Long Beach, Washington is a wonderful little seaside town in the far southwest corner of the state. This area was originally home to Chinook Indians who later traded with European ships as they made their way up and down the coast. William Clark visited these beaches at the end of his Corps of Discovery’s overland voyage to the Pacific. White settlers started to arrive not long after the Civil War, originally coming to harvest the plentiful local oysters to ship to San Francisco. In the mid 1870s, steamships started bringing in tourists from nearby Portland and hotels and restaurants started to spring up. Long Beach has been a vacation destination ever since.
I absolutely loved my time in Long Beach. The beach itself is beautiful and the sunsets were magnificent. I really liked Dylan’s Cottage Bakery which is one of the best I’ve been to in a long time. I had a wonderful dinner at Castaways, drinks at the Long Beach Tavern and ice cream at Scoopers. The Marsh Free Museum is a wonderful old collection of oddities set around a modern souvenir shop. But mostly I loved the statues and public art, colorful buildings, hand-painted signs and the general laid back feel of the town. The attention to detail is amazing and even the parking signs and bike racks are adorable. I had a fantastic time in Long Beach and can’t wait to go back again. If you ever get the chance, you should definitely pop in. You may end up staying longer than you thought you would. I hope you enjoy these photos from beautiful Long Beach, Washington.
Bandon is an adorable little town of about 3,300 people on the southern Oregon coast. Originally Coquille Indian land, it was first settled by people of European decent in 1853. The town was established in 1873 by four men from Bandon, Ireland in County Cork and named for their old world home. Cranberries were introduced into Bandon in 1885 by Charles McFarlin of Massachusetts and have been grown and harvested successfully in the area ever since. Tragically the whole town burned to the ground in 1936 in a fire that claimed eleven lives. It has risen from the ashes and rebuilt as a charming coastal town with a lot to offer.
Bandon was probably my favorite town on the whole Oregon coast. The Old Town area was full of art and color and I loved just walking up and down the waterfront. The beaches were absolutely stunning with so much more to see than just the famous Face Rock and an evening stroll proved to be an excellent choice. The history museum, housed in the old City Hall, was one of the best local history museums I’ve ever been to in a town this size. Of course I loved the hand-painted signs around town, the beautiful carved wooden sculptures and the Coquille River Lighthouse. Of all the towns I visited in my first week along the coast, this was the one that stood out and a town I will definitely return to. Thank you, Bandon, for a wonderful stay. I hope you enjoy these photos from Bandon, Oregon.
If there’s a more classically Californian beach town than Pismo Beach, I have yet to find it. Just driving into town makes your stress start to fade away and when you find a parking spot you can take a deep breath and relax - you have arrived. Pismo Beach residents have made an obvious effort to create and maintain this laid-back, surfer vibe and they’ve built a beautiful town around it. The fact that I was there on a beautiful sunny day didn’t hurt.
This area is historically home to the Chumash people, and “Pismu” was their name for the tar they found in the area which they used to seal their canoes and baskets. The Spanish Portolá Expedition passed by the beach in 1769 and after Mexican independence it would be included in José Ortega’s Rancho Pismo. A town was established in 1891 and the first pier was built in 1924. Pismo Beach was long called the “Clam Capital of the World” and these delicious mollusks drew people from miles around, but overharvesting has devastated the local clam population. Today the town states simply that they are “Classic California” and they definitely live up to that claim. While there is a lot more to California than surfing and beaches, that is the image that many people have of the Golden State. If that’s what you are looking for, you won’t find a better place to experience it than beautiful Pismo Beach. I hope you enjoy these photos from this classic California surf town.
