Covered Bridges

I guess about 9 years ago Jason and I saw in one of the many "Visit Oregon" books a loop in Lane County that goes by covered Bridges. We thought we'd take that route one day... and well, since we were farther South on the Coast than we've been for probably 9 years, this was the time to take in the bridges. We saw the following ones just before dusk on our way inland - these ones were in Cottage Grove... you can learn more about each bridge by clicking HERE.Ending with this bridge for the night, before heading to a hotel along the I-5. The kids enjoyed getting out at these bridges to look and walk/run through them...

Canada Day in the USA

Well, it was a little sad to miss out on our regular festivities for Canada Day like our Parade and Family Fun Day - but we still shone a little Canadian Light down South - with our little t-shirts and by telling some of the people we came in contact with... oh, and the reason we did plan our vacation for right after school's end was to be able to get down to the States on our annual travel insurance we buy rather than in August when it's just expired (2 for 1 trips in a sense) AND we were hoping the same group of Chinese Students would come again this year from July-November and if they were coming this would be out of the way... well, luckily they have arrived and it's really convenient that our holiday is done!
You should have heard the owner of the hotel sing his rendition of O Canada - it was to the tune of O Christmas Tree! It was pretty funny!

So we packed up and checked out of our hotel in Seaside and headed South down the Coast. We stopped at a great Outlet Mall in Lincoln City, Oregon. And then continued South to Florence where we had planned on visiting The Sea Lion Caves...this is looking north out of the cave - Heceta Lighthouse is shown, if you squint!here, you don't have to squint so much in this photo:It was extremely windy today - like sooooooooo windy... we've never had it so windy... so I got the kids to take off their hoodies for a quick picture of their little t'slooking down from the lookout:Here's proof of the wind -From here we headed East-inland...

Ice Cream

We got to the candy shop to spin the whel for a prize, to get our Tillamook ice cream cones (only 75c each) and to buy some Salt Water Taffy... three times over the 4 days -

Cannon Beach

We used to camp in Cannon Beach all the time - then when we stopped camping {temporarily} we found a great hotel where we stay year after year now... anyway, we haven't been to Cannon Beach for a few years, so since the tide was out we decided to make a trip to the Stack to explore a bit. (this was Tuesday, June 30)
The Stack always seems so close until you start trekking on the sand...and then it seems to take forever to get there!a starfish - or shall I say "sea star" as Sammy and I learnt from a book we took out of the library on themit's just gorgeous!we then headed back to Seaside (they are only 10 minutes apart) for some more beach time...

Tillamook

After the lighthouse, we continued on the route and then went to these waterfalls... it was just a short jaunt and we were only able to see them from a distance (I can't remember the name of them!)Jason's taking a little detour up this fallen tree~And Elijah did well maneuvering on the rocks in this creek
THEN we stopped at Tillamook Cheese Factory...which is yummy cheese and if on sale when we are in the USA, it's the cheese we buy by the brick... and it's "the" ice cream we enjoy when we go for cones in Seaside (post to come yet) - very yummyWe went on a self-guided tour, which allowed us to look at all the production of the cheese you'll see in the following 2 pictures:This ended up being a full day out - back to the hotel for dinner and then a walk...
there's not a tonne of things to do in Seaside, but we love it anyway - one of the things we do is go in a pretty large arcade/games place... we didn't plunk in any money but the kids go from one game to the next and the previews the games have on them is enough for their satsifaction and for asking to go to "the games" again! Crazy! Here's Gabi jumping on this dance game - I just love watching when people get on this game and go for it - I don't think I have the ability to follow the computer screen and move my feet accordingly~and Elijah on the snowboardand a walk on the promenade...

Cape Meares Lighthouse

Our stop along the Three Cape Scenic Route was this Lighthouse - we just love lighthouses!looking through the actual light area with the volunteer-operatorwe had a picnic lunch here and then we walked over to see what 3 telescopes were pointed at with volunteers set up on an observation deck...this one zoomed right in on that large rock and you could easily see an enourmous amount of birds; the other 2 telescopes zoomed into different nesting birds along the face of the rock to our right and leftWe continued on the Cape Route - but further posts of our week will have to wait! Stay tuned!

day trip

We knew we'd be heading further South down the Coast on Wednesday and would want to stop at a few places around the Tillamook area, so instead we made a day trip out of these extra things we wanted to see!
So on Monday we headed out in the morning to Tillamook County - first stopping at this Lookout(I bought the boys these muscle shirts for next summer last night from Osh Kosh - but they wanted to wear them today, so I let them)
If you notice Jason's head down below the boys... he's picking these for Gabi:we then took a drive along the 3 Capes Scenic Route... next post (above)