Travel

Itinerary Day 1. July 1. Saturday. Drove to Portland. Checked in at Quality Inn in Gresham for two nights. Day 2. July 2. Sunday. Visited Columbia River Gorge (Multnomah Falls, Vista House, and many waterfalls between these two). Visited Powell's City of Books in Portland later. Day 3. July 3. Monday. Drove to Astoria. Visited Ecola State Park, and Cannon Beach. Checked in at Astoria Riverwalk Inn for one night. Day 4. July 4. Tuesday. Drove to Florence. Visited Oswald West State Park, Tillamook Creamery, Cape Meares State Scenic Viewpoint (Cape Meares Lighthouse). Checked in at Ocean Breeze Inn in Florence for two nights. Day 5. July 5. Wednesday. Visited cobra lilies at Darlingtonia State Natural Site, Sea Lion Caves, and Cape Perpetua (Heceta Head Lighthouse, Devil's Churn, Spouting Horn, Thor's Well). Day 6. July 6. Thursday. Drove to Coos Bay. Visited Oregon Dunes. Checked in Edgewater Inn and Suites for two nights. Day 7. July 7. Friday. Visited Sunset Bay, Shore Acre...

  We checked out of the hotel, went to La Playa Mexican Food for breakfast - Great food. We then drove 8 hours home.

We checked out of the hotel and started driving towards Brookings. Meyers Creek Beach Viewpoint This was my favorite beach of the entire trip. Extremely scenic. Lots of boulders on the beach. There were starfish near the bottom of some boulders. Arch Rock Point Natural Bridges Some people hiked to the top of the bridge rock. I did not think that would be safe for us. The trails were not clearly marked, so we did not walk too far. Indian Sands Trail On Google Map, "Samuel H. Boardman State Scenic Corridor" was marked at the same spot as "Indian Sands Trailhead". We hiked the loop trail. Brookings We went to La Playa Mexican Food for dinner. This place has the best Mexican food. I had many tacos, they were as good as the ones we had in Mexico. It was a cash-only place. A must visit. We stayed at the AmeriCost Inn, one night at $115.33.

Sunset Bay , Shore Acres, Cape Arago State Parks These three parks are close to each other. We visited all of them and they were all beautiful. Bullards Beach and Coquille River Lighthouse While beautiful, this area is not as uniquely spectacular as other places in this area that we visited. Face Rock State Scenic Viewpoint This was my favorite place of today. I think it is way better than Cannon Beach in terms of natural beauty. We played there for a long time. Tip: Check the Circles in the Sand event schedule so that you can visit when there is a sand drawing event. The events are in the morning. We had to visit this place in the afternoon because we were switching our hotel room to a second floor unit in the morning. Coos Bay We drove back to Coos Bay to have dinner at Pueblo Nuevo Mexican Restaurant. The view of the bay was very nice when we walked on the other side of the street from the restaurant. We asked the hotel to change our room to a second-floor unit. They did it. We ha...

Oregon Dunes We checked out of the hotel and drove to Oregon Dunes Visitor Center (855 Highway Ave, Reedsport, OR 97467). After getting a map and recommendation on the hikes from the rangers, we drove to one hiking trail. From there, we hiked to the dunes. The trail continues to the beach, but we did not go further. We just spent lots of time playing at the dunes. Coos Bay  We had dinner at Tokyo Bistro in Coos Bay. The food was very good. We checked in at Edgewater Inn and Suites. $400.77 for two nights. This hotel was under renovation. We got a room on the first floor that was just renovated. While the room was nice, the walls were too thin and we got a very noisy neighbor upstairs. We could hear them running, talking, loudly all the time. At 11pm, we had to call the front desk to complain about the noise. After the front desk called them, they stopped running, which was good. However, it was still pretty loud that we could hear the talking and TV.  I do not recommend this h...

Darlingtonia State Natural Site Our first stop was a field of cobra lilies. These plants are pitcher plants that can catch and "eat" insects. Super cool to see so many of them. Sea Lion Caves This is a place where you can see sea lions on the rocks and inside a cave. It was a super foggy day, so there was not much scenery outside to see besides sea lions. Then you take an elevator to go down to a cave to see more sea lions. It was about $20 per person for entrance, and I am not sure it was worth it.  Cape Perpetua Visitor Center - Siuslaw National Forest We went to the visitor center, paid $7 to get a parking permit since I threw away the previous one at Ecola Park. The ranger there told us the tide information and the cool places to see. Since we were at low tide and many areas nearby were better at high tide, we decided to visit the Heceta Head Lighthouse first.  Heceta Head Lighthouse State Scenic Viewpoint While the road Summer St looked like a path to the lighthouse on t...

  Oswald West State Park Our first stop was Oswald West State Park just south of Canon Beach. We went really early so we got a parking spot. We had fun playing with some rocks that had mussels and starfish.  We also had fun exploring little rock caves. Drive to Tillamook We drove along Highway 101 and stopped by viewpoints. At one overlook, someone kindly told us that there would be fighter jets flying by to celebrate July 4th. We waited a few minutes and indeed two fighter jets flew by. We passed a small town where people are gathering to get ready for a parade. Not too far from the crowd,  someone was kayaking in the bay enjoying peace and quiet.  We passed three rocks named Three Graces. Tillamook Creamery We did a self-guided tour to see how cheese was made, and tried some sample cheese. We bought cheese curds, which was a form of cheese before being dried to become cheese. I had never had cheese curds before. They were squeaky and salty. Ethan and Claire liked t...