Pidgeon Point Lighthouse

Field trip day!

Peanut and I headed out to the coast to explore a new area.

We visited the lighthouse, which is one of the tallest lighthouses in the country, 115 feet tall.

But the best part is the beach around here. We watched birds and seals and 

explored the tidepools.

We got a decent low tide to explore.

Finding sea stars is always fun.

We haven't done a lot of field trips just the two of us. We've usually had more of the family along, or meet up with friends, but this year has been so different, and field trips are so much more difficult. It was fun spending a day exploring with my last little homeschooler.

 

Last Day on the Coast

We stayed overnight in Newport, OR, and I got my traditional early morning vacation walk the next morning. I'm always up early at least one morning and have some pretty awesome memories of various places we've stayed when I've been out wandering while the rest of my family slept.

It was pretty drizzly and cold, and there wasn't a whole lot to go see on the beach, which was a little disappointing because it was another low tide and I would have loved to have some good tide pools nearby to check out, but I went for a walk anyway and just enjoyed the quiet beach.

And I did get to watch a couple sea gulls chasing a bald eagle from these cliffs up above right before I left. 

After breakfast, we drove the short distance to the Yaquina Head Lighthouse. This one feels very remote.

I just love the rocky coasts.

The common murre were there by the thousands--seriously, SO many birds! They come to breed and had just recently shown up.

We found another seal, too.

And Cobble Beach.

The coolest black basalt rocks that cover the beach.

Peanut was so happy playing down there. He stacked rocks, rolled them, and did who knows what while the rest of us looked for wildlife.

The best part of the cobbles is the noise that make as the tide rolls them around. It was seriously loud down by the water.

There are just so many unique beaches to visit.

I love watching our kids play when we go to these new places. It's easy to imagine the lightkeepers family exploring and playing on these same beaches.

(gumboot chiton we found on the rocks)

(contemplating life)

I'm so glad that we made that stop. We were feeling like we needed to hurry a little more this day because we had dinner plans in Portland with Daddy-o's sister's family, but this stop was worth it.

And so was the 1/2 hour break we took at Prehistoric--a store full of fossils. This kid especially loved it, and bought a trilobite for his collection. He's got a couple shark teeth, little bits of dinosaur bone, and now a new specimen.

Maybe the funniest part of this stop--we were having a hard time finding parking but after circling the block, saw a small parking lot behind the Birkenstock store across the street. We decided that we'd pop into the store so we'd count as customers, so the boys ran in the back door by the parking lot while the rest of us got out of the car. They came back out quickly and said that it wasn't the Birkenstock store, but just some hallway that went to a closed door. Then, we noticed that the shoe store was around the corner on the main street. This back entrance, where the boys had gone in, was a marijuana dispensary 😂 Probably shouldn't be sending our 7 and 12 year olds in there.

Next stop--the Tillamook Factory! This was pretty high on everyone's lists.

We got to see how they process the cheese (and watched the conveyer belt where they check for weight for a really long time--why are assembly lines so fascinating?), try some samples,

and then bought ice cream--yum!

And then we made our last coastal stop before we turned inland.

The kids were so excited to see the Goonies beach (Cannon Beach) after watching the movie a couple years ago. We ended up parking pretty far north, but Bean was determined to get closer, 

so she ran all the way down the beach and the rest of us followed, and made it close enough for pictures with the iconic rock.

Of course Peanut was tired for the trek back.  I said he did pretty well this trip, but it didn't mean that he didn't have his moments of begging to be carried. Luckily he's still a lightweight.

One last look.

We were sad to leave the coast, but had a fun dinner with Casey, Mo, and Emma once we got into Portland. We don't make it up to see them often enough, and it was a short visit, but we had a good time getting caught up and meeting Mo.

Northwest Road Trip

Daddy-o and I decided that it was about time that we made it up the coast of CA to OR, since neither one of us had ever been, 

so that's how our Spring Break Northwest Road Trip was born--7 days of redwoods, beaches, hiking, and family time.

First stop--the first beach we saw on the way to Mendocino. 

We were only there for a few minutes, but found remains of crabs, chitons, a sea cucumber, and snails.

But this little guy was ready for lunch, and we had a lot more beach time coming up, so we cut the stop short and went into Mendocino. 

We pieced together a lunch from the grocery store and a pizza place, wandered around for a little while, and then went to the next stop.

Point Cabrillo Light Station. We had a 1/2 mile walk down to the lighthouse--just the right length to stretch our legs and act as a warm up to the hiking we were planning to do the next couple days.

The light was enchanting,

and the ocean was beautiful. The CA coast is amazingly wild. I will always prefer swimming at East Coast beaches, but I don't anything quite compares with this.

Any guesses what this is?

Sea foam! There was a channel leading to a cove that was just filled with this!

A perfect, classic lighthouse.

We were able to go in one of the keeper's houses which was set up as a little museum sharing what life would have been like for the keeper's wife back in the early 1900s. It wasn't an easy life, but it's hard to feel too sorry for them knowing that they had these amazing views all day long.

What a great writing spot!

Peanut convinced everyone that he needed help hiking back up to the parking lot.

Peanut is lucky to have all these bigger people who are willing to help him out when his legs get tired.

The first of many plants that we identified--this one remained a mystery until the next day when I happened to notice a botanical drawing in a Visitor's Center showing the fertile and non-fertile horsetails (this is the second variety).

If there is a log, they need to climb it.

And do yoga on it.

These three are pretty good travelers and explorers.

We had one final road trip stop for the day--Glass Beach in Fort Bragg. I have a small sea glass collection and I was really looking forward to visiting this beach.

It did not disappoint. In some spots, there was more glass than pebbles.

We found glass of pretty much every color--even a bright yellow and a couple red pieces.

If we had ended the night with this sunset, it would have been perfect. Unfortunately, we still needed to get dinner, which ended up being a 1.5 hour excursion in Denny's. Our waitress just didn't seem to be up to the crowd that showed up--I'm pretty sure that she didn't get our order in when she said she did because we watched table after table get their food, even when they'd shown up long after we did. Considering it was almost 8 when we got there, we were really not wanting to have a long, leisurely dinner.

Eventually we made it back to the inn we were staying at, which we refer to as the hippy inn--it's a beautiful old house converted into an 11 room inn that serves a vegan breakfast. Pretty much, it meant they had a fridge with some gluten free bread, sprouted bagels, and instant oatmeal. Not the greatest breakfast, but a fun place.