Monday
DAY 2


When I visit a new place, or go on a little vacation like this one, I generally like to stop in at the local visitors’ center and pick up some of their brochures. It saves a lot of time rather than just wandering around in order to find something interesting. After reading the brochures I can plan out what I want to do and then pursue it in a systematic way. Along the way we invariably find some unique spots of interest that are not in the brochures.

Our first stop would be to visit the nearby town of Westport; the Salmon Capital of the World, the Sport fishing Capital of the World, and who knows what other “Capital” they may lay claim to.

Grays Harbor Light Station

Since lighthouses dot the Oregon and Washington coastline, we decided to visit the Grays Harbor Light Station first. The lighthouse was commissioned in 1898 and its Third Order Frensel lens rotated continuously until 1989.
After a brief history of the lighthouse by a charming “host” couple from Arkansas we headed up the 135 steps of the 107 foot tall lighthouse. This is the tallest lighthouse in Washington. Its Fresnel lens would shine twenty-eight miles out to sea as a navigation aid for passing ships. The lens is no longer used today; in fact the whole lighthouse has been replaced by a completely automated beacon no larger than a five gallon bucket, located outside a window atop the lighthouse.

The Shellflair Shell and Marine Museum

The lighthouse keeper had told us on an interesting place just down the road; The Shellflair Shell and Marine Museum. While the museum was an interesting place, it was no match for its owner and curator. this 82 yearold lady had been collecting shells and buying shell displays for the last thirty years. She and her husband had combed beaches; dived the oceans, and bartered and traded for shells the world over. She could tell the story behind each and every shell in the small museum and was well versed in the scientific names and quality of each shell. Just talking to her for an hour was well worth the trip.

Westport waterfront

Our next stop was to be on the Westport waterfront. This is where we would find the fish markets and the fishing charter boats, but our first destination was to be the Westport Maritime Museum. We arrived at the museum but decided first to take a brief visit across the street to the waterfront and check out the harbor and boats. The first boat to catch our eye was the Tuna “Hustler”. The crew was unloading the catch of the day, albacore tuna. The fish was brought on deck where a man immediately began filleting them. We watched for a while and then ventured down to ask about buying some tuna or salmon. After asking him how to prepare the tuna, he said he had some recipes he could give us or if we wanted to taste some we could go just across the street to the One Eyed Crab restaurant. The latter seemed like the easiest thing to do so we ventured over to the One Eyed Crab. It was a simple setting with about 10 tables, a cashiers counter with a small bar and a pass through window back to the kitchen. A pleasant girl came to the table to take our order. She suggested the garlic prawns but we had our tastes fixed on the freshly filleted tuna. We ordered two servings of deep fried albacore tuna, one pan seared albacore tuna sautéed with mushrooms, and one deep fried cod burger. I started off the meal with a cup of clam chowder. The food was great. The tuna was moist and firm, the cod was fresh and the tuna and mushrooms was done just right. All the orders came with an order of fries, and what fries they were. Lightly battered and then deep fried. Probably the best fries I had ever eaten. So good I even ordered and extra side of them.

Beach walk

By now we were too full to go to the museum, so we decided to walk the beach. There were only about seven other people on the beach, so we let the dogs loose and watched them enjoy themselves. This was Jaspers first encounter with a sandy ocean beach. He had to sample biting at the sand and every little clump of seaweed he could find. Then he would run down the beach nipping at the waves as they lapped upon the shore. After a couple of mouthfuls of water he soon gave up that bit of excitement. We walked, the dogs played and the sun set. It has been a great day.