The Pacific at last - 21 August 2012

Today we finally had our first glimpse of the Pacific, even though we have been on the coast for a few days, we have been in inlets such as Puget Sound and Willapa Bay.  Today there was nothing to the west of us until Japan.

Not far from our overnight stop was Long Beach (WA, not CA) where each August they hold the Washington Kite Festival so we detoured to have a look.  Not being the weekend it was a little quieter than it might have been but nevertheless there was still sufficient colour in the sky to make quite a spectacle.

We were able to watch Ray Bethell, holder of 11 multiple world records, flying three stunt kites simultaneously; one in each hand and one controlled by strings attached to his belt: most impressive.  His record is 39 kites simultaneously - not sure how he manages that!

There was a team of six guys flying stunt kites in formation as well as all manner of tube, box, delta, wing, and fantasy kites colouring the sky.

But we could not stay all day, we had to move along and we continued south to Astoria.  Named after, but never visited by the first multi-millionaire Astor, it is has a historic Finnish section and many Victorian era buildings and a fantastic viewpoint up on the hill overlooking the Columbia and Young Rivers which meet here.  Lewis and Clark finally reached the Pacific Coast on the north bank of the Columbia before they turned back to report their findings to President Jefferson.

But, to reach Astoria, we had to cross the longest trestle bridge in the world, 4.1 miles across the Columbia River with an absolutely enormous ship passing under us as we crossed, giving a sense of scale to the bridge.

Our next stop of note was the neat little seaside town of Cannon Beach where the attraction is a fabulous golden sand beach and a string of sea stacks, huge rock outcrops left behind as the sea has eroded the land.  The largest, Haystack, is off the beach at Cannon Beach but others can be seen dotted up and down the coast.

Having had a thoroughly enjoyable relaxing day we needed to cover some miles to our destination at Lincoln City so there was only time for occasional photo stops as we motored south.

173 miles today, total trip 6145. States: Washington, Oregon.