Final Oregon Post

Our fifth day of the trip was our day to drive to the coast. This was the first time we had rented our car for the whole trip. We felt pretty accomplished that we were able to get everywhere we wanted to go using public transportation.
Our first stop was Cannon Beach. It was yet another rainy day so the beach was very cold and windy but we still loved it. In these pictures is Haystack rock which, if we heard correctly, is in the movie Goonies! Love that show. Tyler got brave and walked through all those rocks and waves to Haystack rock. I had to borrow Tyler's shoes to wear at the beach so I wasn't risking falling in the water!

We continued our long drive down the coast toward Tillamook. These are some of the pictures that I got along the way. It was gorgeous!

We stopped for some pizza in Tillamook and it was ginormous! That mountainous half is the taco pizza. It was interesting... :)

If anyone recognizes the name Tillamook, then you probably know of their cheese. Driving past the Tillamook Cheese Factory, we decided that we should stop in and check it out. Plus we knew we would get free samples. Can't pass up on that! It actually was really interesting seeing how they make the cheese and package it and store it. I tried every sample, even the squeaky cheese, which was a bit unnerving for me. We also got their super yummy ice cream and ice cream soda!

Tyler had booked our hotel for our coastal stay in Depoe Bay. I was so excited to stay there, it was a cute little inn whose inn keepers were a nice old married couple that made breakfast for us in the morning. I would definitely stay there again. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of it, bummer. We checked in at about 6:00 and the whole town was so quiet, especially our hotel, we felt like we had to whisper. Such a sleepy little place. 

The next day we were off to the coastal aquarium. That Japanese Spider crab you see below is a baby! The picture with Tyler in it is how big that crab is going to get! Eek!

The Shark tunnel was way sweet. They even had glass on the floors, so you really were surrounded by sharks. This made me want to get scuba certified so bad!

On our way to the aquarium we had seen a lighthouse, so after we were done we headed back to see if we could find our way there. Once we got there, it was awesome. They were cleaning the lighthouse at the time so we weren't able to go in it, but it was still fun to walk around outside of it. 

As I was looking around I heard some people oohing and ahhing so of course I had to see what they were looking at. Over the ledge were tons of seals! They are kind of hard to see in this picture, but they are just lounging on the rocks, catching some sun. There was a baby seal that just went off on its own into the water and I was so concerned because where in the world was it's mother?!?!?! I stayed there waiting for it to come back for like 10 minutes and it never did. Hopefully it's ok!

Also below the lighthouse were some tide pools. This was way more exciting than the aquarium just because how cool is it to find starfish in their natural habitat?

Probably the highlight of the whole trip for me was turning around and suddenly seeing this crazy octopus stalking some fish. Seriously the coolest thing I have ever seen! I was freaking out! He was moving pretty fast and I had to snap a quick picture before he went under that rock there. There was a man who was in charge of the tide pools and we told him that we saw an octopus and he said we were way lucky because he rarely ever comes out.

After the lighthouse we started heading back to the hotel, looking for some caves along the way. Well we found some! So then we, of course, had to find a way to get down to them. I wish I had taken a picture of the crazy climb I took to get down to these caves. Seriously, there was a rope tied to the tree and everything to help you get down. Oh the things I do for my husband ;) Once we got down, the trek was worth it. The caves were awesome and we got to watch a pretty sweet sunset from our spot too.

There was restaurant right above the caves that we found, so we decided to eat there. It looked like a complete hole in the wall, but once we got inside we loved it! This picture isn't very good but at least it shows the cool view that we had of the ocean, sunset, and the caves we went to.