We had been looking forward to this trip for a while as we had heard several good things about the Oregon Coast. And, our trip lived up to expectations, it was a lot of fun. We're already thinking about going back sometime, though are not sure when. It's about a 4 hour drive to the coast from Seattle, so to be worthwhile we'd want to stay at least two nights probably. There is a lot of other traveling that we'd like to do as well.

Now that we've been to the coast and are more familiar with the area and the various towns and the things to do, we have a better idea of what we might like to do next time. The best part of going to the coast was the time we spent on the beach - walking, watching the waves, lying down in the sand - it was all great. If we go back, I'd like to make sure we do more of that.

I'd also like to do less driving. We had wanted to see as much as we could of what the coast had to offer, and while we did see a lot of different things, all the beautiful viewpoints started to look the same after a while. I think it would be nice to spend more time in each place we stop.

We passed through quite a few towns along the coast and many of them were forgettable, but we have a better idea of where we might like to stay next time. Though Cannon Beach was overrun with tourists, it had a nice beach and lots of places to eat. Also, we liked our time near Yachats - the town was okay, we really liked the food at Luna Sea Fish House, and our motel there was a good value.

We don't have a date set, or even that much of a plan for when we'll travel back to the coast, but we're already looking forward to it.

I've always liked lighthouses and made it a point to visit several on the Oregon coast. Unfortunately we somehow missed the Yaquina Bay Lighthouse, but we were able to see 4 out of a possible 5 on the trip. There are a total of 11 lighthouses on the Oregon coast, 3 of which are not open to the public. All of the lighthouses we saw originally had a first order of the Fresnel lens, which is the largest of it's kind at 12 feet tall and 6 feet wide. Lighthouses make for really beautiful coastline photos and also have interesting stories of their own.

Tillamook Rock Lighthouse
Location: Cannon Beach
First Lit: 1881
Deactivated: 1957
Height: 62 feet
Feet above sea level: 133 feet
Range: 18 miles
It was the most expensive to operate in the US before it was decommissioned. Nicknamed "Terrible Tilly" because of the exposure from terrible storm waves, the former beacon is now used as a columbarium (for storing peoples' ashes). It is the only privately owned Oregon coast lighthouse on National Register of Historic Places.

Cape Meares Lighthouse
Location: Tillamook
First Lit: 1890
Deactivated: 1963
Height: 38 feet
Feet above sea level: 217 feet
Range: 20 miles
Cape Meares is the shortest lighthouse in Oregon and is also the home of the Octopus tree. Unfortunately Cape Meares has had several instances of vandalism since the 60s, with an occurrence as recent as January of 2010 when two men fired several shots into the windows and damaged the Fresnel lens. It cost over $500,000 to repair the lens.

Yaquina Head Lighthouse
Location: Newport
First Lit: 1873
Height: 93 feet
Feet above sea level: 162 feet
Range: 18 miles
This is the tallest lighthouse in Oregon. During World War II, 17 servicemen were stationed at Yaquina Head keeping a lookout for enemy ships. This is also a popular area for whale, seal, and bird watching.

Heceta Head Lighthouse
Location: Florence
First Lit: 1894
Height: 56 feet
Feet above sea level: 205 feet
Range: 21 miles
Heceta Head is named after the Spanish explorer Bruno de Heceta, who explored the Pacific Northwest during the late 18th century. The lighthouse is claimed to be the strongest light on the coast by several sources. It is also one of the most scenic and is the most photographed on the entire West Coast. You can also stay at the old keeper's house which was turned in a bed and breakfast able to house 14 guests. Nice antique furniture, a seven-course breakfast, relaxing fireplace parlors, and breathtaking views make it a great romantic getaway.

Beautiful Heceta Head on Vimeo.

There are many places to stay on the coast - bed & breakfasts, local motels, and chain motels scattered all along the coastal towns and oceanfront. Since we were only staying one night at each place, we had to find several places to stay, so it took some time to get all our lodging lined up. We were looking for places spread evenly apart so that we would have a relatively consistent amount of driving to do each day. We also wanted these places to not be expensive (under $100) but not be dumpy, and to be near the beach, if possible.

It seems that a lot of places aren't easily found on the internet, so sometimes our options for booking online seemed fairly limited. That was the case with our lodging the first night in Astoria. We just needed a place to stay for the night and we ended up at the Lamplighter Motel, which was the most inexpensive place we stayed on the whole trip. It offered pretty basic accommodations with no frills. Fortunately the only superficial complaints I would have would be that the carpet and furnishings in the room just looked a little worn - it seemed clean enough - and it was still a satisfactory place to stay, though we might look for something a little nicer if we were to go back.

Our next night we stayed in Rockaway Beach, a tiny town of less than 2,000. Our lodging that night at the Silver Sands was expensive at $126, but it was right on the beach and we had a view from our window. The room was nice and it was very nice to be able to get to the beach with just a short walk. We were again on the 2nd floor and we slept with the windows open until a bird woke us up. We would look for a better deal next time, but it was a good place to stay.

Our final night on the coast was near the town of Yachats. Deane's Oceanfront Lodge was actually a few miles from the center of town and though it was just off the main highway, it felt rather isolated. When booking our room, the owner was nice enough to give us the off-season rate, though he wondered why he did that when we checked in. Our room had cable TV, a fridge, an electric fireplace heater, and a DVD player (which I never could get to work). The bed and pillows were also the most comfortable we had on the trip. There were games and DVDs to borrow in the office as well as coffee and doughnuts in the morning. They were even thoughtful enough to include a mini-flashlight with the room key so that we could walk down to the beach at night (which we did and loved). The building was old, but it was decorated nicely in a beach theme. We never could get our keys lock the rooms and the hot water didn't work during my shower, but somehow despite those big drawbacks, we both really liked staying here.

The final night of our trip was different from the others as we were staying in a large Doubletree hotel in the middle of Portland. This meant we parked in a garage and used an elevator to get to our room instead of parking right outside our room and walking just a few feet. We happened to find a pretty good rate on this place, as it would normally cost more than we'd like to pay. This hotel is geared more for the business traveler than the couple on a road trip, so it was the only hotel on our trip not to have a mini-fridge and microwave. It was also the only place we stayed that didn't offer free Wi-Fi. Yep, in the year 2010, the cost for internet at the Doubletree hotel is like $10/day. It worked out okay, though, because instead of looking online for somewhere nearby to eat, we went down to the concierge to get recommendations. We also got a free breakfast with a full menu or breakfast buffet. Our room was pretty nice too, maybe a little too elegant for my taste, but past the view of the monstrously drab roof of the hotel's conference area, we had a nice view of the Portland skyline. I liked staying here pretty well, though I wouldn't be likely to pay much more than we did this time.

Since we were out doing things so much of the time, we didn't spend much time actually inside our hotels/motels. None of the places we stayed were really remarkable, but they were all fine.

We weren't sure what to expect for dining options on the Oregon coast. Most of the towns we were going through were too small to have that many restaurants, let alone really good ones. We did a little research before the trip and I knew of a few places to specifically try. Overall the food was alright and the service was pretty slow everywhere.

Lost Roo in Long Beach, WA - We stopped at this Australian-themed bar on the first night going to Astoria. Troy got a Caesar salad and I had a salmon burger. The food was alright, nothing special at all. We had slow service, but figured it was just bad luck with our waiter and the fact that we were in the bar area.

Bowpicker Fish & Chips in Astoria, OR - My coworker mentioned this place and said it was the best fish and chips she ever had, so I made it a point to try it. We ate here after the Columbia Maritime Museum. We both got a 3 piece fried tuna fish and chips with a canned soda. I liked it more than Troy, but I guess in retrospect it was fairly average. The fries were definitely nothing that great, but having freshly caught fish fried to order was nice.

Sweet Basil's in Cannon Beach, OR - This was a small family-owned restaurant that also had fairly slow service. It was pretty small inside and there was only one table that wasn't reserved and it happened to be right next to the kitchen, which was pretty open. We could hear everything the cook and his assistants were saying, so the atmosphere wasn't the greatest. I got a house salad and the crab wrap, which was pretty good, but a lot of food. We both liked my wheat tortilla it came in. Troy got the veggie melt tapa, which he really liked. I'd definitely go again and get something different, as long as we could sit outside or have a reserved table farther from the kitchen.

Grateful Bread in Pacific City, OR - We had the worst service of the whole trip here. In fact, it was probably the worst service I've had anywhere the last few years. It took 10 minutes for the waiter to bring us water and then at least another 5 minutes to take our order. The food took a long time to arrive and was just average. I got an egg scramble with came with two biscuits and fruit (they were out of roasted potatoes) and Troy had some french toast and two eggs. Probably the worst part was that we waited at least 20 minutes for the check that never came. I had seen other tables get their checks at the table, so I figured we had to wait for the check to come to us. I got tired of waiting though, so we went up to the register where I asked for the check and finally paid.

Luna Sea Fish House in Yachats, OR - We had the best food of the trip here. We had a really late dinner around 8 after we went to Heceta Lighthouse. After waiting about 30 minutes for a table, we were finally seated. We had cheese and crackers with us we were going to eat that night, so we decided to share a plate at Luna Sea. We got the Captain's Special which included two pieces of fried halibut, two fried scallops, two fried shrimp, and two fried oysters. It also came with fries, coleslaw, and a piece of garlic bread. It took a while for them to make our food, but man, it was the best fish and chips I'd ever had! We wished we had each gotten our own plate. It was so good, we decided to go again the next day for lunch and get it to go before heading to Florence for our dune buggy ride. Unfortunately the fish wasn't fried as crispy the second time, but it was still very good and the fish was so tender and fresh. Our only complaint was the slow service. We'll definitely be going there again though.

Chai Yo in Portland, OR - We were planning to eat at Schlotzsky's for dinner before arriving in Portland, but it was closed for Labor Day. Instead we walked to this Thai food place within a few blocks of our hotel. We were definitely looking forward to having something other than fried food. It was empty when we got there, but a few other people eventually came in and several people had ordered food to go. I liked the atmosphere. It was nice and quiet and very clean. I got the pad thai with tofu and Troy got the stir fry with vegetables. It was decent food for the price.

Voo Doo Doughnut in Portland, OR - This place is really hyped up on the Food Network, specifically because of the Man vs Food episode featuring it (only the first minute of the video is about VooDoo). We went to the original location in downtown around 9 at night and the line was out the door and around the corner of the building. We weren't going to wait in a line with 50 people in it, so we decided to go to the other location closer to our hotel and instead only had to wait about 15 minutes behind 10 or so people. While we were waiting in line, I played a game of pinball on their Pirates of the Caribbean pinball machine. You can get all kinds of crazy doughnuts here, including ones with cereal on top. I got the voodoo doll and Troy got the maple bar. Troy really liked his maple bar, but my voodoo doll was so sweet I couldn't finish it. It's a chocolate covered doughnut in the shape of a doll with red fruit (blood) filling. I have to say Top Pot is still my favorite.

Built to Grill in Portland, OR - We at at this food cart stand in downtown Portland before going to the OMSI. Apparently food carts have become a big deal there and this was one of the highest rated ones. The food exceeded my expectations. I got a grilled chicken panini and Troy got the basil pesto pasta. They were both really good and not that expensive. I could see how it might be difficult to eat here however, because there isn't really anywhere to sit. They had one table with two chairs and two high chairs next to the food cart for people to use. Luckily we were able to sit at the table to eat.

Escape from New York Pizza in Portland, OR - We each ate a slice of pizza at this place, which we'd been to before and loved. We weren't that hungry, but we needed something to hold us over until we got home. I got a slice of pepperoni and Troy got mushroom. Unfortunately they overcooked them a little bit, but it was still pretty good pizza.

This was our last day of vacation, so we slept in a little bit before heading downstairs to eat the free breakfast offered by the hotel. We had our choice between a breakfast buffet or to order from their restaurant's full breakfast menu. I chose the buffet and Lesley ordered an omelet from the menu.

After breakfast, we headed out for a walk at Mount Tabor. This is a park on an extinct volcanic cinder cone. The weather was cool and damp, but it was a beautiful morning for a walk as we almost had the park all to ourselves. There were a few small reservoirs in the park as well as views toward the city.

We then headed toward downtown to have lunch at one of Portland's many food carts. We then went to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. Like most science museums, the exhibits were made to be fun and interactive for children, but it was still interesting enough for us. There were several brain teaser puzzles that we did and there was a large globe that showed all kinds of neat things about earth, including weather patterns, earthquake locations, and flight patterns. It also had information on Jupiter and its moons. There was another exhibit area that had a lot of interactive experiments that were kind of fun. We also got tickets to the planetarium where they were showing "Laser Michael Jackson", which was quite corny, but it had some of his songs with a laser light show on screen. In retrospect we wished we'd gone to the show about stars.

When we left the museum it was raining lightly, but by the time we got to our car (not a far walk away), we were in a downpour. This sudden heavy rainstorm was unlike anything I've ever experienced in Seattle and very similar to the type of rain that we used to get in Texas. It was great (once we were inside the car) to get to watch such a downpour. It, however, made it a little more difficult to figure out what to do next. We decided to escape the rain at Powell's City of Books, a huge bookstore in downtown Portland. We bought a cookbook there and then headed to a pizza place for dinner before heading back.

We left at around 6:30 and didn't have many issues with traffic or rain on our way back, though both got worse as we approached Seattle. We didn't have much time to unpack when we got home and had to get ready for work the next day.

For the first time on this trip, we slept in a little late. We got some doughnuts and coffee at the lodge where we stayed and then walked along the beach again for half an hour or so. We went to Luna Sea Fish House again to get more food. This time we ordered to go. While we waited for our food, we walked over to a grocery store in Yachats to buy some wine and beer from Oregon. We then headed down the road and ate at a nice viewpoint. We also made a brief stop at a viewpoint for Heceta Head Lighthouse.

Continuing on, we went toward the sand dunes along the coast where we had a reservation for a dune buggy ride. This was recommended by one of Lesley's co-workers who does this on his own ATV sometimes. We were in a group of 9 people and all loaded into the buggy. We then sped around the dunes, going around turns, over hills, and down seep slopes at high speeds. There were lots of other individuals out there riding ATVs as well. It seemed like it could be dangerous but our driver was safe and we had fun. We had to keep our mouths closed so that we wouldn't ingest any sand. Also, we made sure to secure all of our belongings - apparently it's easy for things to fall out of your pockets during the ride and some people have lost car keys in the dunes. Imagine all the junk you could find if you could sift through all the sand out there.

We then had a few hours of driving ahead of us to get to Portland that evening. We headed east along a crowded two-lane highway. We drove by the University of Oregon in Eugene and then stopped at the Oregon State Capitol in Salem. The art deco building is pretty unique among state capitols as far as I know, but the grounds were nice and we spent some time there.

We had intended to stop for dinner and eat at Schlotzsky's Deli, one of Lesley's favorite sandwich shops from Texas, which has a franchise open near Portland. However, it was closed so we continued on to our hotel in Portland. We were both tired of eating fish and chips, so we walked to a nearby Thai place for dinner. That night we made a quick journey downtown looking for Voodoo Doughnuts, a famous doughnut place that had been recommended to us. However, the line was around the block, so we went to another location that had a shorter line (but we still had to wait like 15 minutes). I got a maple bar, which was very good and Lesley got a voodoo doll.

Bird running on beach on Vimeo.

Ocean Waves on Vimeo.

Heceta Head Lighthouse on Vimeo.

We woke up early again on Sunday and after a brief walk along the beach, headed to the Tillamook Cheese Factory. We did the self-guided tour of the factory and saw a few quality control workers on the assembly line of cheese. It was neat watching them pick out the bricks that were either underweight or overweight. The factory produces 167,000 pounds of cheese each day and packages one million pounds of cheese each week. The factory warehouse has the capacity to age 50 million pounds of cheese at once, that's a lot of cheese! We also ate free samples of various cheeses and bought some to take with us.

The next stop was Cape Meares, the first of a three-cape scenic route off of US 101. We continued to be pleasantly surprised by the nice, sunny weather, which allowed for great views from the viewpoint and the lighthouse. The Cape Meares Lighthouse was one of the smaller ones I've seen. After taking in the awesome views of the ocean and seastacks, we made our way to the Octopus Tree just a short walk into the forest from the lighthouse. It looked like what you'd expect - several different trees sprouting from a single above-ground trunk. It was one of the craziest things I'd ever seen.

We didn't have enough time to stop at the other two capes - Lookout and Kiwanda. Instead, we did a short hike on Whalen Island in the middle of them. It was a short, relatively easy hike through a small forested area with shorter trees than normal and lots of sand. I'd never hiked on sand that much before. We could hear ATVs in the distance riding on the dunes, which was pretty cool. Halfway through the hike you could walk to the shore of a small lake in the middle of all the sand.

We were pretty hungry after the hike, so we stopped in Pacific City to eat a late breakfast at The Grateful Bread. Then we drove on down the coast until our next hike at Cascade Head. We were lost for a little bit trying to find the upper trailhead, but we eventually found it. We had to drive on a dirt and gravel road for 3 miles. We hiked through a very green forest to the viewpoint at the top in the meadow area with lots of yellow flowers. We had a nice view of the hills and the valley below, including Salmon River and the rest of the coastline. We also saw several hawks circling and could hear sea lions making noise in the distance. Some very endangered types of flowers only grow on Cascade Head, but unfortunately I didn't find any.

By this time it was around 4:00 in the afternoon, and the next stop was another short hike to the Devil's Punch Bowl! We walked down to the beach and then out onto some slippery rock formations in order to get to the punch bowl itself. It was a little difficult to navigate around the slimy rocks and not slip. It was worth the trouble though because the inside of the punch bowl had red markings on the rock and the water would come crashing in from the ocean through small caves.

Shortly after that, we stopped at Yaquina Lighthouse near Newport and walked to the top of a small hill to the east of it for a nice view. Then we drove 42 miles all the way to Heceta Lighthouse, south of Yachats. We hiked a short distance up to the lighthouse for a great view. Then we drove to a different view point a little farther to see the lighthouse from a distance, just in time to watch the beautiful sunset over the ocean. It was amazing!

We drove back north into Yachats and ate dinner at the Luna Sea Fish House before heading to our hotel for the night. We stayed at Deane's Oceanfront Lodge, which was right on the beach. Before settling in, we walked down to the beach and enjoyed the sound of the ocean waves. We looked up and saw tons of stars everywhere! It was easily the most stars we'd seen since being in Hawaii for our honeymoon. We were far away from any city lights and there was no moon out, which made them easier to see. It was really romantic and definitely my favorite part of the trip.

Ocean Waves near Three Capes Drive on Vimeo.

Cape Meares on Vimeo.

View of the coast from Cape Meares on Vimeo.

We got up sort of early Saturday as we had a full day. Astoria is a small town (pop 10,000) but it has a surprising amount of things to do - it's also where the 1985 movie The Goonies was filmed. We headed toward the 125-foot high Astoria Column on a 600-foot hill above the town. After climbing 164 steps to the top, we were treated to an awesome panoramic view of the surrounding hills and waterways. For only a $1 parking fee, the column offered one of the best views on the trip.

Afterward, we headed back to our hotel to check out and then drove downtown to park. Our next stop was the Columbia River Maritime Museum, which we had read good things about. The museum was of impressively high quality and very informative on a number of subjects including the history of Astoria, salmon fishing, shipping, steam boating on the Columbia River, dangerous weather, and ship wrecks. Astoria originally attracted settlers for salmon fishing and canning. The Columbia River is very dangerous for maritime travel but has long served as a major route for shipping. Next to the museum was a small lightboat, which used to accommodate several people to help guide passing ships. Even in the quiet waters near the shore, we could feel the boat rocking.

We bought our lunch out of a boat in a dirt lot across the street called Bowpicker Fish & Chips and sat outside to eat. Afterward, we walked farther down the riverfront and watched a big ship pass by. After this we drove back and forth over the Astoria-Megler Bridge again so that we could see what it was like in the daytime and then headed farther down the coast.

Our next stop was Ecola State Park where we parked and went on a short and moderately difficult hike through a forest near the water. We had good views of the coast and went down to the beach where we relaxed on a log. We had a good view of the Tillamook Rock Lighthouse (also known as Terrible Tilly), which was built on a rock more than a mile out from the shore in 1881. It experienced a lot of abuse from storms and was the most expensive lighthouse to maintain in the US before it was decommissioned in 1957. We walked along the beach a little and took a narrow, steep trail back to the main trail.

We were close to the popular tourist town of Cannon Beach and visited a bakery that we had read about online. I got a fresh peanut butter and chocolate chunk cookie and Lesley got a sticky bun. We went down to the beach to eat these and then we walked barefoot to Haystack Rock. There were a lot of people around, but we found a quiet spot to lie in the sand for a while. This was one of my favorite parts of the whole trip.

We then drove back into the heart of Cannon Beach and stopped at a candy shop to buy some taffy and then we ate dinner in the town. By then it was around sunset and we had a pretty drive to our hotel. We had just missed the sunset, but we had a view of the ocean from our window. We walked around the beach some at night and then had some taffy and tea in our room.

View from Astoria Column on Vimeo.

View from Ecola Park on Vimeo.

Cannon Beach on Vimeo.

I'd been looking forward to going to the Oregon coast ever since we moved here and we finally went Labor Day weekend. We left after work at 3:30 on Friday and traffic wasn't too bad leaving Seattle. It was slower through Tacoma and Olympia and we finally turned west toward the coast after 2 hours. Once we got off I-5, traffic wasn't nearly as bad and the road became more curvy. It was completely sunny when we left, but clouds and fog started to roll in when we were getting close to the coast.

We were pretty hungry after 4 hours of driving, so we stopped to eat at the Lost Roo, a local bar in Long Beach, WA. It was a family friendly place and had lots of fake Australian-themed decor. It was dark and lightly misting outside after dinner, but thankfully we only had about 20 more minutes to drive until we arrived at our hotel in Astoria, OR. We stayed at the Lamplighter Motel, not too far from the Astoria-Megler Bridge, the longest continuous truss bridge in North America. The bridge spans the Columbia River and is over 21,474 feet or 4 miles long. It was pretty cool driving across the bridge. The first stretch of the bridge leaving Washington was flat, but it went pretty high up when we got closer to Oregon. We were both pretty tired after driving about 190 miles from Seattle, so we just decided to call it a night.