Although you wouldn’t guess it from reading my blog, Adrian and I have had a busy summer.
We were engaged at the end of May, both our parents came to visit in June, and we moved to a new apartment in July.
We’re attempting to garden, and have successfully picked three cherry tomatoes and a handful of green beans.
Adrian started a new job in August at Seattle Design Build.
In September, I wrote 40 some pages of my architecture thesis.
Before starting 11 more intense weeks of thesis, we decided to take our first road trip of the summer. After all our traveling last summer, it’s hard to believe we hadn’t left the state since spring break. We decided on a trip down the Oregon coast.
Day 1 – Long Walks on the Beach
We drove to Cannon Beach on Thursday evening after Adrian got off work, so we had a full day of fun for Friday. We stayed at the Tolovana Inn, which was right next to the ocean.
First order of business was to get breakfast, which we found at Pig’n Pancake. I think Adrian had both pig and pancake, but I had neither (went with the waffle). The restaurant had a great photo of the shore, so Adrian inquired about where it had been taken. We found out it was taken at Ecola State Park, on the north end of Cannon Beach. After breakfast we headed there. The drive to the park was through a great forest, which Adrian clearly loved since about every thirty seconds he proclaimed, “I dig it…” The view was great and there was a lighthouse to see, but the sun was in the wrong spot for photos. We decided we’d try to make it back and headed north to Seaside.
Seaside was pretty touristy, but we had some fun with it. Adrian got new shoes, and Ana got a gyro, so we were both happy. There was some crazy dog competition set up on the beach, so we watched some dogs jump into a big pool of water for awhile. After it was sufficiently late enough for the sun to be in the west, we headed back to get our photograph at Ecola.
Once at the park, we checked out a second beach a mile and a half down the road. There was a cove with a sandy beach, and apparently decent waves for surfing. I’d never actually seen people surf, so watching them was amusing. Adrian amused himself by skipping stones. We got the needed photographs and headed south again. We drove to Manzanita (recommended by several), but when we got there all I wanted to do was sleep. It was in both of our best interests to return to the hotel for a nap.
After the nap, we decided on a long walk on the beach. Sort of cliché, but actually quite enjoyable. We wandered down the shore until the sun went down. After sunset and dinner at a local pub, we went back down to the beach to make a fire. We have had a pile of wood to burn outside our apartment since we moved, so we were happy to finally get to burn it. We enjoyed s’mores and even shared some with a very shy Russian girl whose mother had stopped to talk to us. The girl reminded me of how quiet I was at that age, except when people used to talk to me I’d just giggle. We managed to burn all the wood just in time to get in the hot tub before the pool closed. I went to bed tired and happy, wondering if the next days would prove to be as good as this one.
Day 2 – A Blowhole!
By the second day, I had already eaten a weeks worth of calories, so we decided to have a late breakfast. We checked out of our hotel and headed south, figuring we’d find something on our drive to the next adventure. One of the things I had marked in our guidebook that I wanted to do was to stop at the Tilamook cheese factory. If only cheese were its own food group… I’d never say that another state could produce cheese like Wisconsin, but Tilamook does a decent job. We took the “self-guided tour” of the factory, which basically meant walking up a set of stairs overlooking the factory floor. Not very exciting, especially since it was Saturday and no one was working. However, they did have a tasting line, which Adrian went through twice. We ended up eating breakfast at the café there. I had hashbrowns, and of course I asked them to top them with cheese. I think the cheese to potato ratio was about 1:1. Yum.
The next major stop was Fogarty Creek State Park. The guidebook promised “wooden footbridges in the forest” but the beach proved to be the main event. Adrian climbed out onto this big rock and found a blowhole. Though it sounded fun, my shoes (although cute) were not going to accommodate me going out there. After a small argument and a change of shoes, Adrian convinced me to climb out there to check it out. It proved to be well worth it. The waves would crash into this cave, and the water would explode out of this small hole, making a wonderful noise and splashing high into the air. I felt like a kid playing peek-a-boo watching it. I knew what was going to happen, but every time it happened it surprised and delighted me. The noise and the splash were a great combination. We took an insane amount of pictures.
After the blowhole, we decided to stop at a lighthouse. One lighthouse seemed like a requirement in fulfilling the Oregon Coast experience. We stopped at the lighthouse in Newport, called the Yaquina Head Lighthouse. We arrived just in time to go up to the top of the lighthouse, where you could see the view and the lens. I learned that each light house has a unique signal; the one here was two seconds on, two off, two on, and fourteen off. If you’re ever in a boat and you see that pattern, you’ll know know you’re near Yaquina Head.
Post lighthouse, we headed to our motel in Florence, Oregon. Our directions from Google totally missed, but we found it anyway. Florence reminded me of Moab, UT because it’s near a big stretch of Dunes on the coast. Half the trucks you see have four-wheelers or other toys in the back. We used the guidebook to find us some food. For dessert, we had to try BJ’s ice cream. It was worth every calorie. Sickeningly good. Exhausted again, Adrian and I crashed out early.
Day 3 – Sea Lions, Pie, and Football
Adrian and I decided to head back north (our general direction was working from north to south along the coast). We stopped at an overlook just north of the Sea Lion Caves. We just expected a view, but there were a ton of Sea Lions lounging on the beach and playing in the water. We watched them play in the waves for awhile and decided that we would not need to pay to take the elevator down to see (and apparently smell) the actual Sea Lion Caves. There was also a light house we could see from the same lookout, and sure enough its light pattern was different. Apparently we also have a photo of this lighthouse from this spot on the wall outside our bathroom.
We stopped and climbed down to Devil’s Churn, which we had looked down on the day before. We got to see some starfish and Adrian didn’t get swept to sea, so it was a good little hike. Once we got back to Florence, we stopped to buy a kite. I had seen people on the beach flying them and realized it was something I hadn’t done since I was probably eleven. Like the lighthouse, it seemed like an essential part of the Oregon experience. To totally round the thing out, we bought a kite with a picture of a lighthouse on it.
Since all the activity was exhausting me (I think maybe I’m getting sick or reverting to being five), we went back to the motel for a nap. I asked Adrian to check out the guidebook to plan our afternoon. We wanted to head much further south, but we had a reservation for two nights in Florence. We decided that our best course of action was to find a new place to stay further south and suck up the charge for the unused night where we were. Luckily, we had internet access, so after our second call we found a reasonably priced room in Bandon, Oregon.
We stopped for a late lunch at Don’s Diner in Reedsport, Oregon. The sign for award-winning pies sold me that it would be a good choice. We were not disappointed. Wow. Seriously good pie.
Next we stopped at Shore Acres State Park, where we found an English formal garden and a car show (only one of which was expected). A few miles later we stopped at a lookout along the road and found another group of sea lions. I had heard them barking while we were in the gardens, but couldn’t see them.
Once we got to Bandon, we checked into our motel. The room was tiny, but the motel was right at the top of a set of stairs to the beach. We decided to head down to the beach to try to fly our kite. The wind was pretty minimal, so we could only get the kite to fly if one of us would run it down the beach. It was entertaining, but exhausting. We took over 100 pictures, hopefully most of which we’ll delete!
After the kite, we played with the time delay on Adrian’s camera to get some shots of us on the beach. Adrian thought we needed to be standing IN the water, despite it being like 33 degrees, so he’d run in and I’d jump into his arms so I could stay out of the water. Before leaving the beach, I decided to face my fear of birds and chase some seagulls. I felt pretty tough, and we had a good laugh over it.
After that entertainment, we began our search to find a restaurant with a TV so Adrian could watch Sunday Night Football. We thought we were doomed, but just as we were about to head out of the other end of town, we saw a sports bar. We stuffed ourselves again, while I suffered through the Cowboys beating the Packers. The things we do for love…
Day 4 – Lighthouse Kite
Most of day four would be devoted to traveling back to Seattle, but we decided to head further south for the morning.
We stopped at Cape Blanco, which is apparently the westernmost tip of Oregon. In the car, I read that the spot had a lighthouse and was the windiest place in Oregon. I immediately thought: KITE! The lighthouse was closed for another hour, but there was definitely wind. As Adrian took some photographs, I pulled out the kite. There was definitely no running required this time. We took pictures of us flying the lighthouse kite by the lighthouse, and then got back on the road.
By this point, we were pretty far south in Oregon. Adrian had mentioned that he used to go on field trips to the “Prehistoric Gardens” north of Gold Beach. The Prehistoric Gardens has life-sized sculptures of dinosaurs. Lucky for us, there are two along the road so we could stop and get our photographs with them. Yay for the T-rex!
We went further south to Gold Beach, where we saw signs for the mail boat tours up the Rogue River. Adrian really wanted to take me on it (he’d gone on it before with his family) but the next trip wasn’t until the next morning.
We decided our last stop of the trip (aside from food, restrooms, and gas) would be Cape Sebastian State Park. The guide book said that you could see the lighthouse fifty miles away in Crescent City, CA on a clear day. Sure enough we could see a tiny spec about where the lighthouse should be. Satisfied with all we had seen, we got back on the road and drove home to Seattle.
We’re mostly unpacked, and this blog is almost complete, so I guess I should be ready to start school tomorrow. I’m not particularly ready or excited, so instead I’ll keep my mind on future adventures to Alaska, Africa, Connecticut or wherever else we may find ourselves in the future.
