Tuesday, July 23 2019
We slept in this morning and had a nice breakfast and more talking so we didn’t actually ride off until about 9am. But that was okay because we didn’t really have a timetable to meet. Thirty minutes later we were crossing the Naselle River Bridge and riding through the Willapa National Wildlife Refuge. This is still Highway 101 and it hugs the water as it makes it’s wonderfully twisty way south. 
I really loved this stretch of road and sure wish I had put my camera on to capture how nice it was. You'll have to take my word for it. We made our way down through Illwaco and then into Cape Disappointment State Park.
Our first stop was the North Head Lighthouse area. We hiked to the Bell’s View which is a short paved hike leading to a boardwalk overlook of the Pacific Ocean. We passed an old water tower and military observation post. All the views out here are fabulous.
We walked back and then out to the lighthouse, 
but they were doing some construction/repair work so we weren’t able to go out to the lighthouse itself. The buildings for the lighthouse keepers is still there (you can rent them) along with a little store. 
The store was supposed to open at 11am and since that was about 10 minutes away I figured to see if they had any cool stickers for my topcase. They never did open, but while we waited we watched this mother bird (starling of some type?) go back and forth feeding the three young fledglings in a nest "glued" to the underside of the store’s overhang. 
It was pretty entertaining.
Tom Clark
I'm a Senior Software Engineer at Intellitect, living in Spokane, Washington. I also do a little development work on the side. And I love riding motorcycles all over the country with my friends.
