Cruisin’ Washington: Pacific Beach State Park

It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas, the further north we go...
We planned this trip blind. We have never been to this part of the country before, much less in an RV. I know how to book a mean hotel, but a campsite, mmm... not so much.





How we picked our route was we knew where we would start, where we wanted to end up and how many miles we wanted to travel per day. We wanted to keep the mileage under 150 miles/day or what we thought would be no more than around 3 hours on the smaller roads in a big vehicle. Somehow, even at a decent speed, those miles seemed to take hours longer. Perhaps, that is because it did take hours longer than we had estimated. 2 hours longer for those of you counting. Lucky the drive was stunning.

We started our day out the usual way, breakfast, RV tidying (aka: battening down the hatches), but then took a moment to head to a wildlife viewing area at the edge of the furthermost Oregon peninsula. We had stunning views of the Columbia river meeting the Pacific ocean.



Just a stone’s throw away from Washington state, a giant bridge carried us across state lines and into a new state for Bill and I. About 30 miles of Washington later, with full bladders and no pit stop in site, we found a pull off along the highway were we could use our own “facilities”. While Bill was using our “facilities” I heard a knock at our side RV door. Who could that be in the middle of nowhere? Only two choices: mass murderer or police officer. Not being thrilled with either option, and my protector being currently “indisposed”, I was not eager to answer the door. A quick peek out of the back window confirmed my hunch-- a cop, a pig, the po’po (was he going to “shut us down”?) My only alternative (besides sliding into the driver seat and gunning it, leading to a spectacular Thelma and Louise style chase scene, all with Bill in the bathroom pants down) was to answer it. Fortunately he only wanted to make sure we were ok and didn’t need any help. No need to panic (but it was I do so well.)

Hungry a few hours later, and wanting a break from the RV for a moment, we stopped at a bed and breakfast in a small costal town. It is there that we met a self-proclaimed 140 year old space alien who apparently moonlights as a server at the restaurant attached to the B&B. The kids thought he was hilarious. I thought he was a bit creepy, since the alien also kept telling us we could leave the kids with him, instead of paying--once was funny, the 10th time was creepy. Good story, either way.

Still following Tori Amos’ advice, heading north on the 101, we finally arrived at our destination... Pacific Beach State Park. In the tiniest excuse of a town I have ever seen, was the most amazing view from a campsite to date.




The RV spot was on the beach with the Ocean looming out of our back window. Bill and I slept with the back curtains open, just so we could enjoy every second of our time in our “room with a view.”








The Pacific Ocean (on this side of it anyway) is always good for a wonderful sunset. Our was marvelous on this night.









In order to enjoy the beach from outside of our “room”, we had to done some winter-like gear. I had thought that evenings might get chilly by a camp fire, so I packed our winter hats. I don’t think I have ever had to wear a ski hat in the month of July, anywhere in the world I have been. Another first on our adventure. It did make our beach exploring walk much more comfortable, if not funny looking.


The boys enjoyed watching a movie and Bill and I enjoyed watching them watch the movie. The sudden bouts of belly-laughs out of nowhere. We popped some popcorn in the microwave and had some microwave smore’s and hit the sack in our traveling hotel on wheels (as I now like to call the vehicle all three boys call “The Beast”).

With Christmas in July looking like it is coming to an end, we look forward to seeing what spring (or 75 degree weather, the perfect weather) will bring.