Oregon Coast Trip - Day 5 + 6

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

The next day we woke up and had to put away our soggy camp. Thankfully the tent did a good job of keeping out the rain, and we really only had wet tent and wet tarp to deal with. It was pretty early when we headed out and found hundereds of people taking advantage of the early morning low tide. They were digging for oysters and we were amazed at them all out there in the mud. It was pretty cool. Maybe next trip we will try this sport out! Our first stop was at the Cape Mears Lighthouse and the octopus tree. Both were really cool. The lighthouse was super short, I could hardly imagine seeing it from way out at sea. But then again, it is the only lit beacon in the dark night, so it's height wasn't really an issue. Before entering Tillamook a tire blew on my car and we had to stop and change it. DANG. Thankfully Oregon loves Les Schwab :) There was one in about every town, including Tillamook. After our second stop at Les Schwab in three days, we were off to the Tillamook Cheese Factory. Yum yum! We had a good time there, got some goodies and ice cream, and then headed out to the next adventure.
Clamming in Oregon

Cape Mears Lighthouse

Octopus Tree

Tillamook Cheese Factory

At Cannon Beach we found Haystack Rock and between there and Seaside there were so many tourists finally popping up for the Memorial Day weekend, that it wasn't even fun to drive the boardwalk. Sadly, we didn't stay long in the area, and headed up to Astoria pretty quickly. The bridge was amazing, and we couldn't resist going over the bridge and the Columbia River into WA state. We flipped back around and headed up to the Astoria column, which Josh had never seen. It was pretty early in the day still, and with no more coast to see, we decided to head into Portland. After turning around a few times, we finally found the Portland temple and got the chance to walk around it. We also found a nicer restaurant so I could have fish and chips before we left our coastal trip behind. At about 9pm MST, we left Portland with the intention of driving through the night. One last stop at Mulnomath Falls for some Twilight photos and then we were on our way. I slept fitfully, and Josh wouldn't sleep at all. He got some nice pictures of the Idaho sunrise. We drove right on through and got home at about 8:45am Sunday morning. We were so tired that after meeting with the bishop and getting called as joint nursery leaders, we were excused from church and went right home and slept until about 7pm. Then went back to bed at about 10:30 and slept until 7am the next morning. HAHA - so tired! Overall, it was a really great and relaxing trip. There was so much to do and see that we will definately be going back soon!
Haystack Rock

Astoria Bridge - across the Columbia River into Washington state

Astoria Column

Astoria City from the column

Portland, OR Temple

Multnomath Falls, OR

Idaho sunrise