Day Trip: Ocean Shores WA, Beaches, Shops, and Saltwater Taffy!

Seattle Southside makes a great home base location for travelers who want to take day trips in the state of Washington. It takes anywhere from 2 to 2 ½ hours to travel from the vicinity of Seattle-Tacoma International Airport to Ocean Shores, Washington. This still leaves sufficient time to enjoy a jam-packed day of amusement at the beach.

Recently, I traveled to Ocean Shores with my husband and some of our adventure-seeking friends for an all-day beach trip. We started off on our journey at 9am and after a few short detours, we made it to our destination well before noon. Ocean Shores features six miles of spacious public beach that you can drive directly onto from 5 separate road access points. The area that we accessed it from was bustling with people riding on horseback, driving scooters, relaxing by their vehicles, and walking along the sand and surf. Even with all of the people from place to place along the beach, there was plenty of space for us to appreciate the picturesque scenery.

Take a Day Trip to Ocean Shores Washington

The next stage of our adventure was to locate a classic confection of coastal towns in the Pacific Northwest: saltwater taffy. Along the way we happened upon a popular photo-op at a kitschy storefront shaped like a gaping shark’s mouth. Naturally, we felt inclined to partake in the tourist fun.

After a short search through the town of Ocean Shores, the moment we had been waiting for arrived thanks to Buddy & Howie’s Old Fashioned Sweet Shoppe. We each searched and picked through numerous flavor varieties and left with a paper sack full of the succulent saltwater taffy.

Prior to settling down for our picnic lunch, we packed up the car and moved closer to Ocean City State Park Beach in order to find a more peaceful setting. On this particular section of the beach all vehicles are prohibited from May 15-September 15 so this area was far less occupied by visitors. The weather that day was ideal for a Washington beach and despite the wind, it was reasonably warm.

We spent hours taking in the simplistic joys of the beach such as running inland from the tide and back out, writing in the sand, chasing seagulls, and soaking up the view. Even without spending much money there was never a dull moment, especially for four adults!

The beach day was a long one, but the greatest benefit was that we were able to gather drift wood in the evening in order to start a beach bonfire and then watch the sun setting over the water. It was the perfect ending to a beach day in the beautiful Pacific Northwest.