Our vacation to Seaside, Oregon was so fun! It was just really nice to not have a schedule and to relax and do fun stuff. It was cold but we still had a lot of fun. When we first got there I noticed that Seaside was the spot that was the end of the Lewis and Clark Trail. I thought this was funny because just a week before I was at the beginning of that trail in Kentucky. There was even a similar statue.
We of course had to visit the Seaside Acquarium. It was pretty small, but they had a spot where you could feed seals. That was fun. And acquariums are just fun. We learned that an octupus changes colors when it's mad and when it's sleeping. We even saw the octupus do that!
Allison wasn't so sure about touching the anenemes. Or the sea cucumber.
Seaside was a really cute town. They had a lot of fun little shops. Half of them were candy stores. We found a cool hat store and we had to try on all the funny hats.
They also had a store called the Man Store. Matt loved it! They even had a whole bacon section. Matt wanted the bacon mints. Seriously, who thinks of these things?
The sunsets at the beach were very pretty. And the mornings too. One morning we got up early and went for a run on the beach. It was beautiful! And I found 4 whole sand dollars and even some ones that were still alive.
We headed down the coast one day to the Tillamook Cheese Factory.
We loved the cheese samples and the ice cream! Yum!
We got this great idea to bring our bikes and ride back from the cheese factory back to Seaside. It was a total of 47 miles up the Pacific Coast Highway. It was SO FUN! I loved it. It was tough though. Lots of climbing hills going through mountainous passes. We climbed a total of 2600 feet. On our bikes. It was just really neat riding through the mountains and by the ocean. I really liked it a lot.
Another day we headed to check out some tide pools. That was a lot of fun too. We saw lots of starfish, anenemes, and a few crabs.
This crab was covered in barnacles! I guess it thought it would be good camoflauge.
We went on a couple of hikes. I really loved the thick forests. We even found some wild raspberries that we tried. They were pretty tasty.
Scott, Allison, Nathan and John went surfing one of the days. They rented full body wetsuits, gloves and booties so they wouldn't be cold. The water was freezing! I even brought my wetsuit and went swimming but it was still cold. But lots of fun.
One night we decided to make a campfire on the beach and cook tinfoil dinners and make smores. I loved that! I have never had a campfire on the beach and it was so cool.
We played chubby bunny with the leftover marshmallows!
One of the days we went into Portland. I wasn't too impressed with that city. Maybe if I knew what there was to do there it would be better, but we couldn't really find much. We did go to the temple and that was cool.
We went to this really weird Peace Sanctuary place. It was really strange.
We did find some cool botanical gardens that overlooked Portland. We also found a museum that had an exhibit on National Geographics best photos. I really wanted to see that, but it was closed. That would have been really cool!
It was just so beautiful there.
I loved driving down the coast and seeing all the cliffs with the waves crashing up on them. So cool!
We stopped at some sea lion caves. Here I am trying to be a sea lion. And Matt is wondering what he has gotten himself into. :)
More cool scenery.
While we were driving along, I saw this huge waterfall through the trees. We decided to stop and take a look. It was massive!
On the way home, my dad decided we needed to go to Crater Lake. It was very out of the way. But when we got there, we met this awesome hippie guy. We named him Patchy. He was so hilarious. We got out of the car about the same time as he did, just to hear him exclaim, "It's Crater Lake, Man. We're heeeeere!" Really, you had to be there, but it was so funny. After that whenever we got somewhere we would say stuff like, "It's Utah, Man. We're heeeeere!"
Just trust me. It was funny. Crater Lake was pretty cool. It's this volcano that erupted and collapsed and formed a lake, but you can still see the peak of the volcano because it's an island in the middle of the lake. It was extremely cold there...there was still a lot of snow on the ground. It was very quiet and peaceful and beautiful.
Anyway, it was a really fun trip. Minus the one flat bike tire, the one flat car tire, and the speeding ticket. Oh how I love vacations!
Our vacation to Seaside, Oregon was so fun! It was just really nice to not have a schedule and to relax and do fun stuff. It was cold but we still had a lot of fun. When we first got there I noticed that Seaside was the spot that was the end of the Lewis and Clark Trail. I thought this was funny because just a week before I was at the beginning of that trail in Kentucky. There was even a similar statue.
We of course had to visit the Seaside Acquarium. It was pretty small, but they had a spot where you could feed seals. That was fun. And acquariums are just fun. We learned that an octupus changes colors when it's mad and when it's sleeping. We even saw the octupus do that!
Allison wasn't so sure about touching the anenemes. Or the sea cucumber.
Seaside was a really cute town. They had a lot of fun little shops. Half of them were candy stores. We found a cool hat store and we had to try on all the funny hats.
They also had a store called the Man Store. Matt loved it! They even had a whole bacon section. Matt wanted the bacon mints. Seriously, who thinks of these things?
The sunsets at the beach were very pretty. And the mornings too. One morning we got up early and went for a run on the beach. It was beautiful! And I found 4 whole sand dollars and even some ones that were still alive.
We headed down the coast one day to the Tillamook Cheese Factory.
We loved the cheese samples and the ice cream! Yum!
We got this great idea to bring our bikes and ride back from the cheese factory back to Seaside. It was a total of 47 miles up the Pacific Coast Highway. It was SO FUN! I loved it. It was tough though. Lots of climbing hills going through mountainous passes. We climbed a total of 2600 feet. On our bikes. It was just really neat riding through the mountains and by the ocean. I really liked it a lot.
Another day we headed to check out some tide pools. That was a lot of fun too. We saw lots of starfish, anenemes, and a few crabs.
This crab was covered in barnacles! I guess it thought it would be good camoflauge.
We went on a couple of hikes. I really loved the thick forests. We even found some wild raspberries that we tried. They were pretty tasty.
Scott, Allison, Nathan and John went surfing one of the days. They rented full body wetsuits, gloves and booties so they wouldn't be cold. The water was freezing! I even brought my wetsuit and went swimming but it was still cold. But lots of fun.
One night we decided to make a campfire on the beach and cook tinfoil dinners and make smores. I loved that! I have never had a campfire on the beach and it was so cool.
We played chubby bunny with the leftover marshmallows!
One of the days we went into Portland. I wasn't too impressed with that city. Maybe if I knew what there was to do there it would be better, but we couldn't really find much. We did go to the temple and that was cool.
We went to this really weird Peace Sanctuary place. It was really strange.
We did find some cool botanical gardens that overlooked Portland. We also found a museum that had an exhibit on National Geographics best photos. I really wanted to see that, but it was closed. That would have been really cool!
It was just so beautiful there.
I loved driving down the coast and seeing all the cliffs with the waves crashing up on them. So cool!
We stopped at some sea lion caves. Here I am trying to be a sea lion. And Matt is wondering what he has gotten himself into. :)
More cool scenery.
While we were driving along, I saw this huge waterfall through the trees. We decided to stop and take a look. It was massive!
On the way home, my dad decided we needed to go to Crater Lake. It was very out of the way. But when we got there, we met this awesome hippie guy. We named him Patchy. He was so hilarious. We got out of the car about the same time as he did, just to hear him exclaim, "It's Crater Lake, Man. We're heeeeere!" Really, you had to be there, but it was so funny. After that whenever we got somewhere we would say stuff like, "It's Utah, Man. We're heeeeere!"
Just trust me. It was funny. Crater Lake was pretty cool. It's this volcano that erupted and collapsed and formed a lake, but you can still see the peak of the volcano because it's an island in the middle of the lake. It was extremely cold there...there was still a lot of snow on the ground. It was very quiet and peaceful and beautiful.
Anyway, it was a really fun trip. Minus the one flat bike tire, the one flat car tire, and the speeding ticket. Oh how I love vacations!
4 comments:
I love Oregon it is gorgeous! Aaron got a job offer there years ago....maybe we should have gone it is gorgeous!
I am jealous. We are going to Portland in September (hopefully). Next time you go there, go to OMSI, downtown. It's this awesome science museum, with lots of hands-on exhibits. You can act like a kid, and no one cares.
Glad you enjoyed Crater Lake! Not to sound pedantic, but Wizard Island is actually a later-forming cinder cone, not the peak of Mt. Mazama...that was blown apart and scattered a thousand miles away :)
Jeff Allen
www.craterlaketrust.org
Sounds like you had so much fun. I loved Oregon when I went through several years ago. Someday I will have to get R up that way so he can enjoy the sights.
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