The 4th on the Oregon Coast (2019)

A favorite holiday of ours is Independence Day. Naturally, we like to honor it while having fun doing so.

We began our Independence day mini road trip the day before, July 3rd.

The anticipation on getting on the road is exciting to me. I like to journal our experience and usually begin it with the time we left home and the temperature. 

We left home at 9:00 am, on a cloudy 62 degree Wednesday. We stopped for breakfast in Tacoma. Our first sightseeing stop was in Astoria just before 1:00 pm. One day while researching things to do I came across this long set of stairs that I thought would be cool to walk up and down.

This type of stairs are called "pigeon steps", they are found between Jerome and 11th Street. Walking down these steps wasn't hard but walking back up was somewhat challenging. First because it is a steep hill and second because the grips are so close together which makes it challenging for an adult to walk up the stairs.

Pretty views of the Columbia River.

Easy walk down. 

I was going to post a video I took of us walking back up these steps but it wouldn't load. I didn't stop to catch my breath until a little past halfway. Riley did too. Jacob made it all the way up without stopping but he said once at the top his heart felt like it was gonna explode, lol. It doesn't look challenging to walk up until you try it yourself.

Next visit was to the jail house that came out in The Goonies. Although we had stopped here before we didn't go inside the museum. This time we did.

Riley's mugshot. 

Data's clothes and bike.

They had a list of all the movies that were filmed in Oregon which was pretty cool to see. I hadn't realized that Coraline's setting was Ashland, in Southern Oregon, with many scenes depicting familiar mountains, houses and neighborhoods. Coraline is a favorite movie of mine. 

Whenever we go on road trips especially to Oregon we make sure to buy bottled water in WA because OR charge double for their bottled water. It's ridiculous! Anyway, our next stop was Warrenton which is a few minutes from Astoria. We ate lunch and were back on the road.

On my notes I wrote down an interesting observation, one that I hadn't noticed before. I wrote "traveling along the 101 smells like mold and vegetation, which reminds me of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride". Thought this was funny. Interesting because this type of smell is not always apparent to me along this road. Must be a summer smell? Who knows.

 

We like to pull over at Neahkahnie viewpoint in Arch Cape. It has such beautiful views.

If I'm not mistaken, this pretty area is in Wheeler. Wheeler is a very small town. The most recent census is from 2010 which recorded a population of 414. Whenever we drive past here I can't help but admire the brown of the dormant grass, the green of the pine trees and the gray skies. I like this combination. There's this small motel that sits right on Nehalem River. I would love to go kayaking there. 

We arrived at the Tillamook Creamery at 4:23 pm. I'm pretty sure I've mentioned this before but this building is new, about a few years old only. It's a pretty building. This place is a must stop when you're traveling on the 101. And what makes it even cooler is that they also sell food, so one can kill two birds with one stone. 

They have lots of ice cream flavors but given that they are so popular they often run out of flavors which is disappointing. So it's always hit and miss.

Now, with a satisfied sweet tooth we continued with our sightseeing.

One day I was scrolling through Instagram and came across a picture of partially buried tree stumps with low clouds in the background. I asked the person where the picture was taken and he said Neskowin Oregon. I had not heard of Neskowin, not even seen a sign for it when we've driven on the 101 so I looked it up. Sure enough I found it and made it a point to stop and visit next time we drove to the Oregon Coast.

This time I told Jacob to drive slow so we wouldn't miss it and was excited to see a Neskowin exit sign on the side of the road. There's a parking lot with restrooms. That's always a good thing. You have to walk a little bit to get to the beach and the first thing you see is Proposal Rock.  

To the left of Proposal Rock you'll see the petrified forest stumps. It's quite a sight but it's even a better sight if you go during the winter when the weather is moody. Those are the best kind of pictures to take of nature in my opinion.

This place quickly became a favorite of mine. I'm sure we'll visit many more times. 

And like expected the ocean water was cold. It is safe to say that beaches on the West Coast/PNW are always freezing. Seeing people in the water makes me shiver but they must be some brave souls risking hypothermia and getting stung by stingrays, at least in Southern CA. My daughter was stung twice by the same stingray one 4th of July many years ago in Coronado.

Have to make sure we remember to take pictures of the two of us together for memories sake.

Sightseeing is abundant along the Oregon Coast ... so many places to stop and experience. It sure makes time speed on by which is always a bummer.

By early evening we were tired and hungry. We stayed the night in Newport. In the mood for some comforting food so we looked up Mexican food and found a decent taco shop where I ordered rolled tacos and an horchata. Yum! We arrived at our hotel tired and grateful for a good nights sleep.

This was our view from our hotel room.

Grateful too to be able to experience sunsets at the beach. Such a pretty sight.

The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever.

-Jacques Cousteau