heart and become his bride for the year.  We saw about half of the show and that was enough.  Let's just say it was very interesting. 

Along with the birthday celebration there is a car show.  That was also very interesting.  Here are some pictures of that. 

On the way back to Portland, we spent a few hours in Astoria.  Here is a view of the Columbia River from the Astoria Column. 

 

 The Astoria Column, the weather was perfect, we couldn't have asked for a better weekend. 

The Goonies Museum in Astoria.  We didn't go inside, that will be another trip, but we did get to see the Goonies Jeep outside bullet holes and all. 

It's kind of hard to see in this picture, but the cast members signed the dashboard.  

More panoramic views from the Astoria Column.

We loved Long Beach and can't wait to go back.