Thursday, May 31
We split up today. Ryan and I got up at 6:00 am to dive the I-5 and visit Oregon State University. Ryan is currently interested in studying Marine Biology, so his college visits are located (as one would expect) up and down the coasts. Since we’re on the Pacific coast, it’s an opportune time to visit a couple of schools over here. While informative, I won’t share the details of our visit here. Ultimately, I don’t think Ryan is going to apply to join the Oregon State University Beavers.
Greg, Elizabeth, Gillian, and Audrey continued the trek North into Oregon along the 101. I know it was beautiful scenery, and Greg commented to Elizabeth that “those are the views your mother was looking for.” Sigh. I’m sure I’ll see some more as we head up into Washington state later in the trip.
Friday, June 1
OK, so we like to start each day with, “What are we doing today? What is the weather? What do we need to wear?” followed soon after with, “What is there to eat?” Not all that different from when we are at home. Today, I had anticipated visiting one of the cheese (there is a lot of cheese making in Tillamook) factories and having lunch, taking a little hike in the scenic Cape Lookout State Park, and then visiting a light house. A little food, some walking--reviews of the lighthouse said it was usually very windy, so could be chilly. My recommendation? Sneakers, long pants, layers.
How the day actually played out: We did start with Blue Heron French Cheese. We tasted a wide variety of jams, dips and spreads, and had a very good lunch. Greg and I enjoyed a wine tasting—5 wines for $5.00. Pretty good price, so we picked out a few to take with us. Blue Heron also has a petting zoo, so of course we stopped to feed and pet the goats, llamas, and donkey. All is going according to plan.
Next stop, the hike to Cape Lookout. It really is a very, very nice hike, rated accurately at easy to moderate difficulty. It is, however, an in and back hike of 2.67 miles each direction. The moderate difficulty area can also be found during the last ¾ of a mile near the overlook. Fine for those with regular mobility, it is quite full of roots and rocks that must be navigated, preferable without slipping and twisting an ankle. No worries, folks! We were successful, making it all the way to the end and back. Photo evidence does exist. In hindsight, those great hiking boots we all own that were at the RV would have been helpful, and when you are hiking for 5.34 miles, you can really ditch those extra layers. Beautiful overlook, though. We were very fortunate to see a weasel (in the wooded area of the parking lot.) Gillian spotted it first. I missed it, but Ryan nicely kicked the bushes it was hopping around in so it ran out—actually right at me with its 4” fangs glistening in the sun. Honestly, I’m lucky to still be alive. Gillian also found the snake for us on the hiking trail (just a harmless garter snake, Granny.). Ryan was our other big wildlife spotter. He was the first today to see the sea lions, and—we were super lucky—a gray whale calf. It looked incredibly tiny, but we were incredibly high up. Audrey and Ryan continue to keep a running count of how many banana slugs they’ve seen.
Going to make a note here that Ryan may or may not make it back to Nashville. He thought it would be incredibly funny (encouraged by his father and sister I’m sure), to hide behind one of the trees and jump out as the next set of the family came by. Greg set up the camera to catch the action. I happened to be in the lead. Hot, sweaty, tired, and focused on getting back, along I trudged, only to have this big thing jump out at me as I pass. Don’t worry. I’ll get him back…
Gotta say, after the 105 mile hike, we were all a little tired and thirsty, so we chose to delay the lighthouse until tomorrow, and just headed to dinner, followed by movie night and campfire at the RV.
Saturday, June 2
We will not let tired feet slow us down! Today we drove to Oceanside, Oregon. We had what I would argue is one of our best meals to date at a little place called Roseanne’s Café. Stop by if you are in Oceanside. You won’t be disappointed. Afterwards, we took advantage of its proximity to the Pacific to walk down and watch the waves. Audrey, particularly, loves to walk in the water, and we’ve not done that much on this trip. Mostly because the wind and water is cold.
Next, we made it to the Cape Mear’s Lighthouse. It is one of only two lighthouses with 8 sided lenses. I think I typed that correctly. The other is in Hawaii. The steps and iron work in the lighthouse is beautiful. Greg and the volunteers were discussing how it was a different time when the lighthouse was made in that people used to take a lot of pride in their workmanship. You can tell a difference. We also took time to visit the Octopus Tree. No one is sure why the tree has grown the way it has, but there is no central trunk. Instead, it has 8 large (my kids were argue that you could also count them as 7 or 9, depending) trunks. The Octopus tree is the largest Sitka Spruce in Oregon and is believed to be 250-300 years old. Unusual and impressive.
A last stop to visit the Tillamook Cheese Center to sample some more Tillamook cheese and ice-cream, and then we were back to the RV to prep for tomorrow’s drive up the coast into Washington State.
Sunday, June 3
Continued our drive up 101 N. into Washington state. A beautiful drive with plenty of coast line and forest. No sasquatch, but I did see 3 bald eagles. We ended up changing our end point for this leg of the trip. I had initially thought we’d stop in Forks, WA based on a travel article that I had read. It is a nice area, plenty of hiking. They decision had absolutely nothing to do with the Twilight books, which I have not read. I'm not really worried about sparkly vampires. However, the author of the article must have enjoyed cooking every meal and only hiking. We were very hard pressed to find dinner (and I won’t go into that, as we like to remember the fun parts of vacation). We decided to move along the 101 for about another hour and stop in Port Angeles, WA. Snowcapped mountains in the distance, a large variety of activity choices, and plenty of restaurants. Much more my speed!
