My Arizona bestie’s visit was much too short, but we sure covered a lot of ground.
On Day One, Lu and I went to the North Beach, driving to Moclips and meandering down State Route 109 from there.
We started our day at the jam-packed Museum of the North Beach.It was my first visit there, resulting in the eighth stamp in my Grays Harbor Museum Passport (just four to go now)! From there, we went to eat lunch at Mill 109 in Seabrook. That, too, had been on my list for a long time — and it did not disappoint. Lu also tried and fell in love with Hoquiam Brewing Co.’s “Wheat Had To” apricot beer.
We then spent an hour or two walking on Pacific Beach (pictured here). It was a beautiful, sunny day, despite the gloomy forecast. Still, we had the beach mostly to ourselves, and I was able to show Lu her first live sand dollars.
We drove to Ocean Shores after that. We spent some time sitting on a driftwood log at Damon Point, pointing and laughing at the heavy rains across from us in Westport as we basked in the sunshine. We also visited the Ocean Shores Art Gallery and a few of the shops on Pt. Brown Avenue before sitting down for dinner at Galway Bay, one of my favorite restaurants.
On Day Two, we took Rose with us to the South Beach. We went to see my brothers’ beach house under construction in Westport; visited Julie and her dog, Chief, at the Maritime Museum; and walked on the beach south of the jetty.
But the highlight of the day was an impromptu tour of the late Dorothy Harrison’s Shell Museum, courtesy of my friend Alan Rammer. (I sure hope the museum survives the inevitable Shellflair property sale — it would be a major hit to Westport’s soul if the future owner decided not to keep it intact.)
On Day Three, with Lu’s bum hip a tad overworked and thunderstorms in the forecast, we decided to forgo our planned visit to Brooklyn for the Saginaw Days logging event and spend most of the day hanging out at my house instead, watching DVDs and playing Scrabble. But that evening, we had fun manning the silent auction tables at PAWtoberfest. (We have a long history of volunteering together at animal-related fundraisers, so the timing for this was perfect.) Finally, we ended the day with a stop at Hoquiam Brewing so Lu could have one more pint of their apricot beer before she left town.
On Day Four, we slept late and dragged our feet leaving the house. Turns out we should have gotten moving sooner, because it took us nearly three hours to fight through traffic to LeMay’s American Car Museum in Tacoma. We got there just an hour before it closed; still, we plowed through as much as we could and enjoyed every minute of it.
At that point, we had to say our goodbyes. I came back home, and she drove up to Seattle to spend the evening with my brothers before flying back to Arizona the next day.
I hope she comes back soon. There’s still so much to show her!
Kat Bryant is lifestyle editor of The Daily World. She also just became an empty-nester (again). Reach her at kbryant@thedailyworld.com or on Facebook at Kat Bryant-DailyWorld.
