A fun, historic place to walk by. Beautiful architecture. There was not much information posted…read moreabout the history, but still enjoyable.

This is also called OSPI: Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction. Directly…read moreacross the street from Sylvester Park. If you still can't find this place because the GPS told you I that you arrived in the middle of the street near the farmer's market, look for Hotel Olympian Barber and Styling Shop and then you will see it. Ring the doorbell on the castle and they will let you in. Friendly folks.

August 22, 2025 - Winlock, WA…read more We were close by, so of course I'm going to stop and see the "World's Largest Egg". Why is the World's Largest Egg in Winlock? From Roadside America's website: "Winlock was America's second largest egg producing town until the 1950s, and local egg pride remains strong. The first big egg was fashioned from canvas by town boosters in 1923, part of a celebration around the opening of the Pacific Highway. The current egg is twelve feet long and weighs 1,200 pounds. It sits on a pedestal on a ten-foot steel pole. On the pedestal is written, "World's Largest EGG." There is a rooster nearby to add a little variety to your photo. I'm all about roadside attractions; never miss one if I'm nearby.

Cute little park. Gravel parking is located on the other side of the road. The location for parking…read moreis where the rooster on my pictures is. The little "Vern Sander Mermorial Park" is fenced and has a garbage can out front by the road. The park has a few cement benches that need repairs. The park was dedicated to Vern Sander, who was one of the poultrymen who put Winlock on the map as Egg Capital of the World. In 1991, he funded the World's Largest Egg. A gas station is located on the other side of the road. The town has several amazing additional roosters. I saw a museum, bank and some restaurants. This was a day trip for me, and it was nice to see a unique and odd roadside attraction. I plan on going back to see more things in Winlock. The area was clean. Things to know: Parking to the Egg location doesn't have a noticeable crosswalk. Thankfully, it was not too busy. There are no restrooms at the location. This will get you out of the car and check out the small town restaurants. Overall, it was good to see and check it off the roadside attraction list.

How bizarre to review a business park, huh? Except that this business park contains the remains of…read morea never-completed nuclear power plant, most notably the two massive cooling towers associated with a traditional power plant. While the Hanford Site in Eastern Washington was instrumental to the Manhattan Project, there is a noticeable lack of nuclear energy projects in the Pacific Northwest (with only two active reactors that I know of- at said Hanford Site, and the student run reactor at Reed College in Portland, Oregon.) Trojan Nuclear Power Plant in Oregon has been closed for many years and it's distinctive cooling tower was demolished back in 2006- so where can you go for some photo shoots and pseudo-urban exploration? Well, Satsop is within daily driving distance from Seattle and Portland and considering the price (free,) it is well worth stopping by.

A short 13 minute detour off the highway on our way to Ocean Shores. Pretty cool to see the…read moreabandoned (unfinished) nuclear power plants up close - even though they are a gentle reminder of the government wasting more of our hard earned money. A few side items to note - the business park has hundreds (I mean hundreds) of brand new Volkswagens waiting for their forever home, so feel free to look around. BUT don't look too closely because there is a security guard with a lead foot who loves to mad-dog you from the comfort of the front seat of his Ford Focus (1989 - 92 model). There is also a huge boring machine on site which begs the question - are there tunnels below these nuclear structures and if so did the forgiving tax payers of the beautiful Pacific Northwest pay for this rusting eye sore? In any event - the power plants are pretty cool to see.

Dear God!!!! Camped at Margaret Mackenney campground in capital Forest where if you have a…read moreDiscover pass keep this in mind for later, you can stay for a total of seven nights for free so that's a great resource and I really appreciate it and I do have a Discover pass and I am staying here for four nights on my way to somewhere else. that being said, the other people camped here most of them are being very loud blasting all different kinds of music that you can literally hear clear on the other side of the campground, I have that going on three sides of me, one of the groups of people have five or six dogs who keep getting in big fights with each other and then trying to attack other dogs as they're walking past with their owners. Kids in the campsite next to me were up half the night, talking really loud and I could hear them from INSIDE my hard sided camper. There's a guy in a battered minivan with plastic for windows camped across from me that looks like he's selling drugs because other people have pulled up and he got out and they exchanged something and then the other people went on their way right away so there's that shady aspect going on. And there are people driving through here all night long!!! if I did not have a hard sided camper, I would not be able to stay here due to the noise at night, especially. This could be such a peaceful place if people would respect it. And the other thing is the camp host? Here is so deaf that he cannot even tell what you're saying to him, I tried to talk to him and he kept saying what??? so good luck with the Campos being able to hear if people are causing noise and fractions. What a joke. and by the way, there are people camping here without a Discover pass. Tons of young people with kids, this is the kind of place where trailer trash lowlifes come with her numerous kids to teach the next hopeless generation of little snot nose, assholes how to camp. And I'm very nice positive person the fast majority of the time it takes a lot to get me in this kind of mood, would not stay here if I were you.

The capital state forest is a huge state forest by any measure. It's geared towards recreation and…read moreconveniently positioned just south of Olympia. The best set of mountain bike trails are 15 minutes drive into the forest. My wife and I explored them once on foot and were only able to see a small segment. There were a fair number of mountain bikers enjoying the trails. The drive to the trail is part pavement, part dirt. As you drive along a dirt ridge and start to think that you are lost, it actually means you're getting close. There are a handful of other trail networks surrounding the state forest, but these seem to be focused for off-road motorcycle use. I wouldn't use them on busy weekends but they are great hiking trails on a weekday evening. Off-road motorcycling seems to be a gear intensive sport and not one easily managed quickly after work. A late summer hike might get dusty, but the views get progressively better the farther you go up. Also, these trails only appear manageable for experienced motorcyclists. That might be another reason I only saw one motorcycle at the beginning flat section and none farther up. There is one mountain biking trail network on the northern side of the state forest near the road. Unfortunately, it is downhill only. I huffed and puffed my way up part of it and was passed by a group of mountain bikers heading up together with their bikes in a pickup truck. This seemed to be the best method. I slowly walked down on the intermediate trail to test the difficulty and confirmed that it was beyond my ability. The trails in Washington generally skew towards the higher end of the difficulty level, probably because the mountains are so steep.

I've probably seen The Goonies movie about 50 times in my life. While in Astoria, we decided to…read morecome by to check out the house. It was pretty easy to research and map out how to get here. It's in a neighborhood on a private driveway. Be sure to not park in their driveway or the neighbor's spot. You can park in the neighborhood somewhere and walk up. There's a sign at the bottom of the driveway too, the owners know people will come by to take photos etc, so they aren't bothered by it. Just be respectful and you'll be fine. For any inconvenience, they put out a donation bin if you want to drop a few dollars for coming by. Cool to see the house that I admired as a little kid. Glad to have come by to snap a few photos and see it in person. We walked the neighborhood too, we were out of there in like 20 mins. Childhood memory fulfilled.

Some new folks bought The Goonies house a few years ago & embrace the pop-culture significance of…read moretheir property, so it's time to up them back to 5-Stars. Yay! My original review stands now with the home under its latest ownership, so please refer to my very first review of this place for more info.

The Capitol building has that rustic charm you've likely come to expect when visiting state…read morecapitols. It's big, with a big dome, and big columns, and a big atrium. There is certainly lots of granite and marble. There is a quaint little propaganda gift shop just inside the East entrance with all things WA State, if you're into that kind of stuff. WA has seasonal Legislature, so half the year, it's pretty quiet around here. There is a nice fountain near Capitol Blvd. Enjoy!

I visited over the weekend in December, and unsurprisingly not many people were enjoying the…read moregrounds during the drizzly, blustery weather. I came here for the guided tour, which I thought was well done. The tour starts right at the entrance, with the mention of the heavy exterior doors and Tiffany lamps. Inside, the docent goes over the origin of the materials used in constructing the building. Since the rotunda lobby was decorated for the Christmas holiday, there were three evergreen trees adorned with stuffed animals and snowflakes. The guide said that the holiday tree used to be one very tall tree, but the change was made during Covid to swap out one tree for three smaller ones for the ease of decorating. The tour takes you into the gallery overlooking the House of Representatives chamber. This area is normally accessible when they're in session, but otherwise if you're hoping to get in when they're not, this tour is the only way to visit. The House chamber walls are lined with French marble and the perimeter of the ceiling is decorated with the names of Washington State's forty-nine counties (each section has paired names, and Walla Walla gets its own section). Be warned though, this area is kind of dusty so if you have allergies you might want to sit this part out. Overall, this was a great tour. I liked how they didn't have visitors walk through metal detectors unlike in other Capitol buildings in other states.

The Column is such a treat. The stairs to the top (164 steps) take you to an observation deck that…read morehas amazing views of Astoria. It is $5 to park and well worth it! Buy a wooden glider for $1 at the gift shop (or find some on the field below!) If you are scared of heights you will likely be a little nervous at the top (like me), but I stay near my trusted column and enjoy mys of immensely. We love being friends of the column!

Do not go up the column if you have a real fear of heights. You will not enjoy it and will probably…read moremake it less enjoyable for those around you. That being said, if you are cool with climbing a crap ton of stairs in a damp and moldy environment, I say do it. Its a must! The drive there is nice and parking is plentiful. Be sure to pay for parking (it helps to maintain the attraction) in the gift shop, which has some cute items for purchase. We had a great time and met some really cool people. Enjoy!

I bet most of the folks in Astoria have never stopped in this small park. Beautiful garden with…read morestatues, flowers and trees. I guess the reason it caught my eye was the Russian Earthquake the week before when we had the Tsunami warning. Nice place to stop if walking around town.

A small garden with a big heart in the middle of Astoria. An easy break from exploring the filming…read moresites from the movie The Goonies! Not a park.

Just a PSA for people like me who are visiting Aberdeen and think the ship will be where it is…read moremarked on the map. The address is just for the home port of the Lady Washington and it travels around many months out of the year on the West Coast. Don't be like me and drive around the port for 10 minutes looking for a ship that isn't there! You can check https://historicalseaport.org/to see it's current sailing schedule. Would love to see in person one day.

The Lady Washington is a 20th century replica of the original 18th century ship. Chances are that…read moreyou've seen this ship in one of her film appearances: - The Interceptor in the film Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl - The Enterprise in Star Trek Generations - Captain Hook's ship on Once Upon a Time While the Star Trek Holodeck Arch is long gone, it was still a thrill to board this tall ship and imagine what nautical travel must have been like in the 18th century when the Lady became the first American ship to make landfall on the West coast of North America & the first American ship to travel to Honolulu and Japan. If you ever get a chance to tour or sail aboard this tall ship do it! "Computer, remove the plank!"

Part of the exhibit…read more The Castle Rock Exhibit Hall, dedicated on the 10th anniversary of the eruption of Mt. St.Helens, is one of North Cowlitz County's featured attractions for visitors. Operated by the nonprofit Castle Rock Exhibit Hall Society, the facility has three galleries of exhibits, displays and photographs portraying the area's history and culture. Those exhibits include Cowlitz Indian artifacts, logging carvings, sawmilling, logging displays, a Smithsonian Institution exhibit depicting the Mt. St. Helens blast zone, pre-eruption and post eruption pictures of the mountain and Spirit Lake, and other exhibits. The Exhibit Hall also includes a demonstration area that hosts annual quilt shows, holiday wreathmaking and other events, and a small store featuring books by several local residents among its merchandise. In the front of the building is a Castle Rock Chamber of Commerce Visitors Center that provides tourists brochures, maps and information about Mt. St. Helens and other Washington and Oregon tourist attractions. A historic city jail built in 1907 is located on city property behind the Exhibit Hall. Murals featuring Mt. St. Helens and Spirit Lake, a logging train and a Sternwheeler water vessel grace exterior walls of three buildings near the Exhibit Hall. Visitors may tour the historic city jail, which has been unused since the mid 1940's.