Another long day's drive through Oregon

Well rested and relieved beyond belief that we had not camped we hit the road headed toward Portland.

We stayed on the 101 for about half the way. We were excited to see the Oregon coast. It was rocky and chilly. A quick look at the seaside from the SeaSide Motel and realized to really see the seaside we must head up the coast.

We stopped at a lookout point where Lea wanted to race down the cliff to the ocean, but we decided someplace with an actual path would be better. We our next scenic stop was Whaleshead Beach a short grassy path down to the shore where a frigid rocky river flowed into the dark sand and waves of the ocean. It was like nothing I'd ever seen with the river and the ocean. In Texas that would be a marsh.

There was beautiful scenery, amazing rocks and we even found a starfish, but that is another story.

Whaleshead beach had it all. Ocean, pine trees, beautiful rocks, river water, a flowery grassy path ... it even had a dank dark forest. The forest canopy let so little light into the forest floor that there was no greenery on the lower branches or grass. It was as dark as night inside the forest. I'd never seen a forest so dense that it was as dark as night. I can see how horror stories and dark nursery rhymes could come out of the dense forests of the middle ages. Dan and Lea took a short stroll into the forest to experience the dark forest. At the edge you could feel about a 20 degree temperature difference and really if you looked left: beautiful sunny beach; right: dark as night forest. Craziness.

We continued down the road and thanks to yelp stopped in Bandon, OR for lunch. I thought we'd stop at a crab shack grab a quick bite and get back on the road. Probably and hour later we had our food and were back on the road. While we perhaps spent a dollar a minute in this town (not the last time on this trip) it was a wonderful power tourist stop. They had a dock, souvenir store and great food. We ordered one clam chowder for Dan and a hot crab sandwich, I had Hot crab and shrimp (no mayo which is usually the problem with seafood sandwiches) and mac and cheese for Lea. Well I asked if Dan could get his soup because its hard to eat soup and drive so he got his soup while Lea and I went and got Dan a shirt that says "This is my Crabby Shirt" to go with his crabby pants! Then we got the rest of our food and there were two more soups! A total of three chowders! I don't know how many we paid for but we had no problem eating them and Dan even figured out how to have a few bites while driving.

We turned off 101 to get to the big highway a little quicker. I was sad to leave the coastal views, but had had enough of the scenic route. But heading into the mountains and inland had its benefits. There was a rest stop/ elk viewing area with actual elk! There was a whole heard of Elk laying out in the field, nice of Oregonian Elk to cooperate with the Elk viewing area coordinators! We finally hit Portland about 8pm and were happy to be off the road for three days.

Rest Stop and pine cone hunt. 

Daisy

Outstanding in our field

Picking up pine cones

The scenic overlook. "Hey behave for the nice people taking our picture."

"There much better, no one will ever know what a goof ball you are who hit me in the ear."

Dark Dank forest. This is the same spot as the sunny beach photo. If you could see behind be bright blue day.

The flowery walk down to the bach smelled of licorice or anise.

We found a starfish, but that's another story.

Whaleshead Beach, OR

The family at the beach

Ahhh.... toes in sand

Cold river water!

Dan and Lea are walking in the river right at the edge of the treeline

Weird Gilligan's Island seeweed — it looks like the island, or Sponge Bob's island when they go above water.

Bag o' pine cones — This got huge by the end of our trip

Bandon OR

Wood carvings and kid's paintings (on wood) around the docks.

Chowder number one

Waiting for our food. Can we go back in the Souvenir store?

Lea chasing a seagull while Dan eats his sandwhich.

Chowder number 2

Chowder number 3!

Mac and Cheese

Hot crab and shrimp sandwhich. Oh and a delicious crabcake, almost forgot about that.

Elk viewing area. They are out there just short of the close shruby trees. See everything is so big in the mountains that everything else becomes puny.