Portland Vacation Day 3 - the coast!

We had to take one day of vacation and make a trip to the coast. Tom had never been to the Pacific Ocean before, and I had only briefly seen it on a family vacation years ago. 

We headed out early-ish Wednesday morning for a drive out to the coast. The forecast was for clouds and a bit of rain so I wasn't quite sure how it would be. 

We headed first to Astoria, Oregon. The first place we went was this little coffee shop on a pier. And when I say it was on a pier, I mean that we had to drive on a wooden deck/road/bridge to get to it. It was kind of nerve wracking.  So much so that I didn't get a picture. So here is one thanks to Google. 

Yes. We parked on. the. dock.

The coffee was great though, and the scenery was pretty good too. 

 

It was still cloudy and cool, and I was regretting my sleeveless dress (more on that later).  I almost bought a Coffee Girl sweatshirt to take the chill off, but at $40 I didn't love it enough to own it forever. 

After coffee we hit (can you guess??) another brewery for lunch. I didn't take any pictures, but they had a beer called the Truffle Shuffle. You see, the movie Goonies was filmed in Astoria. I was in 80's geek heaven. We are definitely watching the movie with the boys very soon. 

We then set off for a drive down the coast. We stopped in Seaside at Seaside Brewery for a forgettable beer sampler. It really wasn't good at all. 

The first beach we went to was Arcadia Beach. Holy smokes, was this gorgeous. 

I took a minute to write a name in the sand. A friend from college and his wife lost a baby at birth and now they collect photos of her name written in the sand from all over the world. You can see the wave coming - a second later this name was washed away. I barely got the photo. 

After this beach we drove further down the coast to Oswald State Park. Here we found a beach that was so far off the road you had to walk down a heavily forested path along a creek to reach it. You don't see this in Illinois. 

Yes, this is the way to the beach. 

Completely gorgeous. 

This is where that sleeveless dress came back to haunt me. Remember the forecast for clouds?  See the sky?  The sun was intense, but the air was cool, and I got a bit sunburned. I know better but, well, I know better. 

After this beach we headed back to Portland.  Our navigator (Siri) led us on a journey through 13 miles of tight S-curves before reaching a main highway. Apparently there is no shortcut or easy way through these (mountains? Hills?).