I visited South Bend, Indiana, home of Notre Dame University, in 1975, but yesterday’s day trip was to South Bend, Washington, located on Highway 101 about forty miles northeast of Ilwaco’s Safari Park. Dave and I have zipped through the area numerous times, but this time we stopped, went for an hour-long walk, and had lunch before heading back to our cabin.
This small town is the county seat. The historic Pacific County Courthouse was built in 1910. We didn’t take time to go inside the building, but we enjoyed the view peaceful view of the courthouse and the view back down the hill to the river.
This is a fishing village. The Willapa River flows into Willapa Bay which flows into the Pacific Ocean. We saw several boats taking in and putting out their nets across the river. Oysters are also big business in this area.
We ate outside on the patio at the Highway 101 Public House. No oysters for us, though. I had clam chowder and Dave had his usual hamburger. The weather cooperated for our outing. When we left Ilwaco the weather was cool and foggy, but half-way to South Bend, the sun came out and the temperature reached the low 70s. It was almost too hot during our walk, but perfect as we sat on the shady patio enjoying our lunch.
There’s a walking/biking path between South Bend and Raymond which was our intended destination, but we stopped before we got to the path and walked along the river and around South Bend instead. We never did get to Raymond—we’ll save that for another outing.
