We camped outside Astoria for a night at Fort Stevens State Park right by the beach. They had showers here, huge bonus because we were reaching the 7 day mark since we had last stayed somewhere with showers and even though Derek said he was feeling pretty good after a “baby wipe wash,” I was really craving a nice, hot shower. We stopped at the beach that next morning to check out a shipwreck and so that Murph could run a round for a bit after a long, rainy night in the camper (this is when we watched the Goonies dvd we bought from Astoria, and the only movie rental store still in business). The beach here wasn’t any different to what we had come from at South Beach in Washington and would continue to see along the Oregon Coast – beautiful, wide, long-stretching white sand beaches with crashing waves as far as you can see in either direction. There are beautiful beaches on the East Coast and in New England, but they aren’t nearly as big and open as what we’ve seen here on the West Coast, and maybe it’s the time of year, but these beaches aren’t crowded at all, and we pretty much have them to ourselves most of the time. The other thing that’s great is that you can have fires on any of the beaches, and drive onto them too. No rules here, it’s awesome. And anyone who knows Murphy knows that he is obsessed with the water and the beach, so he has been in absolute heaven here.
Continuing down 101 along the coast, we stopped first in the beach town of Seaside to walk around and grab a bite to eat (read: beer…Oregon has really good beer, and Derek is making fast progress towards becoming an IPA connoisseur in the hopes of starting our own brewery some day…see how much much of an impact this trip is having on our future plans?). It’s after Labor Day at this point so everything is pretty quiet, but you can tell Seaside in the prime of summer is somewhat comparable to a nicer Hampton Beach (not saying anything about Hampton Beach, just that Seaside was a litttle more on the touristy-side compared to some of the other places we’ve seen.).
Cannon Beach was our next stop after Seaside, and it really lived up to the hype. It’s a laid back little beach town, more like a Newport, Rhode Island, with a long main street of shops, art galleries, cafes and restaurants, and very dog-friendly — almost everywhere we’ve been in Oregon has pretty much asked us to bring Murph inside stores with us and there’s outside seating everywhere. People also love dogs in Oregon, even more than they do everywhere else, and on average we don’t get more than 100 yards without someone commenting on Murph and what a ridiculously large and gorgeous boxer he is (not even saying this to brag, we here it over and over ). We know he secretly loves all the extra attention, and Derek doesn’t seem to mind it either because it gives him the chance to strike up conversations with strangers everywhere we go, which is him in his element.
So Cannon Beach…we headed down to the beach to check out Haystack Rock and spent some time walking around the downtown area. We stopped in at the Cannon Beach Distillery for a tasting. The rum and gins we tasted were great, although let’s be honest, we’re whiskey drinkers. The tasting was also slightly tainted by Murphy, who was laying at our feet in the tasting room, farting the entire time. The guy running the place even had to pause during his spiel about one of the gins because Murph had just ripped ass so loudly. Lucky for him he’s a good looking boy, so people just awkwardly laugh it off.
We had an early start the next day to head over to Ecola State Park, also in Cannon Beach and where they filmed scenes from the Goonies, to hike down to Crescent Beach and see more rock formations.The hike wasn’t long, but super slippery and steep, so it was just the right amount of challenging and the pay off, reaching the beach, was well worth it and again, we had the entire beach to ourselves. It was low tide too so we were able to check out the tide pools and caves. Lots of photos to follow…
Turns out Derek is also pretty good at finding perfectly in-tact sand dollars, which is no easy task, so I was impressed with my souvenirs from the hike.
After our hike, we stopped for lunch, and afterwards while we waited for the truck to get an oil change, Derek got us some ice cream and strolled around with Murph, while I worked on getting the blog updated..which we have learned is not the easiest thing to do when you’re on the road and rarely have internet in the woods. So if it means finding a place to sit outside in the sun with a root beer float, in order to use the internet and post, well no complaints here.
Next up on the coast, Manzanita. Instead of continuing to drive further down 101, we figured why not just hang out here and relax at the beach for a bit? The weather is perfect, Murph loves a good romp on the beach chasing a ball, and well, we’re unemployed, at some of the most beautiful beaches on the West coast, soo really what else should we be doing?
After the beach, and a stop at a little place for guac and Mexican beers, we headed to our campsite for the night: the Tillamook air strip next to the air museum and airport. It was a great spot to sleep, and free, and how many times in your life do you get to say you slept right on the tarmac of an airport/old aircraft museum?
We started off the following day at the beach in the neighboring town of Oceanside, another beautiful spot. Not much to complain about when this is how you wake up and spend a Wednesday morning…
Before heading out of Tillamook and away from coast, we had to make a stop at the Tillamook Cheese Factory for a quick cheese tasting, which is apparently the #2 supplier of sharp cheddar cheese in the country. The cheese, and chocolate milk, were delish, and of course we walked out of there with a couple blocks of cheese, which would end up being dinner later that night.
Our plan from here was to head inland towards Portland, and then we weren’t really sure how the next few days would play out. One way or another we’ll be back on the coast once we hit California.
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