Washington Coast highlights: Close, but no seafood for us from Brady’s Oysters; coffee and donuts at Westport; an accidental lighthouse; oysters Southbend; fun and museums at Long Beach; sorrow, vituperation and f&$@-all of interest on the Long Beach peninsula; disappointment at Cape Disappointment; grim wenches at Hotel Shelburne (1906); Timberlands at Cannon Beach; rainy interlude with halibut cheeks at Oceanside
For my unmissable previous post on exploring the magnificent Washington Coast by car, click here.
First stop today on the way from Ocean Shores to Seaview was Brady’s Oysters at Bay City, near Westport. Beautifully signposted from Route 101, this would be a good spot to spend a lot of money on seafood, whether fresh, smoked or tinned. It is also a good spot just to use the restroom, and not to spend a lot of money on seafood.
Once-in-a-decade Donut at Westport
The attractive town of Westport is described as the North-West’s busiest port for both fishing and leisure boating.
As it was 10.30am and the sole purveyor of espresso drinks (that’s what they call barista coffees here) along the main strip had not yet opened, we found some perfectly adequate drip coffee at this shop, Little Richard’s… which just happened to also be a donut shop.
It would have been rude not to sample an old-fashioned maple-syrup-frosted donut, so we did. Or rather, I did, the saintly Roy limiting himself to a tiny corner. It was my first US donut ever. (I’d been traumatised back in the noughties by a rancid Krispy Kreme from Sydney Airport, bought for our group by a fellow-journalist from Singapore during a media trip to Australia.)
An Accidental Lighthouse
Grays Harbor Lighthouse was a lucky find. Though the guide book said it was closed, that turned out to be filthy lie.
However, it wasn’t on that day’s agreed agenda, and so Roy preferred to wait in the car at the bottom of the hill while I trotted up to the lighthouse and fended off the blandishments of the two guys manning the place. Though I didn’t have the necessary $5 to climb the steps and do the guided tour, they let me peek – nay, insisted that I peek – into the lovely interior.
First lit in 1898, at 33 metres (107 feet) Grays Harbor Lighthouse is the tallest in the state of Washington.
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South Bend, the National Oyster Capital
For lunch, I’d set my sights on oysters, and so it came to pass. South Bend is a town located on the Willapa River, part of an enormous enclave of estuarine bays that are perfect for oyster production, and it describes itself as the national oyster capital.
Following the guide book, we pulled in at River View Restaurant – expecting something rather fancy and busy – and found the exact opposite. We were the only customers, the patron serving out front and manning the outdoor barbecue.
From our indoor table, I glimpsed a woman assembling coleslaw, toasting garlic bread and possibly preparing the deep-fried and sautéed oysters that were part of our delicious $55 oyster platter to share.
With Budweiser having course-corrected from its woke 2023 Dylan Mulvaney advertising cock-up, and the resultant boycott well over, it seemed okay to wash down the light, tender and succulent molluscs with a couple of Bud Lights.
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Long Beach and Seaview
Seaview is right at the bottom of Long Beach Peninsula. After checking into our atmospheric Victorian accommodation, the Shelburne Hotel (1906), it was just a few minutes’ drive up the peninsula to the town of Long Beach.
Long Beach is a typical holiday town, complete with bars, candy and ice cream stores, fish and chips and Mexican restaurants; we see Mexican everywhere we go. Plus “museums” like this one, Marsh’s Free Museum. Full of shite from an adult perspective, but no doubt a whimsical wonderland for anyone under 15 or so.
But if it’s 4pm and one’s testy husband has been at the wheel for an alleged six hours, do not by any means ask him to continue up the peninsula to see f&$@-all of interest, only to have to drive back along the same misbegotten route. Doing so will only bring sorrow and vituperation to rain down upon your head. Just saying.
Shelburne Hotel (1906), Seaview
As for the Shelburne Hotel, yes, it’s delightful… aglow with stained glass and full of original panelling and other interesting fixtures. The original old bar is gorgeous: we had our free glasses of sparkling wine there. Though the wine was complimentary, Roy was not.
(Him: This wine is terrible. Me: Yes, Roy, it’s terrible, but it’s free).
Who you gonna call?
No sign of the ghosts supposed to haunt the place – though they could well have been seen off the property by the unusually grim bunch of women who run operations. Roy said he’d locked the door. Fool! – ghosts don’t need to use a door.
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Disappointment en route to Oceanside
In hoping to avert a repeat of yesterday’s mid-afternoon mini-meltdown – all my fault, as it was sparked off by our unnecessary drive up the Long Beach peninsula, remember – I was unlucky.
Today’s spousal meltdown occurred well before 10am. (Before his first cup of coffee, to be fair.) Trying to get to Cape Disappointment Lighthouse was, appropriately, disappointingly impossible, as it’s a US Coastguard and Homeland Security facility and the road was closed. This was all my fault, as I should have researched the route properly in advance of our approach. (As not-the-driver, what am I doing with all the spare time on my hands, anyway?)
On a brighter note, the outstanding Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center, located in what was the US Military’s Fort Canby, is perched on a cliff overlooking the huge, wide and wild Pacific Ocean. This museum opens at 10am. It tells the story of the 18-month east-to-west journey of the Corps of Discovery in 1805-1806, using illustrations, extracts from the expedition leaders’ journals, interactive exhibits and more.
From here, you can indeed look across at the Cape Disappointment Lighthouse, which could use a lick of paint. But we didn’t manage to see the other one, North Head Lighthouse, simply because the parking was impossibly full. (Disappointingly.) On the bright side, we’d bought a couple of black-and-white lighthouse photos in Long Beach the day before, including one of North Head, at the previously mentioned, weird and quirky Marsh’s Free Museum.
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Heading for Oregon
Via Warrenton to Cannon Beach
Today we crossed the border from Washington to Oregon, via Route 101’s long bridge to the city of Astoria. It was only as we approached that I realised this was actually a city – so many American towns, even quite small ones, call themselves cities – that it’s not always evident from a map or guide book.
Anyway, taking a right turn after the bridge led us to another impressively long bridge to the town of Warrenton, by which time it was close on noon and definitely time to stop for coffee.
As it turned out, the highly rated Arnie’s Cafe (as busy as it gets at 11.50am on a Saturday morning, according to my trusty iPhone), served espresso, along with gigantic portions of what we used to call “a heart attack on a plate”. It was too soon for us to eat, but watching our fellow human beings partaking of Arnie’s hearty American fare was a culinary experience in itself.
A couple of hours later, I might have fancied ordering one of the amazing platters of giant pancakes or French toast, eggs, bacon, grits, biscuits, gravy and whatever. As it was, they’d run out of brownies, and I wasn’t about to repeat yesterday’s donuts-first-thing sin. But I loved these coffee posters in Arnie’s restroom:
Competition is healthy here in Warrenton, OR. Right next door to Arnie’s, this colourful cluster of food trucks offers Thai, Asian fusion, Mexican and more.
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Lunch at Cannon Beach
Roy had tried to book two nights’ accommodation at the seaside resort town of Cannon Beach. Now we know why he battled: it’s the weekend. (That would also explain why we couldn’t get parking at North Head Lighthouse this morning.)
Everyone and his dog was here, circling for parking like hungry seagulls. (Murderous crows?)
Cannon Beach’s claim to fame is that it has the highest sea stack along this coast: the Haystack, at 72 metres tall.
It being a chilly 11 degrees Centigrade and breezy, everyone was on the beach in their jeans, sneakers and jackets. Roy was still wearing his leather Timberland boots* – and likely to continue doing so until at least San José, I reckoned; so I hiked down alone to take this pic. It was worth it!
- Speaking of the Timberlands, since boarding the Westerdam in Sydney, Roy has received a string of compliments on his footwear. Unprecedented! And now he won’t take them off.
For lunch at Cannon Beach’s Wayfarer Restaurant & Lounge, we shared a big Cobb salad, a delicious bowl of clam chowder and an order of crab cakes. Lovely service, plus a beach view from our window booth.
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Oceanside, 2 Nights
Though located a couple of miles from Oceanside itself, our two-bedroom, double-storey apartment/house (152B Glenwood Road, off Grand Avenue, Oceanside) was perfect.
Best of all was the stunning view from the upstairs living room: even in the rain it was uplifting. Also lovely was the variety of birds that visited the balcony next door; our neighbour put out masses of seeds every morning. I identified a small flock of American goldfinches (I think), a large and handsome gull, several ravens, and couple of Steller’s jays – spectacular blackish-brown crested birds with a blue body.
It was a long, steep drop down to the beach and there was no path, as I discovered when I went out to explore. Given the wet weather, beach walking wouldn’t have been a lot of fun, anyway. What I did find, however, less than 100 metres from our front door, was this gorgeous deer, who seemed in no hurry to bound away. So lovely.
For dinner, Roseanna’s in Oceanside; they close at 7pm on a Sunday, so it had to be an early one. After sharing a big salad, we each had the special: halibut cheeks in ginger lime butter; Roy’s with roast yam (sweet potato) and mine with mash. I didn’t know what to expect, but the cheeks, though tender, had something of the slightly stringy texture of skate-wings: unusual and delicious.
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Next up?
From Oceanside we head to Portland, the capital of Oregon, where we spend two nights before boarding the overnight Amtrak train to San José, California. Yee-ee ha-a-a!
[…] spent two nights regrouping and doing laundry at Oceanside (click here), we drove the rental car up the road to Tillamook, home of a famous cheese factory. […]