The Oregon Coast Road Trip
July 2, 2017
I am so excited to share today's post with you as this is the first Travel posting for my blog! I however do plan on keeping this going as my husband and children are exploring this beautiful world we live in together. I am going to apologize upfront with all of these photos, but that is also another hobby that I have grown to love as I merged into the blogging world.
Some background about this trip. Oregon has been our home for more than 25 years and we never had a chance to explore this amazing beautiful state. We love Portland, Oregon and we are not planning on moving anywhere, anytime soon.
Some background about this trip. Oregon has been our home for more than 25 years and we never had a chance to explore this amazing beautiful state. We love Portland, Oregon and we are not planning on moving anywhere, anytime soon.
This trip has been in the back of our heads for more than a year now, and we have finally made it. I wished we had more days to explore further South of Oregon, but this would have to be it for now. We are definitely going to try another road trip along Brookings and to visit the Gold Beach in the near future. We have already started talking about a road trip along the Washington Coast next year.
DAY 1: We started out at our home and driving to the furthest destination of the trip first. The plan was to stay mainly on the U.S. 101 to admire the sceneries along the road, over 3 nights and 4 days. We stopped at each town here and there along the way to explore the highlights of each city and “tried” to dine at one of the town’s favorite restaurants.
We took off early in the morning and arrived at the first rest area before entering the smaller highway towards Florence, Oregon. With our kids at the ages of 4 and 5, taking long breaks are necessary so they could roam around and free their spirits for a short while before coming back to those constrained car-seats again.
DAY 1: We started out at our home and driving to the furthest destination of the trip first. The plan was to stay mainly on the U.S. 101 to admire the sceneries along the road, over 3 nights and 4 days. We stopped at each town here and there along the way to explore the highlights of each city and “tried” to dine at one of the town’s favorite restaurants.
We took off early in the morning and arrived at the first rest area before entering the smaller highway towards Florence, Oregon. With our kids at the ages of 4 and 5, taking long breaks are necessary so they could roam around and free their spirits for a short while before coming back to those constrained car-seats again.
Here, the kids got their first souvenirs for the trip—dried pine cones they found from the nearby park. What is better than getting souvenirs for free?!
Florence, Oregon
This part of our trip was definitely one of my favorite. Before planning this trip, I have never heard of Florence. But after viewing a few pictures online through my research, I felt in love with the city. And it did not disappoint me! In real life, the city is more beautiful than behind the lenses.
Our first stop in Florence was at Jessie M. Honeyman Memorial State Park. The sand here is extremely soft and white, and for a minimal parking fee of $5, we spent almost half of our day sitting on the sand dunes, sunbathing and enjoying the lightly breeze from the nearby river with the incredibly blue water. The kids loved this place where they climbed the “hills” of sand, tried to do the sand surf and got wet in the river.
Our first stop in Florence was at Jessie M. Honeyman Memorial State Park. The sand here is extremely soft and white, and for a minimal parking fee of $5, we spent almost half of our day sitting on the sand dunes, sunbathing and enjoying the lightly breeze from the nearby river with the incredibly blue water. The kids loved this place where they climbed the “hills” of sand, tried to do the sand surf and got wet in the river.
After a few hours of playing in the sand, we checked into our hotel on the riverside in the heart of Florence. We tried to explore the town but most of the places were already closed by 5PM. We also wanted to have dinner at the Waterfront Depot, which is ranked #1 restaurant in town, but they were fully booked until really late that night. We knew the kids couldn't wait for that long, so we decided to try the next best thing, “Prime Rib” buffet at the Three Rivers Casino. This place has a very small buffet selection; they did not even have pizza or fries for the kids. Their Prime Rib was alright, but was nothing to “wow” us. The kids did enjoy their unlimited smoothies though. After dinner, we went to a few stores along the way back to the hotel and called it the night as we recouped for a long day on the road.
DAY 2: My daughter, Averie NhaUyen, and I woke up early the next day and decided to explore the Old Town of Florence at 6:30AM. We took a short walk to the Siuslaw River Bridge to breathe in the fresh air in the morning.
DAY 2: My daughter, Averie NhaUyen, and I woke up early the next day and decided to explore the Old Town of Florence at 6:30AM. We took a short walk to the Siuslaw River Bridge to breathe in the fresh air in the morning.
We strolled along the bridge to view the boats sailing from the Siuslaw River out into the Pacific Ocean, and window-shopping alongside those little but cute antique shops.
After a quick breakfast at the hotel, we packed and headed to the next destination. We passed by the Darlingtonia State Natural Site and stopped at the North America's largest Sea Lion Cave for a short tour. We spent about an hour here, to view hundreds of sea lion lying along the rocks and listening to her squeals against to the ocean waves. We walked along the manmade trails and took the elevator down into the cave where we learned a little bit about the sea lion habitat. This was early morning, about 9AM, so there were still a lot of fog and clouds hanging over the sky. It was a cold, chilly day for late May—but that is typical for the Oregon Coast. I recommend you to carry a thick jacket just in case as the weather here can be very unpredictable.
After visiting the sea lion cave, we headed to the historic Heceta Head Lighthouse, and was hoping to do a short hike (1/2 mile) up to the lighthouse. Unfortunately, we took the wrong turn and went on the most horrendous ride of my life. We were in what seem to be like a "rain forest." The car was driving on an unpaved one-way road, sitting between the mountain and the cliff. Our car hung perfectly on that narrowed road, and if we had made one wrong move, we could have fallen off the cliff and no one would have known! I don't know what have gotten in to us, but my husband kept driving until the car could no longer drive anymore, and that was when my husband decided to head back out. We were all alone in the woods, without any cell phone signals.
And that was the worse 10-15 minutes of the entire trip (or my entire life!), as I realized how unadventurous I became as I get older. Honestly, I was more worried about the kids' safety than anything. But fortunately, my husband did it again. He's like a hero that always came to rescue the kids and me at the right time. He was able to drive us out of that forest safely, in one piece...Wheewww! You don't know how happy I was the moment we reached the exit road.
We did eventually find our way to the lighthouse, except we were no longer in the mood to hike up there. I was exhausted from all the adrenaline and so we decided to skip it and to head to our next destination.
Newport, Oregon
It is an approximately 60-minute drive from Florence to Newport, on the U.S. 101 highway. Newport is definitely the biggest town we visited during this road trip. There were plenty of places to dine at and a lot more variety to choose from than Florence. The first thing we did was stopping at McDonald's for the kids to get their favorite French fries, cheeseburgers and strawberry-banana smoothies. We allowed them to hang out at the playground area for a while before engaging into our first activity, which is a visit to the Hatfield Marine Science Center. Here the kids get to pet the starfish, play with the fake sand, learn how the ocean waves occur and watch the daily octopus feeding at 1 PM.
After fueling the children's little brains with a load of science, we checked into our hotel and took a short nap before going to the beach. The weather had made a twist on us during this trip, and the sun did not come out for the entire time we were in Newport. The beach was almost deserted as it was really chilly. But the kids would not give up any opportunity to spend a day on the beach. They still wanted to play with the water on beach and to get dirty in the sand. Being the true Oregonians, we packed blankets and put on layers and headed to the beach for the day.
The hotel is right on the beach, so it was a short walk to the beach for us. I enjoyed lying on the thick blanket that we borrowed from the hotel, munching on our snacks, listening to the music while capturing some beautiful father-bonding moments between my husband and the kids. They ought to love time with Daddy!
The hotel is right on the beach, so it was a short walk to the beach for us. I enjoyed lying on the thick blanket that we borrowed from the hotel, munching on our snacks, listening to the music while capturing some beautiful father-bonding moments between my husband and the kids. They ought to love time with Daddy!
Following a long, cold day on the beach, we had dinner at Georgie's Beachside Grill, where they served traditional American seafood. We loved the fact that this restaurant was right across from our hotel. Learned from my previous experience, I called ahead for an arranged seating so it took us less than ten minutes to get a table by the time we arrived. However, there were plenty of people ahead of us who had to wait for more than 30 minutes before they could get in. The food was reasonably priced and the view of the beach was phenomenon. After dinner, we took a ride along the downtown area to visit the Nye Beach and got to try the famous BJ ice-cream. And that was a day filled of activities at Newport.
DAY 3: The next morning, we woke up and headed out the door quite early. The short 25-mile drive from Newport took us to Depoe Bay and the Lincoln City Outlet Mall. We spent about an hour here to get new shoes and toys for the kids before heading to the next destination.
Cannon Beach, Oregon
Cannon Beach is one of the popular beaches in Oregon. It is much closer to Newport and Florence from Portland, just roughly a 2-hour from the city. I have lived in Oregon for what seems like eternity, and I had never had a chance to see the Haystack Rock this close. So, here is a gorgeous picture of the kids, owning the rock and the beach to themselves for a few minutes.
The weather was slightly overcast again, although we did see some sun-ray here and there. The temperature was slightly warmer here than it was in Newport. This means the kids spent a few more hours on the beach, playing in the sand and making their castles, and planting “dead” plants and looking for broken seashells.
The weather was slightly overcast again, although we did see some sun-ray here and there. The temperature was slightly warmer here than it was in Newport. This means the kids spent a few more hours on the beach, playing in the sand and making their castles, and planting “dead” plants and looking for broken seashells.
We left Cannon Beach at around 6PM and headed to our last final destination that night. It took us another 60 minutes from Cannon Beach to Astoria, driving along the U.S. 101 highway. My husband was caving for some Chinese food and the kids needed to rest so we stopped by Panda Express to grab some to-go for dinner that night. We arrived to the hotel around 7PM and had dinner in our room. After that, the kids and I went to explore the amenities including visiting the hotel’s library and the swimming pool, and then finally went back to the room for a short family movie before bedtime.
Astoria, Oregon
Day 4: We woke up early as we wanted to spend our time wisely on the last day before heading home. We had breakfast at the hotel and drove to the Astoria Column, which was a short 10-minute drive from our hotel. Here, we get to see the entire view of the city, the lake and the Astoria-Megler Bridge spreading four miles across the Columbia River, connecting Oregon and Washington together. I enjoyed the view from the column, but not so much the “hike” up those circular stairs. It was definitely a good morning workout for our family this morning.
Next, we visited the well-known Columbia River Maritime Museum to spend sometimes learning about its collections and exhibits, including the bridge of the WWII era Destroyer USS Knapp and the 44-foot U.S. Coast Guard motor lifeboat 44300. We were debating if we should take a one-hour trolley in Astoria but the kids did seem to be up for it, so I decided to forgo that this time. We spent good hour at the Museum before passing by the Astoria Riverwalk briefly on our way to the Long Beach in Washington before we headed home.
So there you have it! The beautiful nature that Oregon has to offer. It was awesome and the kids totally dug the entire experience.
xoxo,
Tristina
xoxo,
Tristina
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