We were even later stirring in Astoria than we had been at Kalaloch. The sky was gray, ominous for the first time since Portland, and the overcast made it a little tough to motivate. We'd been going pretty hard for a week and we were starting to feel it.

We had a quick brunch at the restaurant next to the Holiday Inn before hitting the 101 southbound. The overcast was starting to burn off a little, and the sun started poking holes through the clouds as we drove.

Tired of driving, we only got about 20 miles down the coast before deciding we'd had enough of the car. We pulled into a beach town called Seaside, parked the rental, and checked into the Rip Tide Hotel right on the sand.

We spent the remainder of the morning wandering through eclectic little shops on Seaside's main drag, and the afternoon beachcombing near the hotel. Finally, we watched the sunset over the Pacific, and then the fog roll up the beach from the shore. Not an altogether terrible way to spend a day.





Sunset at Seaside beach...

We got a much earlier start from Seaside than we had gotten at either Kalaloch or Astoria, and we headed South for Cannon Beach while it was still early. From Cannon, we drove up to a view point inside Ecola State Park (note: there's a small fee to enter the park). Apparently, much of The Goonies was filmed there, most notably the sequence where Mike discovers that the shoreline terrain matches the holes in the medallion they stole from the attic.



"Guys...I think I have a match...I'M SURE OF IT!"

From the parking lot we followed a steep trail through some fantastic old growth, down to Crescent beach. The place was beautiful, deserted, and littered with completely intact sand dollars and sea urchins. I guess the short hike is enough to deter most would be beachcombers, and the oceans bounty was everywhere.

Eventually, we hiked back up to the view point, and drove to Indian Beach, scarcely a mile further into the park. Indian was significantly more crowded than Crescent had been (and needless to say, completely picked over), but just as beautiful. We had a good time scrambling over the basalt boulders at the southern end of the beach, and the tide pools between the rocks harbored some pretty interesting sea life (not quite as cool as Sekiu, or Ruby Beach, but cool nonetheless).


Indian Beach...


A light house just off Indian Beach...

From Indian Beach, we found our way back to the 101, and followed it down the coast to Tillamook. The drive was beautiful, amazing, and we took our time. Savoring every bend in the road, and each new scene as it unfolded.

From Tillamook, we took the Cape Mears loop road through Netarts, stopping in Oceanside for lunch. As you might have guessed from previous entries, I'm not typically a big fan of cities or towns. I prefer countryside and wilderness to streets and shops. Oceanside, however, is the rare exception. Perched delicately on a hillside above a pristine little cove, Oceanside's houses gleam like a hundred multicolored gemstones against the gray sky. If we could live in any of the little towns that we saw along Oregon's coast, we agreed it would be Oceanside.


Oceanside...

After lunch we continued on the loop road, visiting the Cape Mears lighthouse and the famous Octopus Tree (a Sitka Spruce with six huge skyward pointing reiterations instead of one main trunk) along the way.


The Cape Mears Lighthouse...


The Octopus Tree...

We also made a quick diversion to another very big Sitka Spruce, the Cape Mears Giant, before completing the loop in Tillamook.


Shauna and The Cape Mears Giant...

We left the Cape very impressed. There are a lot of cool things concentrated in a very small geographical area. Many of which we had to skip (we still had a long way to go, and only three more days to get there). This is another place we shall visit again.