We’re back from five days exploring an absolutely gorgeous part of the world. We spent our time going back and forth between Astoria and the upper Oregon coast and Washington’s Long Beach Peninsula, over a gigantic bridge that spans the mouth of the Columbia as it opens out to the Pacific Ocean.

On the Oregon side, you have the quaint Victorian houses of Astoria rising up in the hillside, the Maritime Museum, the Columbia River Walk. On the Washington side, you see signs for “Dismal Nitch” and “Cape Disappointment”, which does not encourage the visitor to keep going. But it’s worth crossing that bridge and exploring, because Long Beach Peninsula has a lot of natural beauty to offer, and a lot of fun activities for all ages to enjoy, too.

There’s the North Head Lighthouse, which has a beautifully maintained path and is easily accessible by foot, and the grounds where you can rent the lighthouse keeper’s house for a bargain rate. You can take the trail to follow the lighthouse keeper’s route, but we didn’t due to time constraints. We only went as far as the grounds, lighthouse, and overlook. The lighthouse itself is open to tours, but wear closed-toe shoes and be age 7 or older! (Our six year old spent a good 15 minutes plotting ways around the age limit and had to give up.) The peninsula’s other lighthouse is on coast guard turf, but accessible by walking trail. It’s 3/4 mile each way.

The Cranberry Research Foundation is an interesting place, too, if you have an agriculture bent or just want to know how these unusual berries are grown and harvested.

On Long Beach, you can rent a horse and ride on the sand. We didn’t do this, but we did have the kids take pony rides so they could get a feel for being on horseback and see if they liked it. (They loved it. We had a hard time tearing them away.) With a little practice, a family ride on the beach is a future option.

You can visit the Kite Museum, fly a kite on the beach, go catch the latest movie, walk the boardwalk along the dunes, stay in a cozy cottage, eat and shop all within walking distance. Long Beach is great for pedestrians. Just down the road is an amazing chef at The Depot, where the food makes angels weep. Ask for the chef’s table, and you can sample while he works his foodie magic. (Ask far in advance; that table gets booked!)

You can also take a shovel and bucket and just play, breathing the sea air and listening to the surf and feeling the wind in your hair.

The Long Beach Peninsula. Don’t let the place names put you off, it’s not dismal or disappointing in the least.