Day 2 of our Pacific Coast Highway road trip was FULL. After starting the morning off in Port Angeles, Washington, and completing two hikes at Marymere Falls and the Hoh Rainforest, we arrived in Long Beach for our last stop along the Washington coast.
If you know me at all, you know I’m a huge bibliophile, and love to find bookstores in every city we visit. Banana Books came highly recommended as a quirky used book store that also serves some fire espresso. We stopped here first to ensure we had time before they closed, and spent some time browsing and chatting with the owner about his newest finds. I bought so many books that we had to make a pit stop back at the car before continuing our exploration of the city.
Next up we visited Marsh’s Free Museum. This “museum” is really more of a gift shop, and has an odd mixture of mass market trinkets, one of a kind items for sale, and items that are for display only. It’s definitely someplace you should stop in at least for a few minutes to walk around.
We weren’t hungry, but if you are, there are TONS of incredible fish and chips spots along the main street. Almost everyone we passed had a basket of fish, and it all smelled incredible. Along with fish and chips, Long Beach has a typical bunch of touristy souvenir shops, and it was fun to walk by and look.
A must see while you’re here is Washington’s largest frying pan. A super odd statue at the edge of a park full of picnic tables, it’s a great photo op as you sit and enjoy your food.
After walking the streets, we decided to head out to the actual beach, claiming the world’s longest beach. According to Google, it is the world’s 8th longest beach, which is still impressive! Walking down the boardwalk to the beach was a great way to stretch out after being in the car a LOT that day.
On the way back to the car, we stopped at Scooper’s Market, which is known as the best ice cream in the area. The market is MASSIVE with tons of other sweets and treats.
Reluctantly we left the beach and got back in the car to drive the quick 30 minutes into our next state! The drive to Astoria, Oregon across the Astoria bridge was one of the coolest parts of our drive, and we were excited to be spending two nights in Astoria to relax a bit after two days along the Washington coast. Make sure to check out our full month-long PCH itinerary here as well!
