Westport and Long Beach 8/22-8/24, 2000

August 25, 2000 -We returned from the coast last night and, boy, did we have a great time! We spent three days camping in Westport, a community along the Washington state Pacific coast. Westport is known more as a charter fishing and surfing community. Most people head to towns such as Ocean Shores to spend time at the beach. As a consequence, Westport's beaches aren't crowded with people. Twin Harbors Beach State Park is situated about 4 miles south of downtown Westport and has a large expanse of sandy beach, and that, of course, is where we camped. Mary Ann and Heather had road down with Nancy and Dave on Monday, and I headed down after work on Monday.

On Tuesday, the weather was sunny and windy, and we spent the day on the beach flying kites and body surfing. We all have wet suits and once you are in the water, it isn't so bad, unfortunately, the waves were pretty tame.

On Wednesday, we drove to Long Beach. Long Beach is a small town south of Westport along the Pacific Coast. As the crow flies, it is only about 30-40 miles, but the drive is about 80 miles. Long Beach is north of the mouth of the Columbia river, and over the years, the silt and soil washed into the Pacific from the Columbia river was pushed north by the current and deposited along what is now perhaps one of the longest sand spits in the world (hence, the name "Long Beach").

At the end of August, Long Beach has an international kite festival, and it was our intent to spend a day at the festival. It was a sight to behold. Hundreds of banners and elaborate kites and windsocks filled the sky. We, unfortunately, arrived at the end of most of the competitions for the day, but we were most impressed by what we saw. I picked up a new stunt kite and lines, a kite for Heather, and we got kite lights for night flying.

After having a barbecue on the beach, we headed back to Westport that evening. The wind gods did not favor us that night, sadly, and Dave and I were unable to really fly our lighted kites (we did get to fumble around in the pitch dark and fog, though).

Thursday was partly overcast, but we made the most of the day again flying kites and playing in the surf. The surf had cranked it up a notch since Tuesday and we had a lot of fun body surfing and boogie boarding.

Alas, I was truly slammed by a monstrous wave. I remember the grinding of sand into my right ear, thinking "skull fracture", then the torquing of my body on my neck as my left shoulder was driven into the sand, thinking "c-spine fracture, ow!, clavicle fracture". Thankfully, I was able to stumble to the beach in one piece with a rediscovered respect of the ocean.

Mary Ann, Heather, and I packed up last night and headed home (Nancy and Dave were leaving today). I had a rough day at work today. My right ear hurts and I'm unable to turn my head to the right, and all I did was wait for the day to be done with. But for all that, I wouldn't trade the last few days for anything. And thanks, Nancy and Dave, for being great friends and great camping partners.