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Heading to Coastal Tourist-ville  

08/09/07 - Tillamook, OR

Driving west from Seattle to begin our drive down the Washington and Oregon coast

(Shutterfly photo album - WA & OR coast)

Leaving the summer gloom of Seattle (the sun didn't want to come out once Caroline arrived back in Seattle) behind, we headed west where we planned to drive down the Washington and Oregon coastline.  After a quick sushi stop in Olympia (another state capitol visited, check!), we made our way to Long Beach, Washington.  Long Beach bills itself as the world's longest beach.  The Michigander in us is skeptical about the claim, but it is indeed a very long beach.  The hard-packed sand makes it suitable for biking, driving, and mopeding on, and we saw all of these activities during our evening walk on the beach.  Seeing how it's also famous for its oysters (the town of Oysterville was just up the road), we couldn't resist sampling them for dinner.  The oysters, along with everything else here, are fried… and were not at all impressive.  We'll take the oysters of Tamales Bay, California or the southeast U.S. any day.  We spent the night at the cute, coastally, Boardwalk Inn, where we enjoyed the innkeepers fresh muffins in the morning on our own little front porch.

The next morning we planned to spend some time hiking around and visiting the parks and lighthouses of Cape Disappointment, where Lewis & Clark landed at the Pacific after their trek west.  We should have known by the name not to plan that much time there.  Perhaps it was partially the continuing gloom, but it was not the highlight of our day by any means.

Crossing the Columbia River into Oregon (quick aside, for all of our Midwestern readers - it is pronounced Oregyn - not Oregahn.  Although if  you want to grate on Oregoanians' nerves, Oregahn seems to work just fine), we stopped in the historic town of Astoria, where we climbed the 164 spiral steps of the 'world famous' Astoria column for a panoramic view of the area at the mouth of the Columbia.  Caroline did not believe the view was 164 steps better than the view from the parking lot, and the 360-degree panorama did not change our plans of where to head next.

A few miles down the coast, we walked the boardwalk of the super-touristy-cheesy-resorty town of Seaside.  We often wondered why so many people flock to the cold, gloomy beach where the water is not at all tempting to interact with.  To crowd the tacky t-shirt shops?  Could they all be taffy addicts?  Did they not know that summer is taking place just a few dozen miles inland, or that beaches exist where the sun shines and you can jump in the water without fear of hypothermia?  Maybe they're all British descendants.

We left, puzzled, until we hit our next stop, Cannon Beach.  It was here that miraculously, as soon we made our way to the beach, the sun came out!  Then things started making more sense.  Between the improved weather and the beautiful rocky cliffs of Cannon Beach, the splendor of the Oregon coastline that we'd heard so much about was starting to make itself evident.  The 237-foot tall monolith, Haystack Rock, stands 50 feet or so off of the beach (depending on the tide) and adds to the magnificent backdrop.  The town itself even seemed nice, with good looking restaurants and lodging options.  Why, we ask, would anyone stay in Seaside when they could drive just a few miles down the coast to Cannon Beach?!

With the sun now full in the sky, we were suddenly in desperate need of ice cream.  So we quickly made our way to the famous Tillamook dairy and cheese factory where we could order up some ice cream with the other 83.7 million tourists who visit the factory each day in the summer.  Very tasty, worth the wait.

The days are so long right now that we find ourselves with plenty of evening hours to continue our explorations.  Since we still had a couple of hours of sunlight, we decided to drive the scenic Three Capes loop on the coastline west of Tillamook.  Technically this drive was on the agenda for the next morning - but we were just feeling crazy with spontaneity.  A lovely drive, that would have been nicer had we spent a half of a day doing it.  But you know, things to see, meals to eat.  After passing by the third cape, Cape Kiwanda, we came upon the Pelican Pub & Brewery.  A beachfront award-winning brewery with magnificent ocean views, we couldn't resist.  A nice way to top off a long but enjoyable day of driving.  Time to rest, we headed back to Tillamook to settle in to the Western Royal Motel for the night.

 
Bourne Ultimatum was playing in every tiny town we passed on this trip... The Simpsons too if there was a 2nd screen


The beach in Seaside

 


Cannon Beach


Caroline takes a load off at the Boardwalk Cottages in Long Beach, WA


Scott combs the beach in Long Beach, WA


Lots of fleece in Long Beach today

Mopeds and cars cruise Long Beach

Caroline looks out from the top of the Astoria Column in Astoria, OR


Haystack Rock at Cannon Beach


OMG!  The sun came out!