Taking a Break
By Mary L. Peers

It’s hard to believe that once again summer is simmering down and fall is just around the corner.  Because of all the outdoor activities available to us in the Pacific Northwest, summer can be a busy time.  Coordinating family activities, as well as summer camps and educational pursuits for growing children, can seem like a full time job.  By the end of the season parents often feel like they, too, could use a vacation.  But scheduling for the start of school doesn’t always leave room.  Sometimes, just taking a day off here and there can be equally refreshing.  Fortunately, we have many things to choose from: hiking, swimming, boating, and beautiful countryside to drive through.

If you’re interested in walking a sandy beach along the Columbia River, head down to the newly opened Captain William Clark Park at Cottonwood Beach in Washougal.  The 85- acre park, recently dedicated in honor of Captain William Clark, recently commemorated with events that honored the Corps of Discovery and the native tribes that assisted them almost 200 years ago.  The park, which can be accessed by taking 32^nd St. off SR 14, offers beach access, canoe and kayak docks, viewpoints, picnic facilities, camping, and trails to meander.

If you’re interested, you can go back to your history books and refresh your memory of how the Corps of Discovery camped at Cottonwood Beach.  Alternatively, you and your mate could just hold hands and refresh your spirit by walking beneath the Cottonwood trees out to the great Columbia to get some sand in your feet.  It’s good for the soul!

Then, if all that walking made you thirsty, head back on SR 14 to 2^nd St. and drive down to the Port of Camas/Washougal.  Park your car and walk down the ramp to the Marina.  If the sun is setting you’ll see a purple-yellow haze.  It’s not a Jamaican sunset; it’s the Puffin Café.

Three years ago Jennifer and Robert Guetter got hold of a floating metal storage building and decided to turn it into a concession stand, with a BBQ in the back, for all the marine activity down on the water.  They started out with 15 seats.  But the demand was so great that before they knew it they had expanded into two floating buildings with a connecting outdoor deck and had become a full blown restaurant featuring Caribbean cuisine and, in their own words, “Pirate Cookin’ and Spirits.”

The Puffin Café now seats a total of 60 people, is open year round and caters to all types of parties: birthdays, weddings, baby showers, business meetings, retirement celebrations, and Christmas – just to name a few.  Their only advertising has been by word of mouth, and last year they saw 26,000 people swagger through their front door – and they weren’t all pirates!  They’re open daily as well as year round.  Winter hours are 11:00 AM till 8:00 PM.  Summer hours are 11:00 AM till 9:00 PM.  The Caribbean food is light and fresh and the drinks are tall and cool!

So go ahead, take an afternoon and wander the trails and sandy beaches of our new Captain William Clark Park.  Afterwards, if you’re feeling parched, head on down to the Puffin Café and sip a long cool lemonade or maybe something a little more Caribbean with rum, and watch all the hearty lads and lassies as they pirate their way into the setting sun.

Parenting is a big word: It’s also a wonderful word.  But even parents need a moment’s respite now and then.  If you can’t take off for a week, take a day.  Even an afternoon can help.  I like to call it a little ‘sip of time’.  Our lives have become more and more scheduled and family responsibilities creep up on us.  But the health of a family depends a great deal on the health of the parents.  So remember to write yourselves into the calendar.  When the breeze blows down the Columbia it can easily find its way right into your soul and lift it high, like those Kite boarders, if you’ll just give it a chance.

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