While some days can be pretty mundane, some can take you completely by surprise and end up being an unexpected trip highlight. What made last Thursday so awesome for us? Upon reflection, we realized it all came down to a series of simple little things that added up to our idea of a perfect afternoon.

So while we know we’re behind in sharing news, posts and pix of other recent travels, we couldn’t resist jumping ahead to share our experience in Long Beach, Washington this week.

Here’s a recap of one of our favorite experiences so far, broken down into simple moments of joy.

Making the most of a beautiful day in Long Beach WA

With gloriously sunny blue skies, 80 degrees F (26-27C) and a warm gentle breeze, it was one of those truly spectacular late summer days that you just have to grab with both hands. As soon as the workday was done, we were determined to get out and make the most of this one!

Seaview Beach, right behind our campground

Finishing work on time

While the perfect day would probably mean we didn’t have to work at all, we figure we’ve got the next best thing – the ability to live and work from the road. Marc’s workday has to fit in with his employer’s Mountain Time schedule, which means he has an early start to the day – he’s at his desk by 6.30am! The good news is, that also means an early finish, so by 3.30pm PST he was logging off the laptop, pulling the curtain on his office and ready to go!

Getting in some family time on the bike

What better way to spend time together and explore our local surrounds than heading out on our tandem bike!? What we love most about the tandem is it enables us to get out and ride at the same cadence, staying in sync while being able to easily chat along the way. We hooked up Coda’s “chariot” onto the back of the tandem to take her along for the ride, hitting the road by 3.55pm. We love how the tandem-chariot-dog combo brings a smile to a few faces along the way, including ours. 🙂 So much fun!

Tandem, family-style, on the road that leads right down to the water’s edge at Long Beach, WA

Exploring the Long Beach WA area

On Sunday, when we arrived in the tiny town of Long Beach WA  (population under 1,400), we were completely clueless about what to expect. To be honest, our expectations weren’t that high! We decided to let spontaneity rule and literally follow the path to see where it took us! We took a detour down main street (Pacific Avenue) past the shops, restaurants, carousel and go-kart track. The quaint, small town of Long Beach claims to have the world’s longest beach. At 28 miles, technically it’s not, but it’s apparently the world’s longest contiguous beach as well as the world’s longest drivable beach, with cars allowed to drive from one end to the other.

You can see Long Beach WA is presently undergoing quite a bit of beachside property development and it’s easy to see why. It’s a lovely, very scenic little town! With beachside condos selling for under $80K it probably won’t be too long before Long Beach WA becomes a mecca for tourists. Meanwhile, we’re loving our time here while it’s still quite small, uncrowded and relatively undiscovered.

The famous archway entrance to Long Beach WA

Discovering new trails in Long Beach WA

We discovered the trail we never even knew we wanted to ride quite serendipitously, having crossed right over it on our walk to the beach behind our campground the night before. Little did we know the Discovery Trail between Long Beach WA and Ilwaco is one of the most scenic in the Pacific Northwest. With 7.6 miles (12.23km) of awesome smooth asphalt paved road, it winds through grassy dunes, forest groves and offers outstanding views of the ocean. Basically, it’s our dream bike path!

As we have zero chance of fitting the tandem bike, 2 adults, a 55lb dog and a dog chariot in the Mini, we started (and finished) from the part of the trail that goes right behind our campground. So while we didn’t get to ride the whole trail this time, our round trip ended up being close to 8 miles and amazingly, we didn’t encounter any other cyclists or pedestrians along the path! Discovery Trail is unquestionably the best biking trail we’ve found so far and we definitely plan to ride the entire distance next time. That will take us on a 15 mile round trip through forests to Cape Disappointment State Park where we can also hike to two local lighthouses, as well as the fishing village of Ilwaco. LOVED Discovery Trail!

The winding path of Discovery Trail

Learning something new

How about an impromtu history lesson along the way? We came to learn that Discovery Trail is named for American expeditionists Lewis and Clark whose explorative trek brought them to the area over 200 years ago. Long Beach is just starting to be being recognized as the site where Lewis and Clark completed their expedition, which was commissioned by President Thomas Jefferson in 1803. Captain Clark carved his name and date on a pine tree in Long Beach WA, when he, Lewis and others walked the Pacific Ocean shoreline for the very first time on Tuesday November 19, 1805.

We stopped to look at and photograph a few of the commemorative statues and plaques along the trail. As I had only vaguely heard of Lewis and Clark, it ended up being a pretty good way for me to get acquainted with some American history, and educated Marc some more too.

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