We got up early, made sure we had everything in the car and picked up Ben from Rochester since it was along the way. Mom had a couple stops in mind for a quilt store thing...similar to shop hop but instead of a block you get a row. We drove by Castle Rock too early to stop so when we got to Longview we hit up their shop.
I made a query for the area around Long Beach, the furthest south it went was Astoria and the furthest north Raymond. We were covered pretty good. We stopped at a few along the way to break up the trip. I was mostly concerned about ones in cities and towns I don't have yet for the challenge (GC2RYC7). I am over half way done.
The first cache was in Cathlamet inside a small park. Strong Park (GC2YY6E), which was named for Judge William Strong (one of the first three U.S. Supreme Court Justices for the Oregon Territory) and Ben found it without any hesitation.
We drove west on Hwy 4 towards Naselle, stopping to get one cache by bearsandme, it was one of her alphabet series caches (GC45V91). I walked right past it but Ben spotted it. We signed it, put it back and got back on the highway.
When we got to Long Beach it was around lunch time. We grabbed one more cache before we found a place to eat. It was called Welcome to Long Beach (GC3WW9T) by LegendOfThePickle. I had to read the hint before we started looking for it because it could have been anywhere. It was a micro cache hiding in the bricks facing the highway.
The Roo wasn't open yet and everyone was feeling something that offered a bunch of stuff. We found this place just down the road called Benson's By the Beach. It specialized in breakfast and lunch. We were there just in time for either. Mom and I had a burger and Ben had breakfast food and some of my fries. It was pretty good.
After lunch, everyone decided to walk around the shops and to see what kinds of entertainment Long Beach had to offer. We posed with the giant frying pan.
I had to take them to the webcam, Fishing for Cachers (GCK3VC). It took us about ten minutes to get the right picture. I had already claimed the cache back in January 2012 during the cache machine.
We went into several shops. I was looking for a cool sweatshirt at a decent price. Most of them ran for about $40. We went into one of the shops and I found one for $30 that I actually liked but I couldn't find one with my size. Then I looked up and saw that it might be but would have to ask for some help from the lady running the store. She went and grabbed the hook and got it down for me. I went to pay for it and she said since it was dusty, she would knock off 30%. Sweet.
We wandered around for a little bit longer and then walked across the street to Marsh's Free Museum. There is always weird stuff inside. It is known for Jake, the alligator man.
http://www.marshsfreemuseum.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jake_the_Alligator_Man
We used the bathroom and then heard the siren. I thought it was an ambulance or fire engine and thought nothing of it.
I decided it was time to go to the beach for some sandcastle making. First, we pulled over and took a picture in front of the Long Beach sign.
We followed the driveway onto the beach and saw there were lots and lots of people...but why? Then we noticed the ambulances, fire engines, coast guard vehicles, boats in the water, jet skis and the helicopter scanning the water. We wondered what had happened. I drove through the commotion to the other side...I really didn't want to be in the way. I drove a little over a quarter of a mile away from all the vehicles and people, backed the car up and parked. The tide was coming in.
We got our the chairs, my buckets and shovels and started digging. We were passed by many people asking what was going on. We didn't know.
Finally some local 20-somethings drove by and told us what happened. A little girl and a little boy both under 10, were swimming and went out too far. They got pulled under and out by the undertow. Meanwhile their mom and grandma got stuck in the sand and had help getting them out. About thirty minutes into the search they found the little boy. They continued the search after we had gone and left. As of 10 p.m. that evening they still didn't find her. The ocean claimed another life.
I made two sandcastles. One got eaten by the waves right away and the other one lasted a little bit longer but also got eaten by waves.
We were out there for about three hours before we decided we should head back home. The tide was coming in fast and mom worried about the car. I did my best to avoid getting stuck and maneuvering through the people who were still there watching the water rescue. We ate ice cream from one of the local vendors before looking for the cheapest gas station, which wasn't all that cheap but it's never cheap on the coast, which cost me $4.15 a gallon! Yikes! On the bright side we found the man mermaid.
We left town and decided to take the 101 towards Raymond rather than going clear back into Longview and then up I-5. We found two more bearsandme caches on the way to Raymond. Raymond was another town I haven't found a cache in for my Cities and Towns Challenge (see above). When we got there, I found one that was easy to get to and grabbed it. It was called Willapa Water Wagon (GCNT1K), we found it quickly.
We dropped Ben off at the fire station and went home. It was a fun day trip and I hope I get to go on others soon.
Next Adventure: The Inaugural Footgolf Game
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