Wednesday July 28, 2016
The next morning we got up early. We finished up the laundry, cleaned the beach house, packed the car and got on the road to continue North.
Our first stop was Ecola State Park. We pulled over at a lookout. There was a misty fog in the air over the ocean. It was beautiful. It didn't last long. The sun came out and burned it off.
Then we followed a very narrow windy road to get to Indian Beach. It was totally worth paying the park fee and driving that far off the road. The beach was beautiful. It was kind of like a hidden gem. There were locals and surfers there. We didn't pack to play on the beach and we needed to get back on the road. In hindsight I would have stayed and let the kids swim at this beach. It was insanely beautiful.
We walked around for a minute then got back in the car to head North.
We stopped for a break at Seaside. We parked downtown. We found an old fashioned taffy shop on the way to the beach and bought a bag of salt water taffy. They had 170 different flavors. It was fun to go through and pick unique flavors.
For lunch we ate at Tsunami Sandwiches. They were so good. We took our lunch and ate on the boardwalk overlooking Seaside beach.
The beach was crazy crowded. It was fun to see but I'm glad we didn't end up staying there. Too many people.
We let the kids walk around in the sand for a minute to get a break from the car. On the way back to parking we stopped and got ice-cream. Next door to the ice-cream shop there was a place called house of mirrors that the kids played around in. It was good that they got out some of their energy before getting back in the car.
Our next stop was Fort Clastsop to see the Lewis and Clark National Historic Park.
I was blown away by this forrest. The trees were so tall and everything was so green. It was beautiful.
The walkway to the fort was gorgeous.
The fort was fun. The kids got to do a bunch of hands on activities. They tried on costumes, used old tools, and played in the houses.
We got to see the black powder rifle demo. The voulenteer told a scary bear hunting story before he fired his gun. The kids were way into it.
He let the kids get close and look at the rifle. I was surprised how loud the rifle was.
Then it was back on the road again.
We spent a lot of time in the car this day. The kids were champs!
When we got to Astoria we ran into some BAD traffic. We decided to pull over and get some dinner and try to wait it out a bit.
We were getting really sick of Subway. We had eaten there several times already this trip but it was the only option.
Once the traffic cleared up we got back on the road. We had to cross the Astoria Meglar bridge that crosses the Colombia river at it's mouth. The bridge is 4.1 miles long. When we would stop the bridge would shake. It was an eerie feeling being spanned over the Colombia river.
We were excited when we could finally see Mt Rainier in the distance.
We booked a room at Hampton Inn Suites in Tacoma Washington. Brad had been watching a movie during the drive. When we announced we were there he looked out the window at the shops and restaurants surrounding the hotel. There were a couple of Chinese restaurants. He immediately said "Holy Cow. Are we in China?" He was dead serious. Randy and I got a good laugh about that one.
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