Oregon Coast Round 2

My kids think we're moving to Oregon...

Spoiler alert! We're not!

But I guess after going for two summers in a row, "we might as well move there" as David has been putting it. Either way, we definitely would not mind going back for a third week some time!

This time around, we left Friday afternoon and camped for the first night.

On Saturday, we accidentally drove the wrong way for an hour and had to backtrack. Oh joy... But after that we visited Multnomah Falls and some of the waterfalls around there. It was pretty rainy that day, but we made the best of it. We then found a place to camp but couldn't get our tent up. Turns out canvas tents need to be staked down and ours also shrank a little from getting wet the night before and the poles wouldn't fit right. We ended up going to the hotel John's parents were staying at (they came with us in their own car) instead for the next two nights.

On Sunday, we went to church and visited the rose gardens in Portland. There were a lot of beautiful flowers but we were a little early for a bunch of the roses.

Monday afternoon we stopped at Fort Stevens State Park to see the old fort and the shipwreck. After that, we drove to the Airbnb in Seaside. We got there close to dinner time, but that didn't stop John, Dad, and the kids from walking out to the beach!

Tuesday happened to be Mom's birthday so we had fun celebrating that with cake in the evening! But earlier in the day, we went to Cannon beach to see Haystack rock. I'm not gonna lie. I was unimpressed. There was hardly any sea life to see (only two starfish hiding under a rock) and conservation people setting up signs and telling everyone to move away from the rock. It was also crowded so all 50 of us tourists took our turns looking at the starfish and then walking around the puddles and few anemones. After going to Haystack rock, I told John tide pooling was just not my thing. Then, John's parents offered to watch our kids while we borrowed their bikes and went down the beach to some other large rocks. This changed that whole day for me! Not only were there tones of giant orange and purple starfish everywhere (probably around 50 and some were bigger than my head!) but there were also tons of crabs hiding in the water by the rocks and lots of other fun things to see in a small (almost) cave. Plus, there was no one telling you not to walk by the rock and there were only four other people there! I went back to being okay with tide pooling again after this.

The next day, we made a big sand castle on the beach by our Airbnb! The kids had a lot of fun building it and decorating it with shells. We also decided to bring the clam digger with us. We had found it in the garage but weren't really sure how to use it. Luckily, there was a group of people digging for clams that day right by us and even more luckily, John's dad has no problems striking up conversations with complete strangers and asking lots of questions! After finding out how to dig for clams, John, his dad, and David went a bit away from the other group and started digging. In the end they dug up 8 clams, I came over and dug up two, and then David dug up one more to feed to the seagulls at the end. Also, as it turns out, the boys actually dug up more than that, but at the start of their digging, they just put the clams on the sand in a pile and some seagulls stole them! They decided to hold on to them after that. When we got back to the Airbnb, John and I (and David did one also) cleaned the clams and then we headed back to Cannon beach and Haystack rock.

This second trip to Cannon Beach was to show the kids all of the fun stuff John and I had seen the day before. We parked much closer to the two rocks to the left of Haystack rock and the kids had fun exploring. After that, john's parents offered to watch the kids while John and I went out for Fish and Chips and then went on a walk on the beach and around Seaside. It was nice to get a short date in while we were there! Before we got back, we bought all of the ingredients we would need for clam chowder and the rest of the night was spent making it.

Thursday was the day we drove to the Tillamook Cheese Factory. It was a short, but fun tour and ended with free cheese samples and Tillamook ice cream sandwiches courtesy of Mom and Dad Le Starge. I had never actually had one of their ice cream sandwiches, but now that I have, I know I'll have one again. They were so good! And definitely worth it even though it was a colder day. That being said, the rainy day it happened to be made it the perfect time to do an inside tour. It was not, however, the perfect time to go on a boardwalk hike, but that's what we did anyway! On the way to the hike, we stopped by some fun trains the boys wanted to look at and then we did the Rockaway Big Tree Trailhead hike. It was actually a pretty cool hike with giant plants growing everywhere. Some of the leaves were as tall as Brooke and made it feel like we had been transported back to dinosaur times! So cool! 

Friday was the day we had to head home. And after lots of discussing (my kids called it arguing...) between John and I about whether or not we should camp for the night or head straight home, John pulled out a "coupon for one night of camping" and our fates were sealed. I honestly couldn't believe he had saved that thing for so long, I'm pretty sure I gave him that slip of paper when we were in our first year of marriage and money matters made it so I gave him handmade coupons at Christmas time. At least after 10 years of marriage he finally used one of them. Haha!

On Saturday, we packed up and headed straight home just in time to get ready for Brooke's dance recital. It was her first one and she did great! She had been pretty nervous at the start, but she toughed it out and did awesome! John and I were so proud of her for facing her fears and also for doing such a great job at remembering her dance!

And now back into the heat of Utah summers... Oregon, we miss you already.