Oregon and Washington Coast: A Roadtrip With Kids

In an effort to escape the extreme heat of Sacramento, we caught a Southwest Airlines flight to Portland, Oregon to commence an (albeit brief) roadtrip with the kids up the coast to Ocean Shores, Washington. Because Chuck does not fit in our carryon, we had to leave him behind. Poor guy. Landing just before midnight on Friday night, we collected our rental car and checked in at the Country Inn & Suites by Raddison (at the airport) and had a lovely nights sleep in a cool, dark, quiet room.

We are always suckers for a good gluten free bakery, so headed to Southeast Portland, where New Cascadia Traditional promised to be just that. We were not impressed. The bread and bagels were dry and tasteless, requiring a glass of water just to help wash it down. While not quite a glowing endorsement, we will admit that the pizza crust, (yes, Greg ordered a pizza for breakfast) was quite good – possibly the best we have ever had.

Hillsboro, Oregon

After briefly cruising the streets of downtown Portland, admiring all the uh, vibrant(?) hair color trends, we traveled to Hillsboro to go blueberry picking at the Roshak Berry Shak. I stumbled upon Roshak’s when learning about marionberries. Luck was on our side as this u-pick location was only open for a handful of hours on the Saturday that we happened to be in town. Blueberries here were $2/pound and plentiful. Greg relished in the picking, while Roy enjoyed watching the planes land at a nearby airport. When we were preparing to leave, they informed us that there were a few rows of early raspberries and marionberries that were ready to pick as of that morning, so we did that as well and both of them were delicious. Now if only I could get Chuck to stop digging up my berry bushes back home…

Tillamook and Cloverdale, Oregon

Before continuing on to Tillamook, the “pilots” suggested that we pay a visit the Twin Oaks Airpark. The kids would have preferred to hang out there all day, but we had things to see.

Our roadtrip out to the coast took us about ninety minutes with windy roads and no cell signal. We finally arrived in Tillamook and stopped at the Blue Herron French Cheese Company to see what was there. It was quite busy, so we drove to the Tillamook Creamery, for a self-guided tour of the cheese factory. This was a very informative operation, in a well maintained building, where we learned how cheese was made. I particularly enjoyed watching both of my boys (attempt to) feed a calf by shoving the bottle up its nose hole and ear hole. We won’t be getting a cow anytime soon. Doug and the kids also appreciated the free cheese samples, I, personally, am not big a fan of cheese.

Continuing with the theme, we visited the Nestucca Bay Creamery in Cloverdale. We can’t vouch for the cheese, but the kids appreciated their handmade, fruit infused, ice cream. Greg got vanilla-strawberry, and Roy chocolate-strawberry. This made for happy campers.

Neskowin, Oregon

After filling up on ice cream, we continued further south on Hwy 101 to Neskowin (mile marker 98). Back in the winter of of 1997, a series of storms hit this central Oregon coastal town and unearthed what is known today as the Neskowin Ghost Forest. At low tide you are able to see the remnants of an ancient sitka spruce forest where the stumps have been estimated to be 2000 years old, and, when they were alive, were thought to have stood 150-200 feet high. The weather was pleasant when we arrived at the beach, but we did have to trek across a small knee deep “river” to get to the Forest. Roy had a bum toe, so he wasn’t able to go very far, but Greg humored me and stood next to a stump. This was our furthest point south on this trip.

Cape Meares, Oregon

Heading North on Hwy 101, we visited the Cape Meares Light, an inactive lighthouse located in Cape Meares at mile marker 64. It may be the shortest lighthouse on the Oregon coast, but it features an impressive, kerosene-powered lens. First lit in 1890, it was the most powerful and largest fresnel lens of its day, with mariners able to spot it from 21 miles out to sea. There is a (all downhill) paved .2 mile trail from the parking lot to the lighthouse. Be prepared for some serious winds en route.

Garibaldi, Oregon

Our place for the night was The Hotel Garibaldi at mile marker 55. Garibaldi is a quaint maritime village at the edge of Tillamook Bay. We had stopped at the grocery store prior, so had our meals sorted and so I have no dining advice for this location. The rooms were comfortable enough, but lacked darkening shades, so in a place where the sun sets after 10PM and rises before 5AM, it was hard to get a good nights sleep. The kids were fine there though, they can sleep through anything, except weekends. They never wake up late on weekends.

Rockaway Beach, Oregon

In the morning we stopped at Rockaway Beach to take in the Rockaway Big Tree Boardwalk — a boardwalk that leads not to a beach, but to an enormous tree. The entire walk took us about 30-minutes. We met a nice older couple there who helped us to spot and, using their binoculars, view an osprey tending to her nest.

Always the forager, Doug made us all sample salmonberries that he found while on the hike. These salmon colored berries were not pleasant at all. The kids thought they tasted like “salmon balls”, because, well, they are boys.

One thing that I wish I had known when I was visiting, is that Rockaway Beach is the home of the corn dog. The worlds largest corndog, a 30-foot fiberglass creation, strapped atop the Pronto Pup restaurant is just adjacent to the Big Tree Boardwalk. Sigh. Something like that is right up my alley.

Manzanita Beach, Oregon

Our plan for the rest of the day was to check out all the little beach towns up Hwy 101. Manzanita Beach (mile marker 43) was first, with a cute little downtown whereby the kids used their own money to purchase a Mozi (Roy) and a Glozi (Greg). These toys are engineering marvels (Doug wants one now too) that are made by the same company who makes the Shashibo. Anyone with kids in the eight to twelve range should probably check these out.

Driving north out of Manzanita, we stopped to hike the Elks Flat Trail to a viewpoint for Devil’s Cauldron, once again sampling salmonberries on the way. (Still no good.) There was nothing spectacular that we were able to see here, so we continued on to the Short Sand Beach to see the surfers do their thing. “Shorty’s” (as it is called), has become one of Oregon’s most popular surfing and boogie boarding destinations as being in a cove, it is protected from heavy weather, and the wave breaks are relatively consistent. Why anyone would ever want to surf or boogie board here is beyond me though – I prefer my beaches calm and warm. Anyway, the hike down to Short Sand Beach was just short of a mile, and luckily no salmonberries were consumed here.

Cannon Beach and Astoria, Oregon

Hug Point was another short drive north (mile marker 30) on Hwy 101, so we parked and attempted to walk the beach to the waterfall but fell short, partially because the tide was coming back in, but mostly because we were all tired. We continued up the road, through Cannon Beach, spotting Haystack Rock from our car, and Seaside, before arriving at the Comfort Suites Columbia River in Astoria. We grabbed dinner at Montealban Mexican (excellent), and then took a walk along the paved waterfront trail behind the hotel, wondering if the multiple container ships we saw on the Columbia River were coming or going. Oh, there was also this ominous explosion sound that we kept hearing in the distance. No idea what that was about.

In the morning we packed up our things, took a quick trip to see the “Goonies Residence”, and then continued to our final destination, Ocean Shores, Washington.

Ocean Shores, Washington

Friends of ours have a vacation home in Ocean Shores so we met up with that family and immediately went to lunch at Double Barrel BBQ. I am not a big fan of BBQ but the rest of the family loved it — Doug said it was the best BBQ he had ever had. I appreciated the cornbread was delightful. The kids topped off the meal with a scoop of ice cream before we headed to the pickle ball courts. As a regular tennis player, I have yet to embrace this sport (they are taking over all our tennis courts!) but it wasn’t the worst. After that we headed to the “beach” to “lay out” in our sweatpants and fleece jacket.

The evening was filled with fireworks, marshmallows, and lots of video games. Roy and Greg declared it the best night ever in the history or all the vacations that I have ever planned. Kids always know how to put you in your place, don’t they? Anyway, the kids stayed up way too late that night. In the morning we took a short hike on the Weatherwax Trail, then headed to the Oyhut Bay Playground to tear it up at the bounce house.

Around lunchtime, Doug, Roy, Greg and I were back in our rental car bound for the Seattle Airport. We stopped briefly to watch the paragliders landing off “Poo Poo Point”. We knew the kids would be motivated to go for a hike on something with “Poo Poo” in the name. The flight home on Southwest Airlines was uneventful. So much so that all three of our sand dollars survived, stuffed in each of our respective pockets. Yes, even Greg managed to get his home unscathed – it was an absolute miracle.