7/5/2016
I got up early, as usual, so I could run to the bathroom and then come back and take the dog to do his business as well. The dog run area was in a field next to blackberry bushes. Now, blackberries are in season in August, so early July is really early to find many ripe ones, but I did manage to grab a good handful of them that morning. So, I had a yummy snack of fresh blackberries for breakfast this morning.
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| I spy ripe blackberries |
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| my treat |
We packed up our tent this morning (last time for this trip) and did a good job with Leave No Trace at our campsite as we packed the van back up.
We headed out of Bay Center and crossed the border in Oregon not long after. The Astoria Bridge is a fun bridge to cross. I thought about stopping in Seaside to walk down the boardwalk, but I decided to pass it and head on to Cannon Beach instead.
What a fun time at Cannon Beach. The kids had a blast in the water, jumping waves, and building sandcastles. The dog wasn't too sure about the water. He's definitely NOT a water dog. He liked to chase the kids (and other dogs as well) but, when his feet hit the water, he was backing up fast. We let him off the leash a little, but with other smaller dogs around, I didn't want to have to chase him down to stop him from bowling them over. After a while, he sat down on the sand with me as we watched the kids playing in the sand.
There wasn't a lot of shells there, it was more of a sand beach.
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| lot of people on the beach |
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| McKay loved his sandcastle! |
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| lovely mist rolling in |
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| That's about as far in as Scout would go |
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| running along the beach |
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| perfect pic! |
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| Dog at my feet, kids playing in the distance |
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| Haystack Rock |
After about an hour and a half, it was time to go and continue on our way. We stopped at Tillamook Cheese Factory. It was super crowded. I've never been there when it was that crowded. It was probably because it was the holiday weekend still and a lot of people must have taken that week off. Plus, we got there around 1 pm or so, so lunch time. The line was super long in store, the cafe, and the ice cream line. I left Daniel outside with the dog and went in to the store with the kids to look around. We got a couple of blocks of cheese, some fudge, some magnets for Daniel, and a bright orange Tillamook beach towel for myself and a nice beach bag/backpack to go came with it. After that, we needed to decide ice cream or food. I think Daniel wanted food more, but the line was already long and then we would have to wait again for them to make the food, so we opted for ice cream instead. The line was still long, but we got through it. Nothing like enjoying some fresh Tillamook ice cream in waffle cones or bowls! Yum Yum. We had enough treats in the car to fill in the gaps until dinnertime.
We got back on the road and headed for Waldport and our KOA for the night. We had time once we were there to walk down to the beach there. Daniel went first with the dog. One of the kids was having an issue with shoes so we were behind a few minutes. I guess I thought I knew where the path to the beach was, so we started down this really good, well-traveled trail. After a few minutes, Jorren came back up (of course he was way ahead again) and said, not that way. He tried another way, but that didn't look good either. I ended up going with him to the first path he rejected and saw that it ended at an abrupt cliff down to the beach, with sharp rocks below and no path down them. I went back to the second way and saw that it was a very narrow, not well-traveled path with lot of blackberry bushes covering the trail. It wasn't ideal, but it looked like the only choice that had a chance of being successful. So, I sent Jorren down first to see. It was really steep the first part, but after a bit, it was more manageable. So, McKay and I headed down. As I was going down, I thought that there was no way that we would make it back up the same way.
Once we were down, there were other families there. I asked them if they all came down that way, and they laughed and said no, that there was another path (they pointed it out) that just had some soft, deep sand at the end that was steep, but otherwise it was pretty easy. Well, at least we had a better way back up!
The kids enjoyed the time there and once the family with the little dog left and went back, I was able to let Scout off his leash since there was no way he was going to get lost or run off there.
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| KOA sign |
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| Waldport Bridge |
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| Beach |
We headed back up to the KOA and had dinner and got ready for bed. I had to teach the kids about what dew was when I told them to bring their towels and shirts in for the night and not leave them out since they would be wet in the morning if they did. My desert rat kid, Jorren, looked up at the clear blue sky and asked, "Why? Is there a storm rolling in?" So along came the lesson on dew.
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