4 Best Sights in The Olympic Peninsula and Washington Coast, Washington

The small museum has canoes from local tribes, as well as photographs that document Aberdeen's logging and shipping industries and exhibits portraying an old blacksmith shop and general store.

This pocket park, dedicated in 2011 along the muddy banks of the Wishkah River, pays homage to grunge legend and Nirvana front man Kurt Cobain, who grew up in a modest home two blocks from here. A guitar sculpture, lyrics to “Something in the Way,” and other remembrances—like an empty instrument-stand sculpture identified as the musician's air guitar—mark the quiet spot that fans still seek out more than 20 years after the rock star's death. Some leave messages on the park bench and picnic table as well as under the bridge.

Tall, billowing white sails in the harbor mark the presence of this replica of the 1750s coastal freighter from Boston that in 1792, under the command of famous explorer Captain Robert Gray, was the first American vessel to reach the northwest American coast. The replica was famously converted into the multimasted HMS Interceptor sloop for the 2003 Disney movie Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl. Its main base is the Grays Harbor Historic Seaport, but you'll find the vessel at local coastal towns throughout the region, where it's open for self-guided tours. Three-hour cruises include the hands-on "Adventure Sail" and a mock "Battle Sail" war between two vessels, and if you're at least 18 you can volunteer as a deckhand for multiday trips. The free Seaport Learning Center, a 214-acre site spread across the harbor and surrounding wetlands, runs tours on two historic longboats, and schedules monthly boatbuilding, rope-climbing, and marine-trade programs for families and students.

For a general look at the lay of Aberdeen, follow this 1½-mile-long, paved walkway to the 40-foot-wide Compass Rose mosaic, inlaid at the confluence of the Wishkah and Chehalis rivers.