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.

Crossing State Lines

Day #4 meant we had to say goodbye to the Redwoods. But first, these kids were sworn in as Jr. Rangers. I think Bean might be a little embarrassed to do the actual ceremonies these days, but she still doesn't like to miss out.

There were those low clouds again--so beautiful. I don't think I could live where it rains 100 inches a year, but it is so pretty to visit.

On the way north, we drove out to the mouth of the Klamath river.

We found a lot of seals. No otters or whales, but dozens of seals.

They're so cute!

Such a pretty, wide river, too.

We saw a lot of this striking, big yellow flower--looked it up and found out it is yellow skunk cabbage. Apparently it is really stinky. We didn't get close enough to find out.

We also spent some time figuring out what type of birds we were seeing along the way. Here's a black cormorant.

In Klamath, we had to stop to see Paul Bunyan and Babe--we saw another statue like this in Michigan back in 2007. This one was outside a small Native American museum which was very cool--so much stuff crammed into a small building.

And then we were in Oregon!

First stop there--Griff's On the Dock for lunch. One of Daddy-o's customers had recommended that we stop there--it was a fun little hole-in-the-wall place right on the coast.

And then the hunt for tidepools began. I had looked up a few of the best spots in Oregon for tidepooling, but really, the best spot is the one that you can get to at low tide which was coming quickly, so we pulled over at the first rocky area that we found--Bob's Creek--and it did not disappoint.

The tide was pretty low and we were able to see tons of acorn barnacles and mussels, 

different types of whelks, dogwinkles, and snails,

purple and orange ochre sea stars,

and purple urchins, and SO many anemones. It was a really great tide pooling experience--they were accessible and easy to find things. It made leaving the redwoods a little easier when we got to jump right into the next amazing exploration.

More From Rainy Oregon

I guess we got lucky in the fact that we had one pretty day in Portland, but after Friday, the weather went downhill fast.  I'm not really a fan of the cold, gray, constant slow rain--I prefer our couple storms a month that dump two inches at a time and then sunshine the rest of the time.

  But we did brave the drizzles.  Saturday, we went downtown to the Saturday market--lots of food and small local businesses and artisans.

 Watching a street entertainer,

 By the river,

 In the rain (Peanut was so wiped out).

 We got to hang out with the grandparents a lot.

Peanut was fascinated by Grandpa A's beard.

 Monday, because it was so rainy and cold, we headed to the ever-exciting Chuck E Cheese.  The kids had fun with their cousin, E.

Peanut got to go on his first merry go round ride.

We also got to go visit with one of my old roomates and her family, and had a great couple hours catching up, but I forgot to take any pictures.

When we left Portland, there was snow on the ground.  One long day of flying later (but shorter than the day getting out there), we were back in beautiful Charlotte where it was 75 degrees and all the blossoms are blooming and the sun was shining hard.  It was fun to see family, but it was good to come home!