Day 4 From Newport to Seaside

We were sad to leave our lovely Newport hotel behind, but it was time to move on and head for Seaside. We packed up everything and Darrin was loading the car while I supervised the final bathroom stops before we hit the road when I looked out the window and FINALLY saw some ocean life! There was a pod of dolphins swimming in the waves AND a whale off in the distance. And darn it! All the cameras were already in the car! I consoled myself that surely in the days we had left I’d have another chance, but sadly, we never did see anything more except for seals. So no pictures for you, but I have memories!
We headed up the coast and first stopped at the Devil’s Punchbowl, a large round sea cave where the roof collapsed and so now you can look down into it and see the water churning around. I don’t have a wide enough lens to get a picture of all of it, but here is the best I could get:

Also here was a colony of squirrels living in the cliffs. It was amazing how they leapt all around and never fell. Brynn thought it was fun to watch them run all around, far more interesting that that boring ol' ocean everybody else likes to look at!


We continued up the coast and took the “Three Capes Scenic Drive”. We first stopped at Cape Kiwanda where we watched surfers and even a kayak-er!

Took pictures of the big rock off shore

And watched people climbing the biggest sand dune ever!

(Click on the picture to make it bigger and look for the itty-bitty people climbing up!)
People were driving SUVs and trucks right down into the sand to launch their boats, and one family in a minivan decided to try and got stuck! We were glad we’d left our van in the parking lot.
We continued to Cape Lookout. There was an AMAZING place where you could pull off the road and see this:


The pictures do not even come close to doing it justice. You can see for miles. I can only imagine how far you could have seen without the mist. I think this was probably my favorite view of the trip! We drove by the three arch rocks, which kind of look like a water serpent.

After a quick potty break, we continued on to Cape Meares – which is the SHORTEST lighthouse in Oregon. It’s so short because it is upon a HUGE cliff and so doesn’t need to be very tall.




Brynn also climbed this lighthouse. Also had a bit of a panic attack, but was brave enough to go up and walk all around the lens in order to get a sticker.

The views from here were pretty nice, too.



We had a picnic and then hiked to see the Octopus Tree (and unsuccessfully hunted for pillbugs on the way), which was called that because it had 8 limbs. Callie counted and something happened to one of the limbs because it was cut off and now there are only 7. Callie continues to annoy all of us by correcting us when we call it the Octopus Tree by calling it the “Septimus” tree. She’s too smart for her own good.

(do you see the kids there? The tree is HUGE!)

(Note Brynn is wearing her pin from the Yaquina Head lighthouse!)
We finished the Three Capes drive with a leg around Tillamook Bay and ended up in the city of Tillamook. Went to the Tillamook Cheese factory for the “tour” – which was just some glass windows you could look through to watch the slicing and packaging of cheese. No actual tour, no actual cheese making. Kids were disappointed at that. We got to sample some cheeses and then we had some ice cream cones, which were VERY good!



Hit the road again and drove through Cannon Beach on our way to Seaside. Arrived in Seaside and only got a little bit lost before finding our hotel. This place wasn’t anywhere near as nice, but it was a small suite with a bedroom for the girls and a mini kitchenette.


We did some grocery shopping, made dinner in the room, and walked down to the beach and watched the sun set.



This couple was nice enough to stop and kiss right in front of the sun for me!

And then we went back to our room and watched Olympics before going to bed.