Trip date: August 2021
A few friends and I decided to head out to the Washington Coast for a little summer get away, I'm always up for a beach even if sand in the PNW is colder than most places. After looking at a few rental options (we wanted a house with a room for everyone and pet friendly so one of the pooches could join) we decided on a house in Westport. A pretty easy drive and a new destination for me!
Our drive would take us past Olympia, which we decided was a good place for lunch. We had a great meal at Chelsea Farms, outside on their cute covered and heated patio. Luckily all of us love a seafood tower, and the one here was so huge that four of us could barely finish it! I also had an amazing clam chowder. I highly recommend this spot if you are passing thru the area.
Another little gem in Oly was Left Bank Pastries. We stopped in after brunch on a Sunday so they were pretty picked over, but we still ended up with some delicious Kouign Amann and lemon tarts.
We drove out towards Aberdeen, which is where I have always headed north to go up to Ocean Shores or Lake Quinault, but this time we turned south and were quickly in Westport. We found our house, a big A-frame with a huge deck running the width of it.
Since the house had three levels, we each got one to ourselves, as well as a private bathroom. We immediately went about setting up the kitchen and the bar. Happy Hour was had out on the deck, and some of the neighbors sauntered by which was very exciting to pooch Selah.
We could hear the ocean but we didn’t have a view which was a little disappointing. But the next day we drove to the public beach access and realized just how close we were. We had a great time walking along the shore, and Selah especially loved all the smells of the beach!
Afterwards, our lunch at Merino's Seafood was exactly what a beachtown seafood lunch should be; absolutely fantastic fish and chips, crab melt, crab cocktail, chowder, fries, and beers. Highly recommend this spot if you are in the area.
That evening we took our happy hour drinks down to the beach, having found the path that cut through the seagrass and was just a short walk from our house, and toasted to the beautiful sunset.
After a bit of work the next morning for most of us, we decided to do some tasting at the Westport Winery. The winery is very popular in town, and also has a restaurant, a distillery, and some very cool gardens on the property.
The wines however are a bit unique, as are the tasting notes. We had a good time here but I don't think anyone was overly impressed. Bottle purchases do benefit a variety of charities which I thought was great.
We were cooking all of our dinners at the house for the week and had brought most everything that we needed. I was going to be making a crab boil for dinner this night though so we stopped into Brady's Oysters for our cleaned Dungeness crab. Brady's has an amazing selection of fresh and canned seafood and we found their crab to be the best of our trip!
Later that day we drove to another beach access location that was right near Westport proper. It was a lovely long walk along the shore and then exploring the town.
While in town we stopped at Seafood Connection, which is a floating seafood shop in the marina, for some prawns for the crab boil.
My friend Leslie lives fairly close so she drove out the next day to join us for lunch at the Tokeland Hotel in nearby Tokeland. My gawd what a cute spot this is!
We had a delicious lunch followed by a nice walk around their property which goes all the way out to the bay. The hotel also has a farm with goats, pigs, rabbits, pheasant, bees, etc. Us city kids had a ball!
We stopped at Nelson Crab in Tokeland for some fresh picked Dungeness as well as some seaweed salads which are quite popular in the area. That night Sandra and Travis made two styles of crab rolls for dinner which were amazing!
Before hitting the road home, we stopped back at Brady's for some fresh picked crab. It's amazing how just a few hours closer to the sea, how much sweeter this crab was than here at home!
I found Westport to be a sleepy town, one that seems to revolve completely around seafood which I found to be both fun and relaxing! And delicious!
All photos from Westport
here.
