Our Coast Vacation...

The big anticipation, the first hike to the ocean of the trip......

We had such a nice time on our vacation! We took our trailer down to the Nehalem Bay State Park. The headwind going down the Columbia Gorge was a strong one and we got terrible fuel mileage going down.:( As you know terrible fuel mileage with today's prices is NOT good, but we made it fine. The weather was cloudy at times with some wind/breezy stuff but still nice, no rain which was a huge blessing! The kids of course had a blast and I was much refreshed while we were there. We left on Tuesday June 10th and we came home on Sunday June 15th. The first day we got there we took a hike out onto the beach, a short 10 min walk to the beach from our campsite). It was still kinda misty when we got there so I wasn't able to get any pictures that trip on the beach. We got our camp all set up and relaxed with a homemade pizza dinner.

Wednesday we headed for Tillamook Cheese Factory in Tillamook, OR. We sampled cheeses, we watched as they packaged all the cheeses. It was pretty fun. The kids liked the cheese samples too! We got our ice cream cones and sat in their sunroom area. Then we headed across the road to buy a fresh crab....I love crab.....Spud Man loves crab too....wait the whole family likes crab! So we took our crab back to camp and devoured it in no time! I got to take a nice nap while Mr Wonderful took the kids on the beach, where he buried them and played in the waves till they were too cold to stay any longer. Did I mention there was a lot of sand in our trailer by the time we got home?

Thursday we headed up north our first stop was in Seaside, OR . In Seaside we continued with our tradition and let the kids ride on the carousel and bought saltwater taffy from Rascals, YUM! We headed up north to a beach area called Sunset Beach. We got to drive out on the beach for a while and even stopped for a few whole sand dollars (that ads a new twist to beach combing)! Sunshine also got to try her hand at a little driving.....we have the entire whiplash experience on video.....if you can keep from getting sick that is. We headed a little further North once Mr Wonderful secured his position as driver once again. We did a little shopping for Miss Birthday Girl and I got my hair cut real quick, it was bothering me and I needed a fresh look. The boys all went for a drive over the Astoria Bridge which is about 5 miles long while Sunshine and I got our girl time when I was getting my hair cut. We finished off our day by driving back down south to stop at Mo's for dinner in Cannon Beach and enjoy the ocean views and eat our chowder and seafood. The food wasn't as good as I remember though.:( After dinner we headed out on the beach right in Cannon Beach and had a nice evening stroll. Then back to camp we went.

This little guy wanted in on the action with Spud Man. They had a blast!

Friday was our day to find a lake to go fishing......it took us a few tries to find somewhere we thought we could actually get to in order TO actually fish, (lots of weedy lakes) BUT it meant driving a long ways on windy roads. When we got there we were really disappointed by port-a-potties that were disgusting (I mean they were BAD~ they make me want to run for the nearest tree screaming and bare my buns for the world to see!). It was a beautiful mountain lake that had been somewhat trashed. There were ammunition casings, garbage that had gotten into the water (pop cans and chips bags etc.) and it just seemed such a shame, especially with that long drive to get there!:( Anyway we had a really nice time and caught a few fish. There were also some interesting little creatures to discover.........there were salamanders in the water (well at least I think they were salamanders)....they were very curious (or hungry for our fish) and they'd come right up and let you catch them and everything. I wasn't too keen on the kids catching them though. HaHa.

Our curious salamanders....

Mr Wonderful trying not to get hooked by Whippersnapper's fishing habits...

Saturday was the perfect finale to our week. We went to several small beaches close to the State Park and enjoyed some tide pooling, wave chasing, picnicking, and long walks along the shore. The kids had such a blast! They loved taking their Tonka trucks out and doing some excavating in the sand too. It felt soooooo good to get to the coast again.

Waiting for the next wave.....

This trip was SO good for Maggie....she really had fun!