Location, Location, Location
One thing that I struggled with when I started out was, you would hear that the event was in Ocean Shores, Long Beach, Seaside or Westport. The experienced people know exactly what that meant, however I wondered, where in Westport??? I don't know about you, but when I have to drive 2 or 3 hours to be someplace by 9 am, I don't want to have to allow extra time to search around trying to figure out where, on the "Worlds Longest Beach", the event is happening.
Click here for the schedule of Events
Kite Event Sites:
Ocean Shores, WA: Ocean Shores is located west of Olympia and Aberdeen, WA on the north side of the entrance to Gray's Harbor. It is just over a 3 hour drive from the Portland/Vancouver area and about 3 hours from the Seattle area. There are two sites that are used at Ocean Shores. The first is a fairly obvious entrance to the beach, called the "Chance Approach", in the heart of town and next to the Shilo Inn, one of the bigger hotels in town. The other beach access used is called the "Pacific Approach", which is just a little further south on Ocean Shores Boulevard from the Chance Approach.
Long Beach, WA: Long Beach is located just north of the mouth of the Columbia River. It is just over 2 hours from the Portland area and about 3 1/2 hours from the Seattle area. Events are held at an easy to find location, the "Bolstad Approach" were the "Worlds Longest Beach" arch way is located.
Westport, WA: The Westport event turns out to not be in Westport at all, but it's pretty close. The site is a few miles south of Westport on Hwy. 105 in Grayland at the "Cranberry Approach".
Richmond, BC, Canada: The Richmond BC event is held in Gary Point Park. It's a nice open grass field with a lot of folks out enjoying the park, so there's lot's of spectators to enjoy the show. It's roughly a 2 1/2 hour drive from the Seattle area and 5 1/2 hours from the Portland area, not including time needed to cross the border. It may be a bit of time and trouble to get there, but the area is beautiful, the people are nice, the flying is appreciated and hey, this is about as easy as it gets to go to a foreign country with funny looking money and everything.
Seaside, OR: An event in Seaside is usually held at the turn around at the end of Broadway, the main street in Downtown. Again, this is an area that if you've been to if you've ever been to Seaside and it's pretty easy to find.
Whidbey Island, WA: This event takes place at Fort Casey, an old military facility on the Port Townsend side of the island. The area around the event is just beautiful, with the closest town being Coupeville (I love that name). There are Washington State ferries that run regularly to and from the island as well as one bridge connecting the north end of the island to the mainland.
