Oregon Adventuring – Day 7

We got up this morning and headed out in search of breakfast. We searched for Bagels by the Sea… out of business. Then we looked for Pancakes by the Beach… out of business. We finally found some random diner serving breakfast and ordered oodles of pancakes.
After breakfast, we continued on down the 101. We saw a turnout called Hug Point and decided that seemed worthy of a stop. So we pulled over and walked down to the beach. It was a pretty cool stretch of beach. At one end, there were some huge rocks right off the shore and on the other end was a cool little cave. We spent some time running around in the waves even though the water was freezing!!
Our next stop was Seaside. We were actually pretty stoked about Seaside. I got an entire travel book in the mail just about Seaside and it seemed pretty awesome. We arrived in downtown Seaside and headed straight for the bike rentals. Josh and I rented a four person bike earlier this year in California with some of our friends and we knew we had to do it with our kiddos.
We hit up Wheel Fun Rentals and rented a single surrey. There was a little basket in front for the girls to ride in and Max, Josh, & I rode on the seat. Josh and I did all the pedaling, though he would argue that I didn’t pedal at all. We pedaled around town looking at all the shops from our four-wheeled transportation.
Once we turned in our surrey, we headed straight for the carousel. Everything else in the town looked super lame. The kids had a blast riding the carousel and then we headed out of town. No overpriced arcades called Funland for us… no matter how much Max whined.
Our friend Shannon told us about an awesome shipwreck in Warrenton, so we headed there. It took us awhile to find it, thanks to bad directions from Roadside America. Once we got there, we headed down. The kids were leery about climbing on the boat at first, but once daddy got up there, they were ready to go. We had fun climbing on the boat and running up the sand hills.
Next we headed to Astoria. We stopped at the Maritime Museum and climbed on the propellor and anchor out front. We didn’t actually tour the museum since it was about to close. The kids were enamored with the giant bridge that runs from Astoria over to Washington. They were convinced that we HAD to go over that bridge. So, we drove to Washington and then back to Oregon.
We were ready to head to Portland to hang out with our friend Shannon and her awesome family, but Josh wanted to hit the beach one more time. We headed to Cannon Beach and walked like half a mile down the beach so Josh could have Haystack Rock in the background of his pictures.
The kids had an absolute blast splashing in the waves. They played in the freezing cold water for a long time. We finally called it quits when Max got a little too deep and fell completely in the water. They were bummed to say goodby to the ocean, but it was time. We loaded up the car and made the long drive to Portland.
Reviews:
Seaside, OR – 2 stars: Lame. Totally a tourist trap and not even a cool one. We’ll skip it next time.
Peter Iredale Shipwreck – 5 stars: This was a cool old boat washed up on shore and stuck there for over 100 years. The kids loved climbing on it and playing in the sand.
Cannon Beach, OR – 5 stars: It’s just as gorgeous as everyone says and it wasn’t too windy either!
Things I learned today:
1. Just because a restaurant is listed in the travel guide doesn’t mean its actually still open for business.
2. Just because it looks cool in the travel guide doesn’t mean it is actually cool.
3. Even though you look pretty lame when you’re riding in a surrey, it’s actually quite fun, though difficult to maneuver.

PS. Like following along with our road trips and want to have a fun adventure of your own? Check out our awesome Road Trip in a Box kit. It has everything you’ll need plus our step by step guide on road trippin’ with kids