Ventured out to Long Beach, Wash., this past Sunday to see the "world's largest frying pan." It is definitely quite large.Long Beach is about two hours northwest of Portland, Ore., on the Washington State coastline. It's similar to many coastal towns in it is trying to attract tourists with souvenirs and claims to fame, but we must have really picked a special day to visit because there was something different about this place.
It was the weekend of the Rod Run to the End of the World. The city's main drag was covered in people of all kinds who had come to Long Beach to see the many "hot rods" on the strip. I use the term hot rods loosely, as there was a 1990s Ford Mustang that some teenager had tried to make more rod-like, as well as other suped up cars that should have stayed the way they were.
Observers sat in stadium chairs on the sidewalk, toured in and out of a variety of stores and restaurants, and admired some of the cherry cars driving up and down the street.
Long Beach is also home to Marsh's Free Museum, which is home to Jake the Alligator Man. It's basically a museum of the weird and old combined with a souvenir shop. The walls are covered in taxidermied animals of the game and non-game variety. They had quite a few "What type of lover are you?"-o-meters. Think kitsch merchandise and you've got Marsh's Museum in a nutshell. And lots of Jake the Alligator Man magnets and bumper stickers. It's also free to visit.
There is a carnival in the middle of town. A merry-go-round, tilt-o-whirl, and bumper car carnival. Go cart racing is down the road a bit if you're looking for that.
The famed "world's largest frying pan" is located on the other side of the strip from Marsh's Museum. It's on the same patch of lawn as an orca statue and the "world's largest squirting clam." These three unique statues are next to a store that provides the services of espresso and tanning in the same place. There was a third item, but I forgot to take a picture and therefore forgot the third item, but it did not go well with the other two. See Megan below standing in front of this lawn patch at the intersection you should go to if you're looking for these statues.
Overall, it was definitely an interesting trip to Long Beach, Wash. I do not think I would have visited if it were not home to the "world's largest frying pan." Well, actually, it's home to apparently one of six of the world's largest frying pans. I think I may have to go back to Long Beach some day when the weather is a little better, when there aren't gear heads strolling up and down the street, and to see the gray whale skeleton (we got a map that was difficult to figure out, and it showed the gray whale skeleton as a point of interest).
We got to Long Beach via US-26W and Highway 101N from Portland. An exciting feature of this route was driving across the Astoria Bridge, which is apparently four miles long! It's quite big and scary, and on the way back we had a bit of a slowdown on the bridge due to signal light sequences. It's not fun to be all the way up there and slowed down to an almost stop. But it is definitely an impressive bridge.
The next adventure is not yet known. Perhaps it will be the Parthenon replica in Nashville, Tenn., where I will be visiting at the end of this month. Or perhaps there will be more roadside attractions to be found throughout this great land. Until the next adventure!
