Tanks For The Memories: Go Westport, Young Man
- Lindsay Britts
- Jul 27, 2017
- 3 min read
Getting inspired to do a little cruisin’ of your own? Ready to hit the road for a weekend ride to a place you’ve never been before? We can show you the best trips in your neck of the woods and you won’t even have to stop to fuel up. Each week, we pick a starting city and plan a getaway to some of the most charming, energetic, and just plain fun places that you’ll only need one tank of gas to reach. When it’s all over, you’ll be able to say... TANKS FOR THE MEMORIES!
Starting City: Seattle, WA
Destination: Westport, WA
Distance: about 130 miles
The top’s down, the sun’s up, and… You’re stuck on I-5 with ten-thousand of your fellow Seattleites. Need to get out of the clouds of exhaust and breath a little deeper? Sometimes it feels like you can’t head any more west than Seattle, but you can. Go west. And then go west-er. Go until you reach a town whose name has the very word “west” in it. There you can find a retreat, a small place where the only hustle is made by the crabs along the sandy shores. Welcome to Westport, Washington!
Source: Wikipedia
Westport is at the mouth of Grays Harbor, and was a regular summer beach resort for the local Shoalwater Bay Indian tribes before White settlers came. Prior to the incorporation of the town there was also a fort built nearby, Camp Chehalis, in operation during the Civil War. The Greys Harbor Lighthouse was also built prior to incorporation, in 1898, and is the tallest lighthouse in Washington state. Westport was incorporated as a city in 1914.
There are several activities on Westport’s calendar but if you come at the right time of year, you can flex your mussels… well, muscles, while you dig up some razor clams. The city’s website has a section dedicated to the cleaning and even cooking of these native clams. The state’s Department of Fish and Wildlife has a guide to digging up the razor clams. The secret is finding “clam shows”, a hole in the sand where the clams have dug down, and digging them up via a shovel or tube. You can keep the first 15 clams you dig up and make a tasty clam linguini with them. Need a wine to pair with that pasta? You can find a match at the Cranberry Road Winery, where visitors rave about their delectable sparkling cranberry wine. Westport is part of the “Cranberry Coast”, a wide number of bogs down the coast of the harbor, and many of the farms are suppliers for Ocean Spray cranberry products. Cranberries were brought in from the East Coast and flourish in the coastal bogs of Washington. You can drive yourself through a cranberry bog tour outlined on the city’s website with interesting facts and figures about the bogs. If you’re willing to go a bit out of town, Long Beach, WA has a Cranberry Museum where you can learn about this tiny, shiny berry’s impact on the local economy. And yes, they do have a gift shop with shelves of cranberry goods, including ice cream! Westport is the only place you’ll want to be bogged down!
Source: Corvettes of Greys Harbor
Like most proper beach-side towns, Westport has a few classic car events every year. In July the Eastside Street Rods Show and Shine has a parade of classic street rods through town. It is sponsored by the Eastside Street Rod Association, who promotes “the safe construction, operation, and enjoyment of American-made automobiles manufactured prior to 1949.” If you’re looking for sleeker cars along the coast, the first Saturday of September boasts the annual Corvettes at the Marina event hosted by the locals of the Corvettes of Grays Harbor.
There are many more things to do, but of course there’s always the option of enjoying the cool shores. In fact, tune into the Westport Cam and you can get away for a little while right now! (Just don’t daydream and drive.) Make plans to venture Westport today! Happy Cruisin’!
STRETCH YOUR LEGS: Tumwater Falls Park is a 15-acre park just outside of Olympia in the small town of Tumwater. It has observational platforms from which to view its many picturesque waterfalls. There is the newly-founded Washington Salish Native Plant Garden, a cooperative effort with local native tribes to showcase over 50 indigenous plants like Nodding Onion and Kinnikinnik. If you go during the right season, you can even see the salmon returning to their homes.
LEARN MORE: http://westportwa.com/ http://www.westportcam.com/ http://www.ci.westport.wa.us/
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