Santa Barbara - Leadbetter

Hello and welcome to /portland Travel Tuesday! What happened to Oregone1, you might be asking yourself? Last I heard, he was foraging for less-than-local greens across the country. So you're stuck with me, for this week at least. It probably won't be as in-depth as his usual entries, and probably formatted differently, but like the lines at Salt and Straw, you'll just have to deal with it.
This week I'll be highlighting Astoria and the SW Washington coast along the Long Beach peninsula. I've been coming to this area with my family since I was little, so it has a strong bit of nostalgia for me. I try to get down there once a year if I can. Sometimes I'm lucky and can make it more than that.
Astoria is my favorite coastal town in Oregon. It has a different vibe than the other cities along the northern Oregon coast, with the notable lack of beach and more of a 'real town' feel than some of the other tourist spots along the coast, with a lot of great old victorian homes and other examples of interesting architecture. The beer and views don't hurt things, either.
Getting to Astoria is pretty straight forward, either drive up I-5 (The 5 for all you newbies to the area) to Longview and cross the bridge to HWY 30, taking that the rest of the way to town, or if you're out towards Beaverton/Hillsboro area, take HWY 26 to 101.
Something sort of cool along HWY 30 is the Wahkiakum ferry that crosses the Columbia river between Westport OR and Cathlamet WA. It adds another ~45 minutes onto the trip, but is a fun diversion if you like ferries, have kids who need some amusement, or whatever.
There are a number of options of places to stay while in Astoria for different budgets. I'm loathed to recommend any in particular because I don't want to look like I'm promoting certain business over others, but I happen to like the Commodore Hotel due to its central location, meaning it's easy to park and walk to a lot of different places. One of those being my favorite coffee shop in Oregon, Street 14 coffee. Maybe because I only go there while on vacation, but I swear they make the best cappuccinos ever. They have some great breakfast options too, including a lox bagel plate made with smoked salmon from Josephson's Smokehouse, another local company.
Just up the hill from there is Fort George, one of the big breweries in town that sits on the site of the original settlement for Astoria. Not much to say about that place since it's pretty well known already, great beer there.
If you want a nice walk, head down to the docks at the waterfront, as the path goes a few miles through town, providing a relaxing stroll and good views if the weather cooperates. Towards the east end, the Columbia River Maritime Museum is a great spot to learn about the history of the area and the cultural and economic forces that drove the development of the city. Walk west down the boardwalk and you'll eventually run across Buoy Brewing, another of the great breweries in town. There is a trolley that runs along here during good weather that you can ride for just a buck or two as well.
If you're into films, Astoria is of course one of the filming locations for the Goonies, and you can visit (but not enter) the house from the film. The grade school from Kindergarten Cop is visible from HWY 30 as you enteleave town, but isn't worth stopping. The Oregon Film Museum is another place for film fans to stop.
OK, enough about Astoria. Y'all probably know all this crap already. Do yourself a favor though and drive up to the Astoria Column and check out the great views before you head on over the 4 mile long Astoria-Megler Bridge to Washington.
After you cross the bridge, hang a left on 101. Right outside the small town of Chinook, Washington is Fort Columbia, a pretty cool old WWI / WWII fort. It includes original wooden barracks structures, concrete fortifications, and two large refurbished artillery guns. The location is on top of a bluff with great views of the Columbia River and Pacific Ocean. Chinook itself is pretty sleepy, with a small fishing port, a gas station / market, and a rotating cast of bars / lounges that seem to turn over every few years.
Keep heading down 101 and you'll run into Ilwaco, another sleepy fishing village. Ilwaco has seen better days and is in a pretty sad state, however you can get great fresh seafood fresh off the boat at the dock - both Jessie's (in the red building) or 'Ol Bob's Seafood Market sell good quality product. I've smoked a lot of salmon and grilled a lot of clams from both places over the years.
Also worth a stop in Ilwaco is the Columbia Pacific Heritage Museum, which showcases artifacts and stories of the Native American population and European settlers to the area. It’s a pretty small operation but worth an hour or two of time, especially on a rainy day.
If you fancy a hike and seeing some lighthouses, head to the Cape Disappointment State Park, where there are a lot of nice hiking trails through the forest, views of the ocean, and two, count-em TWO light houses to check out, North Head and Cape Disappointment. The Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center is located here as well.
So after getting all pumped up on history, continue up 101 a few miles until you hit Long Beach. This is the most “beach town” towns of the area, with the requisite arcade, ice cream and fudge shops, some dive bars (and a newer brew pub, North Jetty Brewing), Marsh’s Free Museum (awesome tourist trap of a store with lots of old crap to look at, including JAKE THE ALIGATOR MAN!), that sort of thing. One of my regular stops is Castaways Bar and Grill, a rather generic eatery that has a really good clam chowder bread bowl, made using bread baked across the street at The Cottage Bakery (which IMO has gone downhill over the past 20 years, but is still a fun visit).
Long Beach, going along with its name, does indeed have a LONG beach. It stretches for miles. Grab some ice cream from Scoopers and walk down to Bolstad beach approach. You can wonder on the sand, or walk a mile or so along a nice elevated boardwalk.
Something I really like to do is make the drive all the way up the peninsula to Oysterville, another old community that is still kicking around after all these years. There isn’t much to see, but there are views of Willapa Bay, an old school house, and a combination general store / post office that lays claim to being the oldest continuously running post office in Washington State.
If you keep driving past Oysterville, you’ll come upon Ledbetter Point State Park, another great spot for hiking. This location is particularly nice because you can easily hike from one side of the peninsula to the other, seeing both the Pacific Ocean on one side, and Willapa Bay on the other. Not many people around either, so it’s a great place to get away from everyone.
So, that’s about it! Thanks for reading this far. I’m just going to abandon you here at Leadbetter Point. You can find your own way back, right? I’ve enjoyed highlighting an area that I don’t see talked about much, and I’ve skipped a lot of stuff for the sake of time. Add more things on in the comments!