Monday, June 13, 2011

Oregon Coast or Bust


This last week we took a family vacation to Portland and Seaside, Oregon. I will not lie... I was really nervous about the long drive, because lets be honest, Ava is a horrible traveler. Thankfully she did much better than expected. We used a DVD player with tons of Elmo and Barney, and made some stops visiting family in Tri-Cities, and Portland (no pictures --SAD), which made the driving portion of the trip a success.

After staying the night in Portland we headed to Seaside, Oregon for the rest of our trip.
The day we arrived was beautiful - warm and sunny - just perfect.
Remember this is the coast though...and weather wise...that was the only nice day.






We had a blast watching Ava touch sand for the first time, and running in the waves. She did not want to leave, and probably got a little too much sun that first day (I forgot the sunscreen).



Once in Seaside we met up with our great friends the Black's. (We love their family so much and wish they lived closer to Spokane.)


We took the kids to Cannon Beach at low tide to see the tide pools. It was fun to walk around the rocks and watch the kids get excited occasionally at the sea creatures.






Ava found a starfish that she found to be quite interesting.



One day we took a hike over a small mountain (more like a steep hill), to a gorgeous beach.


This was my favorite part of the trip. The scenery was breathtaking. The trail ended at this cute beach. We saw several locals surfing out in the waves.



Our final day on the coast we went south to a little beach called Hug Point. It would have been a great beach, but we got there at high tide. We only stayed for about 30 minutes before all the sand was nearly taken away by the ocean and we were left with only rocks to sit and play on (not a great scenario with little kids). At least we saw the sun for a few minutes though!!


Ava enjoyed playing in the sand for a few minutes before the tide took it away.







Ava loved, loved, LOVED the ocean, and would have been happy if we stayed there the rest of her life. She did not care if it was raining, windy, and 50 degrees out - she just wanted to be on the sand and in the water. Thank goodness her dad did not mind the cold as much as I did, and would get his feet wet with her several times a day.


This was definitely our favorite family vacation to date.

3 comments:

Black Family said...

We had such a great time with you guys! We sure wished we were closer but then we might not have our yearly blanderson trips!! We love you guys and great pics....well except for me standing in front of everyone looking large and in charge...ugg....I seriously need to go on a diet.....also since I gained like 3 pounds that week!! ah it was worth it...lol!

Kandis said...

looks like you had a wonderful time, i am also headed to the oregon coast via bike. riding from missoula to the coast. about a week out. if you want to see pictures check out tele-hike-bike.blogspot.com
take care

thefrommfam said...

jen that looks so fun. i have never been to the oregon coast and we were talking about taking the girls there sometime soon.

ps...i get to hang out with you more now that my summer has started!!!!!!