Seaside in Seaside (Day 9)

I type this sitting on the bed in the bedroom of our condo in Seaside, Oregon. I am literally looking out the window at the sun going down over the Pacific. I booked this place last minute through Hotwire after deciding I wanted to have some place a bit larger for our two night stay on the coast. It's a one bedroom condo as close to the beach as you can be. We are along the last road that runs parallel to the ocean, called the Promenade, or Prom for short. Just across the Prom is the access to the beach. We can see and hear the ocean right from the window. Love it! 

And I think we deserve it after a longer day of travel. The drive today was about 4 hours, but we made it into 7 with several stops. This leg of the trip had more towns to go through, it seemed, and, in general, was a bit more crowded. But, man, was it pretty. So much of the drive was right on the coast with the most amazing views of waves crashing against the mountain. Driving north, we are at a small disadvantage when it comes to stopping at turn-offs, and that's probably good. I would have wanted to stop at every one to take a picture. 

We did make a few planned stops. One was in Depoe Bay, a big fishing village. Our friend Jason who has been down the coast left us recommendations for where to stop, and this was one place. Not only was the harbor in the boat scene from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (exciting for a nerd like me who used to teach the book and watch the movie), but it was a great place to watch for whales. Jason also alerted us to a free whale museum right at the harbor. There was not much to this museum, mostly just cute kids' activities but it had a huge window facing the Pacific for whale watching. There was a ranger in there, too, answering questions. We had not been in there long when a whale was spotted. You could see him blowing spray from his blow hole, surfacing, and then diving underwater, showing us his tail. It was so cool! The ranger said he would be down for several minutes and then resurface around the same area. And that is exactly what he did. We watched several rounds of this before moving on.

Along the harbor, a few men were dumping big containers of fish and filleting them right there. They worked amazingly fast. We noticed seals coming right up to below they were working, hoping to catch some scraps. At one point, a woman dumped a bin of crab pieces right into the harbor. Seagulls went bananas. Fun to watch. 

Another fun stop was in Tillamook. Yes, the same as the cheese. We stopped at the factory for a bit. Opting out of the tour, we did get ice cream from their creamery. Eleanor chose chocolate, Ethan got banana split and Will and I got a 3 scoop sampler with banana split, chocolate peanut butter, and black cherry. Yum!!! 

Our last longer stop was only 20 minutes from Seaside, but we wanted to stop so we didn't have to drive back tomorrow. This stop was at Cannon Beach. It is a very popular destination around here because it's only about an hour west of Portland. The beach has this huge rock jutting up called Haystack Rock. We walked down to it, got some pictures, and went on to Seaside. It was a very pretty beach, and the most crowded we have seen. Ethan hated the people; he has been spoiled with mostly private beaches. 

Once we got to our place in Seaside, I took the kids to the beach while Will went to Safeway for a few things. The tide was low, so the walk to the water seemed to go on forever. They had fun building a hot tub, picking up half sand dollars, and jumping in the waves. Will went down to the beach after we returned while I made dinner. Now, we are watching a gorgeous sunset and willing our kids to fall asleep sometime soon.