Oregon - part 1

Today's mission:  make it from Seattle to Newport, Oregon.  According to google maps this is a 5 hour and 41 minute drive.  It took Chris and I almost 12 hours, I guess we stopped more than we were supposed to :)

At the beginning of our trip I finally figured out why Chris and I are still red eyed and sniffly even tho we left our moldy house in Okinawa.  It is Ragweed season in Washington.  Lyle be happy you are not along

We crossed into Oregon via the Lewis and Clark Bridge, a steep climb and a scary cool bridge

The roads instantly went from 4 lane busy to 2 lane quiet and pretty

Our first stops were in Astoria, we did a few photo ops at the Maritime Museum

We also drove to the Astoria Column, a memorial to Lewis & Clarks journey to the west.  I was fondly remembering my trainer, Jeanette, as I climbed the 164 steps to the top. 

Chris stayed below with Haru, since dogs weren't allowed in the tower.

A few miles down the road we saw a sign for beach access.  We decided to check it out

The beach was beautiful, Haru loved it

 The water over the sand was so smooth it looked like glass

 There were alot of people driving their cars right onto the packed beach, so I figured I would give Chris a chance to get behind the wheel.  He did great and even listened when I explained why he needed to stay on the packed sand and be wary of the loose sand.  He drove us back to the main highway, where I took over again.

 A bit later we saw another access point and I decided to give it a go.  I should have heeded my own advise tho, this sand was a bit too loose and I got us stuck.  Lucky for us I grew up in snow and know how to work the 4 wheel drive.  Don't worry honey, the 4 wheel drive works great and now Chris knows how to engage and disengage 4 wheel low

Chris did a little research on stops for this leg of the trip.  His first stop was to see Big Foot

We reached Cannon Beach, and got pictures of the Cannon....

 and the beach

One of my stops was Haystack Rock.  We got a pretty good view too



It was at this point that we realized we had driven right past the Cape of Disappointment.  We were (disappointed that is)

We did manage to locate Hug Point tho

and we did (hug)

we also took a little more time to play on the beach

Chris had one more stop on his list - Octopus Tree.  This was right at Cape Meares which was on my list.  We were both happy.

At this point it was starting to get late so we didn't stop again, but we did snap a few neat pictures along the way

By the time we reached our hotel, we were all hungry and tired of driving so we ordered in from a place we passed coming into Newport.  We couldn't pass up pizza that was Legend (wait for it) Dary.

Night all tomorrow we are headed to Crescent City CA and that is supposed to take over 6 hours.  We may have to stop a bit less  LOL