Right City…Wrong State

It would have felt incomplete had I just glossed over Victoria BC.  Encouraged by decent weather this morning, I was up and out earlier than my ferry reservation required and that gave me a disposable half-hour to shoot Victoria’s harbor area.

US Customs checked me out on the Canadian side before boarding, and sent me off crossing the strait of Juan de Fuca for the next 90 minutes.  After another brief interview with US Customs in Washington state, I was on my way southbound.  It always feels sort of nice to cross any border leading back to the States.

I elected to take Highway 101 for most of the way home.  It’s routed like an inverted horseshoe around the Olympic National Forest on the Olympic Peninsula is northwest WA.  I took the eastern segment and for many miles it followed the Hood Canal.  At the very end of the Puget Sound I headed west on a combination of roads to rejoin the major coastal part of 101.  The intermittent and voluminous cloudbursts gave credence to this truly being a rain forest.

I arrived on the coast at the mouth of the Willapa River then followed on to Willapa Bay.  A few more miles of road led  to the massive Columbia River

and then with a very small diversion, ended in Long Beach, Washington for the evening.

Truly a cool little summer vacation town (think Mystic Pizza), it deserves a revisit.  The shops, amusement rides and restaurants are buzzing.  It boasts the longest beach in the world and in true Daytona-like fashion you can drive on the beach getting as near to the water as you dare.  $300 will get you towed out, if required.  Heavy rip-currents plague this area and there is prominent signage warning against swimming.  I doubt that even the July water temperature would be conducive to much body contact anyway.