the Oregon Coast

After a day exploring Portland, I headed to the coast with Julia - and wasn't driving, wooooohooo! Her friend joined us as we drove westward to the coast. First stop was Cannon Beach - site of the partial movie filming of The Goonies - Haystack Rock, which you see in shots with the pirate ships.

It was drizzling and completely clouded over but not so much that when we walked out onto the beach we saw the rock. There were all sorts of jellyfish on the beach that Julia and I attempted to identify. The town itself is small but charming with little boutiques, bakeries, a candy/taffy store, and little restaurants/pubs. I had my first fish & chips here and some delicious beer-battered onion rings. Then, a further drive south to the Tillamook factory - if you're an east coaster, they make wonderful cheese, ice cream and other dairy products. You can look into the factory floor where the cheese and ice cream is created and then get to take samples. We each got a cone of their ice cream as well.

After rolling ourselves out the door we headed just a little further south to Cape Meares since we didn't want to head back quite yet and hit rush hour traffic. There was a lighthouse and a sitka spruce that for some reason has 8 trunks and is referred to as the octopus tree.

The Oregon coast is beautiful --- though much different than other "beautiful beaches" - the water isn't crystal clear or the beaches covered by white sand - instead there's often a mist/rain and foggy-ness which makes it mysterious and calm and quiet - peaceful. What a nice day, albiet the weather, Julia does it again!

Lion's mane?

Haystack Rock at Cannon Beach

Mysterious Cannon Beach

Tasting of the cheeses

 

Octopus tree

Taken from Cape Meares lighthouse