We went to see “Jake”.

(Frank) First things first: We went to see “Jake”. Jake is cool. Jake is interesting. I wonder what Jake is exactly. Second things first: We had pizza at Chico's. The pizza was great. The atmosphere is more for kids than old geezers, but it was nice and once again, the pizza was great. Third things first: We had ice cream at Scoopers. The ice cream was Dryers rather than the expected home-made and the waffle cone was too thick and hard. Jake passes. Chico's passes. Scoopers flunks.

(Frank) I never thought it would happen. I have found a town that hasn’t done anything to p*** me off! (Other than Scoopers.) Long Beach is a tourist town, but it’s not too touristy. There are lots of interesting shops, but they’re not too posh and uppity to be obnoxious. They have fun stuff at reasonable prices. The town provides free parking on all the city streets, free access to the beaches with large parking lots at the ends of each of the beach access roads. The city allows you to drive your car or truck on the beach if you want to because the beaches are huge, wide, long and very sparsely populated. There are picnic shelters with wind screens and picnic tables along the upper reaches of the beaches and paved bicycle and walking paths through the beach grass. AND not only that, the town provides public restrooms that are clean and actually have hot and cold water in the sinks. And that, by itself, is a miracle.

(Cheryl) We ate lunch at a deli and bakery in the middle of the town of Long Beach. The Italian wedding soup bread bowl was delicious, and we came home with a loaf of cinnamon bread, a bear claw, and a sweet flat swirled crispy for breakfast tomorrow morning. We walked all that off hiking up to the North End Light House and then to the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center. Of course, when we returned to town, we ate an ice cream cone at Scoopers as we had been instructed by our grandchildren. Frank climbed to the top of the North lighthouse while I hiked along the lighthouse keeper’s path and took pictures of him talking with the docent at the top of the lighthouse. We found out that you can rent the lighthouse keeper’s residence and the assistant lighthouse keeper’s residence. Each sleep six and rent for around $300 a night. Frank will post pictures of these elegant old houses above the ocean. These days the lighthouses are completely automated so there are no more keepers. Frank will tell you about the old fort up at the Lewis and Clark exhibit and lighthouse at Cape Disappointment.

(Frank) The Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center is built on the site of Fort Canby. The fort was originally built in 1863 and rebuilt in 1941. We walked around in the old ammunition bunkers and saw the original cannon mounts. Everything about the fort is massive and it was built to protect the mouth of the Columbia River from foreign ships. Also on display at the Center was the original 1822 Fresnel lamp assembly that was formerly installed in the North Lighthouse. It is huge, large enough for the lighthouse keepers to go inside the light to clean the lenses and it’s a work of art. Interestingly at the base of the North Lighthouse are two stone structures built to store the oil used to light the original lamp. They built two building to house the oil in case one of them caught fire. That way they’d still have oil left to keep the light glowing for the ships.

(Cheryl) I had this brilliant idea! I found a Vodka bottle in the surf so we wrote a note on the back of our Long Beach map to anyone who might find the bottle when we tossed it back into the surf. This proved to be problematic as each time we flung the bottle into the ocean it came right back to us! Tomorrow we’re going to try again. If it won’t work, we’re going to attempt to toss it off the Astoria Bridge without getting arrested. If we’re caught, please send cash for bail. We also failed to launch my new kite which is a virtual impossibility on a windy beach! We really wish we had brought some teenagers with us. We did manage to ride our bicycles a long way on the paved path through the beach grass. Frank rode with Peanut tucked inside his Sturgis jacket with just his little head sticking out.

Love from,
Captain Ahab, the Mermaid, and Moby Peanut