Oregon

As we were leaving Washington, we made one last stop along the Columbia River Gorge alongside Highway 14 to fix some breakfast in Carson. As we were doing our thing, we heard a familiar accent say, are you from Tennessee? The lady said she is from Kingsport, TN, who was taking a steamboat/bus ride along the Columbia River. The picture below is of the steamboat, the American Empress. I was glad she took a moment to chat with us.

And we got lucky again. 

I think Anthony even doesn't look as natural in a tree as he does riding his bike along the Katy Trail in Missouri.

Next state, Oregon:

This is the second time we passed the Oregon sign. Anthony didn't like the first sign we passed when we were on Interstate 205, so he got off, and decided to try the other interstate that goes into Oregon, Interstate 5, and it wasn't much better, but here it is. I hope you will forgive us for not getting out and getting a picture with the sign.

Our next stop was Portland. For some reason I didn't have an Oregon AAA book, so we first headed downtown to pick one up. We got a nice tour of downtown and found all the traffic and people. In fact, it was like our van had a magnet in it and kept returning to the most frustrating intersection, where there was a four-way stop AND tons of pedestrians. It was really close to Powell's Bookstore, which is said to be the world's largest bookstore of new and used books. We didn't go in, no matter how many times we drove past it. We were able, tho, to find a nice parking place and ride our bikes a bit along the riverfront. 

This bridge has cars driving on top, and the lower level is for cyclists and pedestrians. Very nice.

When we get our bikes off of the van, it is quite the ordeal. I think Anthony uses six bungees to secure our bikes, and it seems like it takes him 15 minutes to bungee our bikes back on.

Next we headed west toward the coast. Several people had mentioned Tillamook and their cheese and ice cream, and I can't pass up good ice cream, so that's where we stopped and ate. We followed the advice from the AAA book and got our ice cream from the Blue Heron French Cheese company.

This is a historic 1930's Dutch Colonial Barn, and it also had a petting zoo, where you can pet the donkey:

And the cow:

Something interesting about Tillamook is that the annual milk production of 25 million gallons is made into natural cheddar cheese.

And I guess they make yogurt also. Found this at the grocery store and had to try it.

We had to head a bit west still to find the Pacific coast, and we found ourselves in Oceanside before we finally spotted the ocean. Here I got a picture from our car (this is my first view of the Pacific Ocean!!)

And then, of course on the beach.

Can you say bbbuuuurrrrr? Did someone forget this is the middle of July? It was freezing. But there were still kids playing in the ocean. I couldn't believe it. The highs this week are in the 60's, the lows in the 50's along the coast.

We also drove the Three Capes tour and found ourselves a lighthouse:

This lighthouse is short, but located amongst the cliffs right beside the water.

We started wondering where we were going to sleep for the night, and googled Walmart RV parking, but what also pulled up was a recommendation from freecampsites.net at a casino just right down the road, the Chinook Winds Casino. So we found us a place amongst the big boys and pulled in for the night.

What was so neat is that there was a beach view and clean bathrooms. Can't get much better than that:) 

The next morning we cooked our breakfast by the beach:

(You are going to have to take my word for it that there is a beach amongst all that fog.)

And started heading south.

The next interesting looking place we came upon was Yaquima Head lighthouse, so we turned in to see what was there. Well, this is what we saw:

Well, of course, the lighthouse:

This lighthouse has been active since 1873 and is the tallest on the Oregon coast. 

Pretty flowers

A black rock covered beach:

Harbor seals lounging around:

AND WHALES!!!!!!!!

Do you know how difficult it is to get a whale to pose for a picture? The tiny black spot on the top picture is his back, and on the second pic you can barely make out one of the whales blowing in kind of the middle of the frame.  

Okay, I can go back home now. This was pretty cool.

You know how sick you are of seeing our heads in mountain pictures?? Well, I think you are going to feel the same way about our heads in ocean pictures too. Sorry. I am giving you forewarning.