Oregon Coast- you are beautiful, and long. We spent 9 days travelling the coast and getting wet and sandy. The weather was not all we expected- a lot colder than we were anticipating, but we did have a good time. Even if one of us was grumpy at all times- the others made up for it.
Our first stop (pictures above) was Nehalem Bay State Park. We stumbled across this gem 6 years ago when we had to stop due to melting down children and we just couldn’t fathom the idea of another couple of hours in the car. We have wanted to come back ever since! And really, it is just the most perfect place. We wished we would have stayed here longer.
We enjoyed sand play, sunsets and one death march hike (sorry guys). We didn’t think that the trail could possible be uphill for the whole time… it came close. But we did it, we had a great view and we were rewarded with beer afterward (root for the kiddos, the real stuff for the adults). Henry and I walked to town via the beach our first morning and it was a fantastic way to start our vacation. That kid is pretty cool.
Our next stop was Beverly Beach State Park, where we were “welcomed” into our campsite (seriously, what does that mean? Just kidding, we want you to go away or someone does not know the way to use quotes? Chris and I got a chuckle every time we drove by). We were right outside of Newport, OR where ventured in to see the Oregon Coast Aquarium and stop at another brewery (Chris, we love you). We visited Yachats Lighthouse on quite possibly the foggiest day all summer and explored Devils Punchbowl. This was the coldest and wettest part of our trip. Nothing dried, nothing stayed dry and Thacker had his first day of life without a nap. If you were at this campground that day, we were the family in the shower room with the screaming toddler who could not calm down and was not happy that his mother was putting pajamas on him. I did spend the next morning at the laundromat, so that was a few relaxing hours that made up for the shower trauma.
Honeyman Memorial Park- you were windy. We continued our trip south to explore the sand dunes. The boys rented sand boards and tried their best to fly down the sand. Henry took a pretty good header into the board which left him with a nice welt above his left eye. The lake was beautiful, but with the wind it made it difficult to enjoy- just a little too cold. Rory made friends with the girl across from our campsite and basically wanted to be on their vacation with them. He also was given permission to go around the small loop of the campground by himself on his bike. He was pretty stoked about that. We explored the sand dunes and everyone decided running down was a lot more enjoyable than climbing back up…
On the way to the sand dunes Bennett requested a stop at the Sea Lion Caves. There were no sea lions in the caves this time of year, but we did see some swimming around in the water and got to explore inside the sea cave a bit (explore is a generous word, we got to look around).
Our fourth and final stop was Fort Stevens State Park. We left Southern Oregon and drove to the tippy top of Oregon for a night. This stop was Henry’s request as he wanted to explore the fort. I think he wished we had more time, and we probably should have allowed for another night, but we did make the most of it. We had come here during our first Oregon coast adventure six years ago, but both Henry and Bennett were too little to remember much.
And then we came home. The grown ups were ready. So ready. We were tired, dirty and just, well, tired. Looking back at those photos we did have a good time. We explored a lot, got to see things we all wanted to see, and were able to ring out the summer in style. We can’t wait to go back to Nehalem Bay sometime and maybe just hunker down and explore around there a bit more. It really is such a cool location.
A lot has happened in the month since we returned. We are in full autumn mode now. Summer- you were fun.
pricklyporcupine 