long beach

Anders and I took a long weekend and headed out to the coast. Long Beach sits very close to the Oregon border, and it is the cutest little beach town! It has a lot of charm, great restaurants and a lot of outdoorsy things to do. I highly recommend this little town if you are looking for an easy coastal getaway. Here are our recommendations!

Stay: 

Adrift Hotel - this is an eco-friendly lodge that sits right on the beach. They rent bicycles to guests for free, have a cute restaurant with live music most nights, a game room with shuffle board and ping pong and lots of board games and DVDs for your use. Also, it's dog friendly!

Do:

Bike or walk the 8 mile boardwalk along the beach! You can also drive your car straight onto the beach, which is fun

Hiking at Cape Disappointment state park is a must. There are a lot of trails, but we chose the Cape Disappointment trail, which is easy and around 4 miles long. It takes you to the lighthouse at the mouth of the Columbia River and past Fort Canby that you can explore. It's set up to give you a lot of history about the fort. 

Eat:

Cottage Bakery & Delicatessen - THE BEST DONUTS ON THE PLANET. They are so good that I made Anders stop there again on our way out of town.

Captain Bob's Chowder - get the smoked salmon chowder!

Laurie's Homestead Breakfast House - huge portions, delicious food, lots of character

mt. dickerman

Anders, Maggie, Sammy and I hiked Mt. Dickerman today, and I have to say it's one of the more challenging hikes I have done in awhile. The web says it's 8.6 miles round trip, but my fitbit logged me at over 11 miles. I'm not sure which one is correct, but I'll just say it FELT like 11 miles. So long! So difficult! However, the views at the top were well worth the miles and miles of suffering. We were a little late in the hiking season, so when we got to the top it was extremely cold and windy as we were above the treeline on an open faced mountain top. We only made time to snap some quick pictures before retreating down the mountain. Still worth it, though. I highly recommend Mt. Dickerman if you are up for a long day of hiking.

Some pictures!

Soooooo tired.

comet falls

Anders and I hiked to Comet Falls a few weeks ago. It's a fairly moderate hike (only four miles round trip), but we heard you can go an extra mile to a little park beyond the waterfall. It's supposed to be amazing, but we were strapped for time and didn't make it that far. Next time! (FYI...no dogs allowed in the national park, so no Maggie this trip!)

ape caves

If you are brave, unafraid of the dark, dig climbing over boulders and scaling walls, I highly recommend checking out the Ape Caves down by Mt. St. Helens. And if you're a total wimp like me, I still recommend it, because heck! I made it through. It's not for the faint of heart, though. Bring lots of light and sturdy shoes for this short (1.5 miles) but difficult hike. You walk almost the entire trail in complete darkness and you have to climb over multiple sections where the ceiling has caved in. No worries, though, the rest of the ceiling looked pretty sturdy :)