So two weeks ago Dan and I, and Dan's family went to the Oregon coast for a week! I LOVE it there! Seriously, I can't express it enough how much I love the green, the rain, the temperatures, everything! I, one day, hope to live in Oregon, or at least someplace as beautiful and green as Oregon. We had a fantastic time!
The first day we mostly just drove... we drove all day long! But it was a fun drive, whoever was in our car got to listen to The Hobbit! We also stopped at Shoshone Falls on the way and the water was even higher than last time! It was cool to show Dan's family a place I grew up seeing. But we made it to Portland that night and everything was great!
The next day we went to OMSI, which if you don't know what OMSI is, its the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry! It was basically a big nerd fest! Loved it! While we were there, we watched an OMNIMAX movie about the Hubble Space Telescope. (Omnimax is basically a big imax theater that is dome shaped instead.) We also got to take a tour of the USS Blueback (SS 581) which was really cool! I don't think I'd ever really want to live on a sub but it was really cool to see how things were. (Dan would love to go into a nuclear sub now and so would I honestly.) It was really a neat place! After we drove to the house we were staying at. Along the way, we stopped at Cannon Beach and walked on the beach while we were waiting for everyone else to catch up with us. (We had to take two cars..)
The next day, we got up early and went to the Newport Aquarium! I like aquariums and zoos (if you haven't noticed) and this was a great one. Not only was it a neat aquarium with a tide pool where you could touch some of the sea creatures, but they had an entire portion that was outside! How cool is that? The had these birds called Tufted Puffins that live along the coast and was one of the birds that we were hoping to see while we were out there. (Sadly we never saw a tufted puffin in the wild.)
After the aquarium we drove to Tillamook to go to the cheese factory!!! Yay cheese! We got to sample some cheeses and everyone got ice cream! They had one of the most delicious ice creams I've ever had! White licorice! Yummy!
The next day we stayed closer to the house. In the morning we went on a hike up one of the mountains nearby and got to look out over the beach and ocean! It was beautiful! After lunch, we went back to Cannon Beach to see the tide pools and play on the beach! It was a lot of fun! I built a sand castle on the edge of a lake... which was fed by another lake, which was fed by the ocean. (It was a little complicated haha) But it was a lot of fun. My castle withstood a lot more of the tide coming in than any other structure we build along the way. It only died when I jumped on it! That night, Dan and I went down to another beach (I don't remember the name) and watched the sunset on the coast! It was gorgeous!
The next day we went to a cute little branch nearby for church. It reminded me of how much I love going to church outside of the Mormon Belt. While we still are taught the same doctrine, church outside of Utah/Idaho/highly LDS population, is more focused on being an example to others and missionary work which I really love. It was also fun to be in a church with older people as well. They always have entertaining insights.. (For example, apparently if you are a Gemini, you don't really like being told what to do unless you are explained the why.)
Monday we went to Astoria! We went on another little hike from this cathedral tree to the column (technically I didn't walk it because I needed to move the car but I hiked back down after getting to the column). Then we climbed up the Astoria column and tossed our airplanes off the top. Dan's lost his tail and pretty much just crashed to the ground. Mine, however, flew on for a really long time. It went farther than everyone's plane. (Unless you count Kyle's but I didn't see if fly so I don't believe that it went farther than mine.) After lunch, we crossed the Astoria bridge into Washington. Dan's parents were planning on getting some fresh salmon for dinner that night so they went off to find some on their way back, but Dan, Kathryn, Matthew, and I went on to explore a little bit of the Washington coast and Cape Disappointment. We even went up to a lighthouse. It was a fun drive and we enjoyed it! That night we had salmon and crab with dinner! Delicious (well I really only liked the crab but the salmon wasn't bad definitely better than most fish)!
The next morning was the day we were leaving, so Dan and I woke up really early and packed everything up and went to Ecola State Park for the tide pools there! Man they were awesome! We saw some large crabs and about a billion starfish! It was really fun to climb around on the rocks! We also saw our black oyster catcher there! And another bird but I can't remember what it was right now! If you ever are going to the northern Oregon Coast and are wanting to see tide pools, I really recommend this place! There was practically no one there and they were really cool! It was also only $5 for a vehicle so it really was worth the money. On our way back through Portland we stopped at Multnomah Falls! It was really full this year! Then we drove back!
Overall this was a fantastic vacation! We had a lot of fun with the family and seriously enjoyed being in such a beautiful place! I love it! I'll do another post with pictures!
