The Oregon Coast

My family and I went to the Oregon Coast for our birthdays. My birthday id October 14^th and my husband and daughters birthdays are both November 3^rd.

It was so nice to get out of town together as a family. Our journey started out on Wednesday October 28^th. We drove 10 hours to get from Nampa Idaho to Seaside Oregon. That was 4 ½ movies in kid time!

We were able to stop at Camp 18 for dinner, which we have never done in all our trips to the coast. It was great food and a wonderful atmosphere. If you get a chance to visit I would stop in for a bite to eat. Check out their website at www.camp18restaurant.com

Once we were checked in, no time was wasted… It was off to the beach. Our room was amazing, we stayed at the Shilo Inn and it had an ocean view with a fireplace and a kitchen in it! Marty won a $250 gift certificate to the Shilo Inn in a golf tournament, so we went for the best room!

As we put on our winter coats to head down to the beach because it was only about 40 degrees outside we saw that the hotel had a 24 hr. pool and spa. Yep you guessed it next stop the pool. We were not even on the beach for 10 min. and we were already hearing “when can we go swimming.” So after a short wet (it started to rain) walk on the beach we came back and went swimming.

The next morning we had to wake up at 6am. We HAD to be the first ones out on the beach to find ALL the sand dollars. Well I am not sure where all the sand dollars went to but we did see about 12 squid that had been washed up on shore. I had never seen squid like that before. They have one giant eyeball and it was freaky looking! After about an hour looking we decided to come back in and eat some breakfast. After breakfast we went back out but still no luck.

Because it was raining we decided to go on a field trip to other small towns around Seaside. We found a old ship wreck so we had to stop and explore there. We went to Fort Stevens and saw all the old battles fields. Then we decided to get back on the road and head to Cannon Beach. Still raining we shopped in some of the stores there then decided after lunch to brave the rain and head down to the beach by Haystack Rock.

There are always great tide pools around Haystack Rock, and once again we were not let down. Despite the rain and the wind we were able to see o many wonderful sea creatures.

By the time we got back to the car I think we each weighed about 20 more pounds because we were soaking wet from the rain. But it was still great family time together.