Wednesday, June 28, 2017

Early start!  South along the coast to Ecola Park; super views of the famous Haystack Rock.  It's the pointy rock in the distance. From these pics it seems like a gloomy, chilly day, but it wasn't - it was just early and cloudy.  This is an awesome viewpoint; thanks to the guy at the map shop in Phoenix who recommended it.

These young ladies were from Beaverton.

Next we visited Cannon Beach, home of the Really Big Rock.

In the afternoon we drove up along the coast to Astoria, OR, then crossing a very long, impressive bridge that spans the mouth the Columbia river, into WA state.  Our destination was some lighthouses in the extreme SW corner of the WA State.  This was a little bit of a drive, but I found all the driving on this trip to be very scenic.  The park area of the lighthouses was beautiful.  We attempted a half mile or so hike downhill thru the woods to the lighthouse, but the distance and the terrain were a little too much for dad, so we didn't see the lighthouse.  It was still a nice stroll thru the woods, on a beautiful OR summer day. 

On the way back to Seaside we visited the Really Big Maritime Museum in Astoria.  Another attraction in the area is the Astoria Tower, which we didn't have time to see.  It commemorates the Astoria family being really rich; they were the founders of an early fur trading company in the area.  

Later that evening I drove the short distance from the Motel 6 into the town of Seaside, OR.  This is a very interesting, touristy town, with tons of restaurants, etc.  There is a sidewalk that runs between the wide sand beach and the town, called the Promenade, or Prom for short.  I took a long walk on the Prom and the beach, which for some reason created a severe hankering not for Seafood, but Mexican.  I found a super tamale at a little sidewalk cafe.  (They were flattered that I liked it, since I'm from AZ.)  Got souvenir T-shirts for the bro, sis, and myself.  Very nice little town.