Spending the weekend in Vancouver? Here’s what you can do

Welcome, runners from far and wide! We love having all 3,500 of you here. Don’t forget to tie your shoelaces. You’re welcome.

Surely you need no refresher about the great event that drew you here, the Vancouver USA Marathon. It’ll take you to some of our loveliest waterfront sites. It’s the only marathon with an adjacent brewfest. And it’s racked up serious race cred with Runner’s World magazine, the runners’ bible, which in recent years called it one of the best new, and one of the most fun-filled, marathons in the nation.

Part of that fun is the marathon event itself, which includes an Active Expo offering sales, promotional freebies, information, and a talk by Runner’s World’s “Chief Running Officer,” Bart Yasso. Part of the fun is the concurrent brewfest, with 25 breweries and 50 taps (and free access plus a few taster tokens for registered runners).

But part of the fun surely is our city and its fascinating history, our region and its awesome attributes. By way of welcoming you newbies, here’s a quick weekend-visitor’s guide to Vancouver and Clark County. Want to get to know us? Check out these places to go and things to see and do. (If we don’t mention a price, it’s free.)

HISTORICAL

• Fort Vancouver National Historic Site. A reconstruction of the busiest outpost in the Pacific Northwest in the 1840s and beyond. Take tours, view films, chat with docents and re-enactors, visit the kitchen and blacksmith and carpenter shops. And the bookshop and gift shop, of course.

Where: Fort at 1001 E. Fifth St.; visitor center at 612 East Reserve St.

Admission: $5 at fort (all interagency passes honored), free at visitors center.

On the web: https://www.nps.gov/fova

• Pearson Air Museum/Chkalov Memorial Ceremony. It’s almost the anniversary of the date still more history literally dropped from the sky and landed on us. On June 20, 1937, a distressed and icy airplane bound for California from Moscow had to set down in Vancouver — where its pilots were welcomed as heroes. It was the first-ever transpolar flight. From 10 a.m. to noon June 18, we’ll hold our annual memorial at Pearson Air Museum, east of the fort. Speakers and living history re-enactors will bring the amazing tale to life.

Where: 1115 E. Fifth St.

On the web: https://www.nps.gov/fova/learn/historyculture/pearson.htm

• Kaiser Shipyards Tower. Up for last-minute stair training? In 1942, this small city became a large, modern one by leaping into the war effort: New shipyards started cranking out nearly one vessel per week while whole worker communities built at breakneck speed by a new housing authority made Vancouver an unlikely bellwether of racial integration in America. The shipyards have been replaced by industries, but you can climb the (aging but fascinating) Henry J. Kaiser Shipyard Memorial Tower to overlook multiple turning points in world history.

Where: Marine Park, 4500 S.E. Columbia Way.

OUTDOORSY

• Water Resources Education Center. It’s near the Kaiser Shipyard Tower and the waterfront. It was built as part of a big wastewater-treatment project. Somebody had the bright idea to go beyond that and educate people about the vital importance of water in our part of the world. This facility is a water and wildlife museum. It’s free and open noon to 5 p.m. June 18.

Where: 4600 S.E. Columbia Way.

• Walking trails and wildlife. We’ll skip the spectacular waterfront Renaissance Waterfront Trail because you’ll run much of it June 19. About 10 miles north of downtown Vancouver is the all-access Salmon Creek Greenway Trail, a focus of ongoing efforts to restore salmon and wildlife to the suburbs. About 20 miles north of downtown is the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge’s Carty Unit, also all-access, where you can explore a reconstructed plankhouse. And about 20 miles east of downtown, at the mouth of the Columbia River Gorge, is the Steigerwald Lake National Wildlife Refuge, with gravel trails. Federal refuges always charge a nominal fee; local trails are free.

Salmon Creek: Park at Klineline Pond, 1112 Northeast 117th St.

Ridgefield: About two miles north of downtown Ridgefield on Main Avenue.

Steigerwald: About 20 miles east of downtown Vancouver on state Highway 14.

• Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area. For an eye-popping day trip, you can’t do better than one of America’s true natural wonders. The history of this 80-mile-long river canyon extends to prehistoric times and the land-carving Missoula Floods; more recent history includes reclaiming the Gorge’s first historic highway (on the Oregon side) as a pedestrian and bike trail. Try the Multnomah Falls Lodge for lunch or dinner and a switchback climb to the top of Oregon’s tallest waterfall.

On the web: http://www.crgva.org/

CULTURAL

• Downtown Vancouver. For well over a decade, this formerly shabby downtown has been remaking itself with restaurants and bars, galleries and theaters, apartments and condos — not to mention one of the most amazing public libraries in the nation and a gem of a historic central park. Don’t miss our signature farmers market!

On the web: http://www.visitvancouverusa.com/

• Downtown Camas. Vancouver’s neighbor to the east has bridged the gap between old-school paper mill and high-tech industry in a quaint, cute, thriving downtown.

On the web: http://downtowncamas.com/

• Portland. OK, it’s true, there’s that other, bigger city down there. Decent downtown waterfront with a gleaming new bridge that’s closed to cars, various other neat attractions — museums, zoo, hipster shopping — and some big bookstore, we’re told. Maybe worth taking a peek. But only if you can tear yourself away from here.

On the web: https://www.portlandoregon.gov and http://www.travelportland.com.