What a random day! We enjoyed a breakfast courtesy of the
Embassy along with zillions of others there.
Usually hotel breakfasts are a small area off to the side, whereas this
was huge. Granted, it is a huge hotel
and a holiday weekend to boot. The
omelet line was long so we did standard fare.
Four years ago we were in Portland for a
dear friend’s wedding so we thought we’d drive by their wedding location (the
Victorian Belle-a late 1800s Victorian setting that is perfect for small
outdoor weddings and receptions!), snap a picture and send it to them, asking
if the house looks even remotely familiar.
Well, small world-they were actually a15 minutes away in Portland at the
bride’s mom’s house! They were on their
way to meet some friends but had a few minutes to spare so we Google-mapped our
way there for a quick meet and greet and hello, how are you doing? They look the same! And Lorenzo was busy playing with his trucks
and “button” “rocks” as two-year olds should be. If only we’d taken and sent the picture the
night before or even earlier in the morning we may have had a few more minutes
together. But even a few minutes are a
good reconnection.
It was then to start our journey
south. The traffic was AMAZING-meaning,
a LOT of it. Everyone was taking
advantage of a great day by driving a bit south to Seaside and its beaches or
even Cannon Beach. We opted out of
Seaside even though we were so close we could almost smell it! It was bumper to bumper. Cannon was better even thought it was still
bumper to bumper and lots of people walking.
We couldn’t find parking so enjoyed the drive-through and headed
out.
While driving through Manzanita we
realized we would possibly interrupt a parade.
There were chairs lined up everywhere!
To luck we got through okay. In
our illustrious past we have happened on small towns and their parades and have
had to detour or wait it out. The next
town, Rockaway Beach, had the same thing, chairs lined up and actually “locked’
together, except this parade was posted as being tomorrow. It must be a really great parade if people
line the streets already with their chairs the day before!
On through Tillamook and I wondered why it
sounded familiar as we’ve never driven this road before. Cheese.
Right on the left upon entering this city was a huge cheese facility-cheese
touted as being made by locally owned and raised cows. The parking lot was FULL (and it was a huge
parking lot) as they also advertised free cheese sampling. We have eaten Tillamook cheese on our
journey! Good stuff! The road meandered through the town, smelling
of cows. Yes, it smelled of happy
cows. I am going to have to research
but businesses all boasted quilt blocks on them, adding a really nice touch. I remember when Ohio was going to celebrate a
centennial (I can’t remember the year), almost all barns you encountered had
quilt blocks painted on their sides.
We stopped to check out a couple of
lighthouses. I just love, love
lighthouses. This one was a short hike
from the parking area and was the Yaquina Head lighthouse. Had we been there just a bit earlier we could
have walked all the way up! But walking
up to it and around it was just as satisfying.
Thousands and thousands of sea birds call the rocks home and what a
chorus greeted us as we walked up the hill!
We wandered down to a tide pool, getting warnings from the ranger to
please not step on the mussels or pick up the starfish as they are a bit sickly
right now, and just please stay on the rocks.
The “beach” area was literally rocks!
All sizes and making it very interesting to walk on. And parts were sort of steep so you’d walk
but sort of slip down or sink in! It
reminded me of when we vacationed and walked up one of the dunes near
Chicago. You get so far and then you
find yourself sliding backwards. Another
quick side trip to see another Yaquina Lighthouse, a smaller one cordoned off
with barbed wire and fencing, and again on our way. A person can literally stop every mile and
see so much.
We were desperately trying to find a place
to sleep for the night; most places noted on their signs that they were
full. We wandered around Newport, and
had a bowl of soup at a new restaurant, listening to a very, very drunk person
tell his partner to shut up using bad language (!) and she was complaining
about not getting her dinner. That
certainly added an interesting vibe to our snack, which was quite excellent, by
the way. We also shared a few fish
tacos. We sorted through various Google
Maps hits on campsites and I called Tillicum.
The lady that answered said they just had one open up as someone just
left. I begged her to please keep it for
us, and she sort of hesitated when she heard we were still ½ hour away, but she
took my name anyway and said they’d wait to take the “FULL” sign away. It was the longest 30 minutes of my life! We encountered more slow traffic, everyone
just out enjoying the evening. We drove
through a town apparently readying for fireworks. How could we tell? Everyone was lined up in chairs but on the
beach facing the Pacific. How wonderful
that would be!
We got to our camping location, the
Siuslaw National Forest located on Tillicum Beach. The nice “hosts”/ladies were just driving up
on their golf cart and we got the last sight, #52. We drove around the loop and got settled the
tent up. We hadn’t slept in our tent for
an entire week! We slept on the ferry
for four nights, the truck one night, and the Embassy one night. We rushed down to see the sun set over the
ocean-it is indescribably beautiful.
Then decided to be random. We hopped back in our truck and drove back to
the town that was readying for fireworks-Waldport. There were cars and people parked
everywhere! We turned around and parked
heading back to our sight, and then wandered down a road until we happened upon
someone walking like they knew what they were doing, and they did. This was a private street but there was a
beach access path, so we dove down that path and watched a wondrous display of
fireworks both on the beach before and the town’s magnificent display.
What we noticed while walking to and from
the beach, restrooms, etc., was how different “camping” is from what we have
been experiencing our first days. You
CANNOT leave any food out at all in Alaska or Canada or bears will come for a
visit. You aren’t supposed to even
really cook at your campsite or the smell of food may attract them, or brush
your teeth and spit out the water/paste residue. Everything has to be secure in a vehicle
(Don’t try to put it in a tent—bad idea as tents aren’t really bear
proof.). Here people weren’t just
passing through and camping for the purpose of food and rest for the next
day. Here people were taking their
indoor spaces and taking them outdoors for the joy of being outdoors. Food piled up on most picnic tables, enough
to feed potential armies! Bikes, toys,
games, towels, beach gear, etc. filled up the sites. We were the exception of staying only one
night; most signs were for 3-4 days, to celebrate the long holiday weekend with
family and friends.
We didn’t make it as far as we would have
liked but we are sort of winging it. We
know when we have to be home and have some wiggle room. J
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