Lighthouse Trip | Day Two

Due to the amazing scenery, day #2 was probably my favorite day of the entire trip (Here's Day #1 if you missed it). Newport's Yaquina Head Lighthouse is quite the looker! Even better is the natural area surrounding the lighthouse including the seals, cobble stones, tide pools, many different types of birds, and walking trails. The Interpretive Center staff is awesome too as they beam with great pride while teaching visitors about this area and it's inhabitants. We could have spent more than just a couple of hours here and sure hope to go back. My photographer self could have spent many hours just taking pictures- ah, it was amazing (and I have far too many photos than those shown here of this place). Lighthouse #3- Check!

We continued onward. South on 101. Starbucks frappe in hand. Listening to one of the many cd mixes made by Andrew (he makes  at least one mix for every trip we take. Always brings back memories when listening to those cds later).

 In an attempt to find lighthouse #4- Yaquina Bay Lighthouse- we stopped at the above pictured spot. On our iPhone maps, it appeared that the lighthouse should be close, and we figured we could find it by looking down the coastline. Nope. Searched around, used up some good ol' 3 & 4G searching. Gave up- but found ourselves in absolute awe of this quiet little landscape. Just behind us was an artist painting the view. No one else was around. It was quaint and beautiful. 

We later looked up what we should have found-

This is Yaquina Bay Lighthouse, via. Not terribly sad that we couldn't find it. Lighthouse #5= Missed- oops!

Off we drove, along the gorgeous coastline toward Heceta Head Lighthouse, located north of the city of Florence-  Making a few stops along the way to hike, eat, and take in God's creation of course. 

We were very excited to see Heceta Head as it is claimed to be the most photographed lighthouse in the world!

Devil's Churn

Much to our dismay (as you an see above), the actual lighthouse was under construction. Even worse was the jackhammering and loud construction noises interrupting the peaceful air. We were quite bummed. Lighthouse #6-  check! Next stop: the Sea Lion Caves!

Check out those blubbery guys! Oh man, were they stinky! There we were, watching these guys in their habitat- doing what sea lions do. All we wanted was to see a killer whale come up and attack one of the swimmers. Too harsh? Well, that's what happens...

The last stop of the day was to see the unimpressive Umpqua River Lighthouse. It resides on a small US Coast Guard base. Though a pleasant area with a 1950's feel, nothing else much to say about it. I'm still glad we stopped though.  Lighthouse #6- Check!

We continued driving toward Coos Bay to stay for the night where we found a little oriental food to fill our hungry tummies. What a wonderful day it was! Six Five lighthouses in 2 days- making progress! Day #3 was planned to be our "relaxing day." Stay tuned...

Summer Lighthouse Trip | Day One

Back in the end of June, prior to Andrew's AF training, we took a week off and fled away together to enjoy & explore the one-of-a-kind Oregon coast. We decided to base the trip on seeing as many Oregon Lighthouses as possible. It gave us some structure, yet still allowed for a ton of spontaneity. It was perfect and could not have been a better week. I would hands down do it all over again and leave right this minute if I could. 

Yes, you did read it correctly, this vacation took place way back in June. I know I'll want to look back on the trip, so- better late than never right? 

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Day 1

The trip officially began on Sunday in Astoria, Oregon. We climbed up the Astoria Column overlooking where the Colombia River and Pacific Ocean meet. It was a gloomy day, but that didn't matter one bit. The views were gorgeous and the sun later made an appearance. The car was diligently packed by my sweet man with a large tub of snacks & drinks. We planned to just snack and eat peanut butter sandwiches during the days and find a spot for dinner each night.

Astoria Column

 

 

We then made our way down highway 101, stopping along the way at various view points. First official lighthouse stop= Tillamook Rock. Unfortunately, this is the closest we could get to the lighthouse. But the photo below shows a closer-up look at it. Lighthouse #1- check!

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"Wait I have peanut butter on my face!"

We stopped for ice cream & free cheese samples at Tillamook Cheese Factory. Delish! 

 

Lighthouse #2-  Cape Mears. Getting to this lighthouse included at least a 2 mile hike... in flip flops... because of a road closure. Unanticipated. But we enjoyed the mossy trees and chirping birds!

 The sun came out right in time!  

After a few more spontaneous stops along the way, we reached our favorite beach (Pacific City) in time for an evening walk in the sand. I recall the sand being perfectly warmed from the day's sun. We watched the many surfers and love birds snuggling in for the upcoming sunset.

We then continued on our way down 101 to the Coho Oceanfront Lodge in Lincoln City. Modern & cozy - we definitely recommend it! Our nightly routine started on night one with hot tubbing, a movie, and talking about our favorite spots from the day.

 

Stay tuned for accounts from the rest of the trip!

amputation

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I have new material for those "introduce yourself and say a random fact about yourself" ice-breakers! While at the doctor's office, the physician looked at me quite confused & asked if I had any significant health issues. When I answered no, he said, "Ok, I was trying to be discrete, but do you have an amputation somewhere? Am I missing something? Your chart says you have an amputation. I see normal limbs, fingers, & toes..."

I displayed my proper limbs and assured him that it must be an error in my chart. Maybe I should get that fixed? Or maybe I should keep it and just confuse people. Ha... highlight of my day!

Matching & Bridges

 Anybody else notice how we are matching? Oh boy, are the old couple matchy match days already upon us? The great part is that we noticed it right away and both of us were too lazy to change. (yes this was from the same day as our nature walk)

Can we also talk about how much I love bridges... Andrew loves them too. Much of our living room and apartment art is composed of bridges, buildings, and maps that are special to us or have some sort of significance. I'd really like to add this amazing Portland Bridge piece to our collection. The bridge photographed above is St. Johns bridge.

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One awesome thing about being married to your best friend is liking many of the same things. Still working on him liking country music... Slowly making progress; very slowly. Though he'll deny it at all costs!  Love my man!

PS- As I write this post, the fall breeze from our open porch door is blowing by, I'm sipping on my warm white mocha, and the cherry on top is a sweet little (not so little anymore) baby Isaac sleeping on my chest in a Moby wrap. So many of my favorite things at once!

Spidey Friend

We found this little critter and many more like him on our nature walk last weekend. We tried to throw little twigs and things into his web to trick him into thinking it was a bug. The hope was to see him scurry on over to the "bug." Turns out, spiders are smart, he didn't fall for it. Our second thought was that the spider is actually dead...  Spidey probably thinks we were the dumb ones and wishes we were dead for messing with his web. That's probably more like it.

Twas' a fun time for all! I also feel like this is a fitting image for October... though I'll warn you ahead of time, I hate Halloween. Least favorite day of the entire year. I'll take the candy and pumpkins, but leave all the rest.

Nature Walk

Fall was in the air this weekend! The cooler, clean air, combined with yellow leaves falling all around us made for the perfect Saturday afternoon nature walk in NW Portland's Forest Park.  

I've previously visited this beautiful area with friends and blogged about it here and here. But, this time, my Mister joined me and we tried an entirely different area. We explored! With 8 miles full of trails and forest, there is much to explore. Truth be told, when the option came for us to take the 'hikers only' path (off shoot from the bikers/walkers path), I got spooked and insisted we stay on the larger biking path. We hadn't seen a single soul and the fact that I still can't get the tv show, Walking Dead out of my head =  scared-y cat Jenna.

We still had a great time and stopped many times to enjoy the nature surrounding us. 

 

I've always loved nature walks. My sweet 4th grade science and math teacher, Mr. Sullivan, often took us on nature walks. We learned about marsh lands as we captured minos and brought them back to the classroom, learned about bees as they bzzz'd past us in the flower fields, and learned about the types of clouds by going outside to see them first hand. I'm so grateful for that year of learning and nature walks. 

I'll share more from our walk tomorrow & our favorite nature discovery.