Kate's Day 2: Portland to Ocean Park

As the week passed, a few themes emerged. Most days were long, and we found definite benefits in the consumption of coffee. What I hadn't realized about Margot's PhD research is that it has evolved to encompass a survey of coffee shops in southern Washington and western Oregon!

We started Day 2 in Portland with a cup of coffee... said goodbye to Elise and Mark and headed into to downtown Portland so that I could check out a few shops that I had heard about but never been to. First up: Trader Joe's! We stocked up on various foodstuffs and yummy treats for the long car rides and essential meals. We also stopped in at REI to see if there was anything on sale, and to purchase a few water bottles (non PBA). Mine is really pretty with a tree and a bird on it!

On our way out of Portland we took a few exits until finally finding Fisher's World for a pair of wader boots for Margot's chest waders, and then finally were on the road. We decided to take the highway through northern Oregon, along the Columbia, instead of heading through Vancouver Washington and following the north side of the Columbia.

Our target location: Sunset View Resort in Ocean Park, on the Long Beach Peninsula of southern Washington. Margot is very lucky to get a massively cheap discount, for this place has waterfront, a hot tub, tennis and volleyball courts, and more (sadly we didn't ever have the energy or the time to utilize the hot tub!!).

We made dinner (alphabet pasta - look what I ended up with!!)
And then we wandered out to the beach in front of the resort. Apparently Long Beach Washington is the site of the longest beach road in the world, so we had to worry about running into cars. We found a bunch of shorebirds enjoying the tire tracks!


Ocean Park is a tiny little community at the northern end of the peninsula. It has a nice, new coffeeshop/bookstore, a couple of grocery/general stores, a few gas stations, and a few vacation rentals. I really started to fall in love with the bungalows of the Coast... it's also spring-time, so the flowers in town were really starting to look pretty.

After doing a few hard calculations to figure out the optimal time to arrive at the beach, we set the clock for 5am, Margot pulled out the hide a bed, and we fell asleep to the sound of the waves crashing on the beach.
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PS: this is a warning!! Be careful of tsunamis!!!