August 9, 2001 - Clear and sunny, low 52, highs low 70’s.

     According to the Long Beach people this is one of those rare days with no morning fog and sunny all day.
     We started the day by going to Ocean Park to check out a gift shop we had read about. Sweet Williams is a quaint little shop that has a nice selection of local art and craft. The lady that runs the place was born and raised on Long Beach, I don’t think there are very many people that can say that.
     Our next stop was Nahcotta another small town on the bay side of the peninsula. We visited the oyster factory and checked out the oyster boat fleet.

     Nahcotta is the fifth largest producer of oysters in the world and they produce 16% of all oysters in the United States. We’ve never seen so many oyster shells in one place. There are acres and acres of oyster beds in Willapa Bay where they are harvested. Each oyster takes three to five years to mature.

     There isn’t much else in Nahcotta besides the oyster processing plants. A restaurant, church and interpretive center are pretty much it.
     Now it was back to Long Beach and the Kite Museum.

Long Beach Kite Museum

     Long Beach is one of the most popular kite flying areas in the world. Each year they have a kite festival that runs for a full week the third week in August. They hold the record for most kites in the air at one time, almost 4,500. People come from all over the world to watch and fly kites. We would like to come back and see this spectacle of color some time but you have to make lodging reservations very early to have a place to stay.
     The Kite Museum was small but very interesting with Japanese kites as the featured exhibit this month. They change the featured exhibit on a regular basis. They have kites from all over the world dating back many years. If you ever wanted to gather information about the history of kites this would be an excellent place to start.
     All this kite stuff made me anxious to get out and give our kite another try. The winds were about five to ten miles per hour, just perfect for another attempt. I put the kite together, ran out the lines and away it went. The kite is a two-line acrobat model. Since I had never flown this type of kite before it took a little getting use to. After a number of crashes I got the hang of it and we spent several hours on the beach chasing the wind.

Ken flying his kite

     We were getting red and it was getting close to mocha time so we packed it in for the day. I hope tomorrow will be another good kite flying day.