Oregon Coast 2010

The beginning of the month, Aaron finished a big project at work and decided we needed a family vacation. Aaron had never been to the Oregon Coast so we packed up the car the next day and left for about a week. We decided to be spontaneous and didn't make reservations anywhere and would drive and stop when we wanted. (Note: I am a huge planner and this was a little uneasy for me, but we were on an adventure.)

We left on a Tuesday afternoon and drove to Hood River and spent the night at a motel there. While we were on the road, we stopped to get gas and Andrew biffed it head first on the bathroom floor and got a big goose egg on his head. What a way to start the vacation. Ahh, the joys of learning to walk. (On a side note: He was fine and didn’t have any side effects from head bonk. It just looked ugly.)

Wednesday morning we headed out to the coast. We were driving on the freeway and saw a sign for Multnomah falls and stopped to look around. We put Andrew in the stroller and walked up the bridge and saw a sign for falls 1 mile. So we decided to go see the falls. Now mind you, we thought 1 mile that’s nothing. We wore our normal shoes and had Andrew in a stroller and started out. Little did we know it was 1 mile straight up with 11 switchbacks and it was sprinkling off and on. We made it to the top and were cold and soaking wet and Andrew fussed all the way up and back since he was so cold and wet. We didn’t know what we got our self into and were not prepared. But we were so proud of our accomplishment of going to the top and back.

The falls

Views from the bridge

Us at the top. We made it!

A leaf made the trip down better for Andrew. Aaron showing where we hike to the top of the falls.

Our next stop was Seaside where we had lunch at a restaurant downtown and then headed to the arcade and played for awhile. We also walked around to the shops down there.

We then stopped at Safeway to buy our camping food and then headed to the coast to find a campground. We stayed at the Nehalem Bay State Park south of Cannon Beach.

Andrew had a good time wandering around the campsite and “helping” dad with setting up camp.

Thursday morning we went to Cannon Beach to see the Haystack rock and have lunch at Mo’s.

Andrew had fun putting his feet in the water until he realized how cold it was.

That afternoon we went to Tillamook to the cheese factory.

Cheese samples! Who wouldn't want to go to the cheese factory?! We also got Tillamook ice cream and introduced Aaron and Andrew to cheese curds. I use to always get “squeaky cheese” when I was kid and went to the cheese factory.

That evening we played on the beach that was accessible from the campground.

Aaron and Andrew dug a hole and had a good time playing in the sand.

Friday morning we packed up the campsite and headed south to Lincoln City and Newport. We went to the outlet mall in Lincoln city and the Aquarium in Newport.

We also went to Devil’s Punchbowl State Park. We thought it was something we could hike at, so we got Andrew loaded in the backpack and bundled up and realized it was a “hike” to the fence and look down.

But we did see some wide life (a chipmunk if you can’t tell in the picture). People there pointed out a whale, but we couldn't see it.

We stayed the night at a hotel on the beach that night. We couldn’t get a campsite because of Labor day weekend and all the campgrounds were full. I guess we should have thought that through.

View from our hotel room

Andrew ready for bed. It was a busy day.

Saturday morning, we started the day with breakfast at PigNPancake. So yummy! And then played on the beach in front of our hotel before we checked out.

I guessed Andrew played a little too much and wore himself out.

Then we headed to Salem to the Oregon State Fair!

Aaron sharing his milkshake with Andrew. He thought it was pretty tasty.

Andrew loves animals and had fun seeing all of them.

He thought the petting zoo was the coolest thing ever. He loved touching all the animals and interacting with them.

The fair also had a dinosaur exhibit with life size dinosaurs. It was great! (We are huge dinosaur fans in this house.)

Before we left the fair, Aaron wanted to try a deep fried Twinkie and I got chocolate covered strawberries, bananas and marshmallows.

The fair wore Andrew out!

That night we got a hotel room in Salem. It was like an apartment!

Andrew had a good time playing with the mirrored doors on the closet. I thought to myself, this is what it would look like if we had twins!

Sunday we decided to drive home and take our time. We had a fun filled vacation with our little family!