The Oregon Trail

Sept. 3, 2013
Things started out well as we left Abbotsford with my sister and BIL on our six day trip to the Oregon Coast, specifically Falcon Cove, seven miles south of Cannon Beach.  It began to pour as we drove out of Abbotsford, much to my pleasure because of an ongoing contest between my BIL and I about who has the better weather, Abbotsford or Pitt Meadows.  I had read that Abbotsford was the rainiest city in Canada with an average of 177 rain days per year, which I just happened to share with everyone for their enlightenment. We reached Astoria, Oregon in time for some lunch.  We stopped at an old brick building which housed a pub on one side, and a deli like restaurant on the other.  We went to the deli. The lady in front of us in line raved about the great food here.  My three traveling companions ordered the tempeh rueben sandwich which sounded nice.  I chose the egg salad sandwich.  However, when I wanted to order a soft drink, I was informed that they had no coke or other familiar soft drinks but only some unfamiliar sparkling drinks.  I went for the coffee to minimize my risk.  Perhaps a clue for us should have been the hippyish looking lady who sat in a lotus position by the restrooms, posing for a picture.  The dress of most of the staff and some of the customers was also on the late 60's style.  My egg salad sandwich was quite OK, although the questionable pile of brown grains hidden in the salad beside the sandwich was not edible.  Tempeh we learned was a kind of soy product.  The reubens were nothing like we imagined, containing no meat.  This was a vegetarian deli.  For the rest of the trip I heard about these sandwiches and the hours it took to get rid of the awful "tempeh" taste. In light of this, my egg salad was great!  Coffee on the other had was up to its typical American slough-water standards. 

We stopped in Seaside to do our grocery shopping at Safeway before going on to our cottage.

Our cottage house was located between Cannon Beach and Manzanita, making it a very convenient location.  There was a small road in front, with a house across the street, and then a bluff leading down to the beach.  We therefore had a good view of the ocean on either side of the house.  The beach was easily accessible and was bordered by perhaps 50 yards or more of smooth round rocks, which were about 8 feet deep.  I assume these were placed here to protect the bank from being eroded by the pounding surf.  There was a beautiful sandy beach with rock formations on either side of the cove, but when the tide was in, the water reached the rocks, covering most of the beach. 

The cottage itself was OK, and probably good for the price we paid in what I imagine is an expensive rental area.  It had all that we needed, with two bedrooms, one bathroom with shower, and all the movies and books you would want for a rainy Oregon day.  Because the back of the house had bushes growing over the bedroom windows, the bedroom was always very dark, as was the living room, even on bright sunny days.  There was a little deck with a plastic table and four outdoor chairs that were worn, with the backs sagging if you leaned back too much.  This is not to complain though, because it served us well.

The first afternoon, we spotted sprays on the water from whales passing by.  Alas, we never saw them again.

After settling in, we set off to explore our beach.  Just down the road was a path down to the beach, with a unique set of stairs built from driftwood leading onto the rocks bordering the beach.  There was only one other couple on the beach.  To the south, we could walk about 10 minutes to get to the edge of the cove, which was bordered by large rocks.  To the north, you could walk a long ways (we never made it all the way), where there was a narrow passage way between the cliff and a large "haystack-like" rock to the nest cove, Arch Beach.  The passageway was only accessible in low tide.
Unlike other trips to the Oregon coast, not only was it sunny, but there was little wind on the beach.  There was a flock of pelicans.

For dinner, we drove to Cannon Beach and ate in a pub. 

Sept. 4
 It became another nice day.  We went to Cannon Beach so that the women could get some of their shopping fever taken care of.  We explored the stores and walked the beach. 

When we got back, we went for a walk on our beach, and explored the rocks  to the south.  There were thousands of sea stars on the rocks and in the little pools.  We also spotted a beautiful sunflower starfish, which has many more arms than the traditional five or six arm sea star.  We enjoyed a gorgeous sunset from our cottage and ate in.  We tried to watch a movie, Sideways, but turned it off half way through because we were all bored of it.

Sept. 5
The morning began with me spotting fins sticking out of the water.  We ran to the edge of the bluff for a better look, and I do believe we saw a few pairs of dolphins, although we would never get positive identification.  At any rate, that is far more interesting than saying you saw a floating log with a limb sticking above the water.

The weather was a little overcast and cooler, so we drove to Seaside to do some exploring and a visit to the designer store mall.  I discovered that this must be the most boring place on earth.  We walked around the main street for a while, but it was too cool and windy to make walking on the beach attractive.  We also noticed that there was a vintage car rally happening this weekend, and several old cars were already in town.  We knew it was best to stay away from Seaside this weekend, because it would be very busy.  For dinner, we went to Moe's in Cannon Beach. 

Sept. 6
Today was a rainy, overcast day.  Even though my sister and BIL were not that keen on visiting Tilamook, based on a previous visit, we decided today was a good day for a drive.  We first visited Manzanita for coffee and to access Wi-Fi so we could get updated on emails, etc.  I drove the car that day for the first time, and we then drove to Rockaway Beach to see the beach and the hotel we have stayed in several times.  Then we drove to Tilamook, and went to the cheese factory.  We also checked out Fred Meyers because I wanted to price out the cost of a ipad.  We discovered that the cost of the ipad was equal or more than the sales price at home, and with exchange would cost more.  We stopped in Rockaway on the way home for the women to check out a store that sells light bulbs filled with rain water collected and sorted by month.  The woman running the place, Kat Waterhouse was a typical hippie throwback.  We of course bought a bulb with February rain, replacing one we bought years ago that broke.  I still have trouble seeing the difference between February rain and June rain.  We ended the day with a BBQ and card games at night.

Sept. 7
The weather was much improved today, and we began by shopping for groceries in Manzanita, and then going to Hug Point, a beach a few miles back towards Cannon Beach.  From the parking lot you enter a beautiful, long beach.  Hug Point is a little beach on the right around a point.  It is inaccessible from the beach at high tide because the water is deep around the point.  At this time the tide was coming in, but the water was just a few inches deep, touching the rocks on the point.  Joanie and I decided we would do a quick investigation of the beach for future reference.  You had to time your trip around the point, because every seven or so waves, there would be a few high ones.  we managed to get around with the water only reaching below the knee at its highest point.  The beach had several caves carved out of the cliffs.  After checking a few out, we returned.  I was trying to be careful, timing my walk around the point by waiting for some high waves, then making a quick walk of it when the water was lower again.  Half way around, I got caught with some big waves.  The water was up to my waist.  Fortunately it did not reach the camera around my neck, but I quickly reached for my cell phone in my pocket.  It appeared to have a few drops of water on it, and it did what I could to make sure it was dried and well out of the water.  However, it was too late.  It never did turn on again.

We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the south end of our beach, enjoying the solitude of climbing over, and sitting on some flat rocks in the sun, enjoying the sight of the sunlight beaming through waves as they crashed over the rocks.  They were Kodak moments. 

After an early dinner at home, we drove to Ecola Park to take in the breathtaking coastal view, and then went into Cannon Beach to walk to Haystack Rock for sunset.  We were not the only ones, as half of Cannon Beach, and many serious looking photographers with unipods and tripods lined the beach.         

Sept. 8
With the tide still low, we decided to return to Hug Point in the morning.  Now the water was quite far from the point, making an easy walk to the little beach, and around the next point to a longer expanse of beach with beautiful rock formations, colourings and small caves.  We explored some of the caves.  We wanted to walk to what we assumed was an arch on Arches Beach which likely joined this beach with our own beach on the north side.  From Hug Point we could walk it, although some felt it was too far, so we hopped in the car and drove to Arch Beach town, a few minutes up the highway, and walked from there.  The fog rolled in and the tide was now also coming in faster.  By the time we came to the end of the beach, the point was fully engulfed in water, so we could not see if there was a arch around the corner, not if we could get onto our beach.  We decide to go into Cannon Beach for coffee and pastries and dropped in at the Haystack Rock Bakery.  The fog had cleared in town, and it was hot again.  We returned home in time for happy hour, a daily ritual.  For dinner, we decided on pizza, and returned to Cannon Beach, where we had some great pizza followed by coffee in a little Italian café.  Since I was tired of the weak American coffee everywhere, I decided to order an espresso.  They asked if I wanted one shot or more.  Not really knowing what they were talking about, I said one was good.  I got this miniature coffee cup with a thimble full of coffee.  It was delicious but I had to be careful not to drink it in one gulp.  It was quite humorous to see what a $2.50 espresso gets you.  Not much!

Sept. 9
We were on our way home by about 8:15AM, and I shared the driving with BIL.  The trip was mostly uneventful, and we played it safe by avoiding quaint little delis.  We ate lunch in Lacey, near Olympia, at Shari's, a family restaurant.  We learned that they were training a new cook, and orders were taking extra long.  BIL ordered a breakfast quiche, only to get an omelet.  Then the waitress came by to say the kitchen had mixed up the order and did not give him the quiche.  She brought that too, so he had two breakfasts.  We were home by about 6:30PM.  A very nice 6 days!!!