I finally drove over the four-mile-long Columbia River bridge to Washington this morning. I've been looking at that bridge for days, and finally made it over. Purpose was to get to Long Beach, WA, for the International Kite Festival. I've never been to a kite festival; it sounded like a fun thing to do. (At 18 miles long, Long Beach claims to have the longest beach in the world. I was kind and didn't mention anything to them about 130-mile-long Padre Island in Texas.) I made it in time for the Mass Ascension, which gave me an idea what kites were at the event. I was hoping for some good photo opportunities; I wasn't expecting to be mesmerized by a team doing a kind of "kite ballet". They're called iQuad; the team was made up of six, then seven, people flying kites in unison, using these new "Revolution" kites that allow for impressive control, and the team was very good. I couldn't keep my eyes off them, and they were a favorite of the crowd too. Especially the team leader - he was playing with the crowd when everyone else was on break, making his kite act like it was alive, bouncing on the sand, balancing on someone's hand, just like it had a personality. There are videos of the team on Youtube with four kites, but I saw them do seven!!
I drove just south of there, to Cape Disappointment, to see the mouth of the Columbia River, where Lewis and Clark finally reached their goal - the Pacific. I liked the view of the Cape Disappointment lighthouse there. I found another Waikiki Beach, named after a Hawaiian sailor who was buried there. Not as impressive as the original, but impressive, still.
(By the way, I solved the mystery of "South Jetty". There is a "South Jetty" on the south side of the Columbia River, in Oregon, and a "North Jetty" on the north side of the river, in Washington. Duh. )
My cousin Lance convinced me to visit the Columbia River Maritime Museum in Astoria before I left town, so I drove back over the bridge to go to the museum. I wasn't sorry I did. I was intrigued by the information about the bar, the area where the Columbia River plows into the Pacific. They described the river as having the force of a fire hose. It sounded kind of like the irresistible force meeting the immovable object. They said that it's the most dangerous bar in the world, and thousands of vessels have been lost there. I gained a new respect for the Columbia River bar pilots, as well as for the Coast Guard rescuers who work those waters.
It feels good to finally be in Washington.
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