May 16, 2025

Weekend Getaway with Kids: Pacific Beach

For Mother’s Day weekend this year we went back to Pacific Beach for a three night stay. Growing up in Washington, I have stayed at Copalis Beach, Ocean City, Long Beach, and Ocean Shores many times. I’m pretty low maintenance when it comes to a beach weekend, so Pacific Beach has been my favorite stay of all of them. It’s a tiny town, so anywhere you stay you are so close to the beach which is quiet and beautiful. The locals we met were so kind to us.

We absolutely loved our rental house from this trip, and we 100% plan to stay there again. It was perfect for a family with kids, and was fully stocked with absolutely everything. Our kids loved the toys, games, and puzzles, and we took the bucket full of toys and shovels with us each time we walked to the beach. The house was adorable and spacious, with everything perfectly beach-themed.

Long Weekend Itinerary

Living in central Washington, it takes us a good 5.5 hours to drive to the beach. (!) Always a reminder of how large our state really is. We did 3 nights at the beach, making it a long weekend.

Thursday

9am: head west

We left home close to 9, and had some stops to make along the way. We took the “long way” over white pass so avoid Tacoma traffic. It was honestly a beautiful drive with amazing views of Mount Rainier, but it was a long one for our three kids ages 1, 4, and 7.

12:45pm: scenic viewpoint of Mt. Rainier

Close to Packwood you have the most amazing scenic viewpoint that you have to pull over for to see the most larger than life view you can imagine of Mt. Rainier. Pictures will never do it justice.

1pm: lunch in Packwood

We grabbed lunch at cliff droppers. The burgers and fries were good and our kids were happy to be out of the car.

6pm: arrive at our rental house

When we got to our rental in Pacific Beach, we headed straight for the beach. We couldn’t resist throwing our stuff into the house and heading for the beach immediately when we arrived. It was pretty windy and cold, but worth it.

7:30pm: dinner at the house

We packed a cooler with us, so I made lasagna soup for dinner. I adored using the starfish bowls at the house.

Friday

7am: grab coffee from Surfhouse Cafe

We loved walking to Surfhouse every morning for coffee and baked goodies. The mornings are so calm. I had to bring the coffee back to the house to use the adorable mugs though! Our rental did have a coffee maker and coffee, but I liked supporting the local cafe each morning. Plus, it started our days with a nice little walk. I highly recommend their breakfast cookies. Yummm.

9am: morning at the beach

Mornings at the beach were amazing. The weather was perfect with little to no wind, which always picked up in the afternoon. We loved to explore, find shells, play in the sand and paint shells with watercolors I brought. We saw two bald eagles, which was so cool.

12pm: lunch at the house + downtime

We have a one year old baby boy who needs a nap during the day, so we enjoyed lunch at our rental, followed by some relaxing downtime while baby napped. We played games and did puzzles that our house provided. I also took my girls back to the beach for some more exploration. It was really nice being a few minute walk to the sand. We had hot chocolates on the deck after.

4pm: ice cream and playground

We took a walk and grabbed ice cream sandwiches and popsicles from the little market / gas station in town and walked to the elementary school so the kids could play for a bit. Our kids love visiting new playgrounds.

6pm: bbq burgers for dinner

We had bbq burgers for dinner, making use of the grill, followed by bath time and another late bedtime.

Saturday

7am: coffee and baked goodies from Surfhouse Cafe

We walked to the cafe again for coffee which we brought back to the house so I could enjoy it with a view from the house.

9am: morning at the beach

As we were walking to the beach, some sweet locals stopped us to ask if our girls wanted a kite. They gave us two new kites, and our girls were thrilled. They had such so much fun flying them on the beach. We also painted more shells, played more in the sand, and let the kids splash barefoot in the water.

12pm: lunch at the house and downtime

We went back to the house for lunch and an afternoon nap for the baby.

4pm: Pacific Paradise in Ocean Shores

We drove the 25 minutes to Ocean Shores to go to Pacific Paradise which offers bumper boats, mini golf, mining for gems, and an arcade. We did the gem-mining which I knew would be a huge hit for our little rock-collector. After we let the girls each get a card to play arcade games. The cards we bought for them lasted way longer than I thought they would – they had a blast and got to pick out some things with their tickets before we left.

7pm: dinner at the house

9pm: night beach exploration

This was a core memory for me as a child. I absolutely loved exploring the beach at night with a flashlight – I remember seeing cool things! I stayed behind with the sleeping baby, and my husband took our girls out with flashlights.