Long Beach, WA

Our drive was interesting - logistics are harder to picture when you are dealing with bodies of water. Not like you have a choice - but it's not the cut and dry - go east, style of direction. Basically, we went from Oregon to Washington to Oregon to Washington again, and included a groovy bridge from Astoria that was something close to four miles long!

The Rokkaku workshop was held at the World Kite Museum in Long Beach, Washington. Did you know that a 'World' kite museum was in existence? Now you do. During the class, there were random museum visitors inspecting and watching the Rokkaku building, like it was an exhibit - mom was on display. Funny enough, I felt like I was taking her to her first day of school when I dropped her off. But then I met her and her classmates for lunch, which included beer, so that little mind induced scenario was blown out of the water. About kites, I didn't really realize just how much goes into making them. When I was a kid, you buy a bag and snap together the sticks, and place them into the holes that say 'Insert Here'. But, someone actually figured all that crap out just so I had it easy. I'm talking the dimensions - what height and width works, what shape and why, the spars - length and position, not to mention the composition of both - what material are they made of, and why. Oh, the math, all the geometry is just so much it creates freshman flashbacks. However, look at the beautiful results of all their hard work!

We were fortunate enough to have been able to stay in a house in a nice neighborhood off the beach, thanks Azumanos! Though we did have the luxury of a kitchen in which to cook, we definitely took advantage of the fridge to store our leftovers every day from local dining. Walking down to the shoreline, we were surprised to find deer at the end of the street. As were they. Along the boardwalk on the beach, there are great displays of things like settlers of the area and and old grey whale skeleton. They have had beached whales, like further south, and they also dig holes and bury them. I find that strange, but can't really offer any other suggestion, but the smell has got to be pretty pungent, wouldn't you think? One of the displays looked just way to comfy to pass up.
There is a store here that is called Marsh's Free Museum, and they have just about anything odd you *might* be interested in. One of which is this skeleton of Jake, a part human/part alligator. See, kind of interesting, but moreso just odd. They also have vintage quarter machines which can tell you the answers to any of your questions - along the same lines of Magic 8 Ball. This specific machine was broken. Really.
So even though it says 'Frigid', it doesn't really count! I have an excuse so of course I will use it.

Just a short drive from Long Beach, there are two great things to do - one is a Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center, and the other is a Washington Park called Cape Disappointment. Everyone has heard of Lewis and Clark, but they just seemed a lot more interesting to me now. Maybe it was the display, although the exhibit at the Idaho Museum was really nice, too. These guys, group of 50 at times, were pretty amazing, plain and simple. What they did was very brave and took skills and smarts. With the preponderance of information today, it's hard to imagine a location that does not have a map that I could buy, or a website that lays every detail out. The entire concept is so foreign to me, but still remarkable. Oh, and did you know that Meriwether Lewis actually died a few years after the expedition from an apparent suicide? They didn't tell us that in the 5th grade Oregon Trail lesson. There's lots of good hiking in that area as well - the building on the cliff here is actually the Lewis and Clark Center, from a view accessible via foot at the base of a lighthouse. The names of the trails and areas are great too - this one is aptly named Dead Man's Cove. Isn't that just the perfect name for this? However, I sadly admit, the mosquitos were out in force that day - as you can tell by the vicious head swatting in front of me.