So today we drove to the ocean and back. We're staying in the same hotel tonight as last night...it's nice being able to leave your stuff somewhere for a day, so we didn't have to worry about driving to anywhere. Our route took us north to Kelso, WA, west to Astoria, OR, south to Seaside and Cannon Beach, OR, then south the Tillamook, OR, and finally, back into Portland. To see our route, click here. Each of the yellow pause icons are places we stopped, except the first one, that's just to get the route correct.
The first place we stopped was in Seaside, OR. We walked out to the ocean for a little and walked along the water....it was really cold. Anyway, I didn't take any pictures here, I saved that for the next stop.
Next we drove down to Cannon Beach, OR and pretty much did the same thing, walking along the beach for a bit. The sand was very hot (it was about 100 degrees out here today...about 20 degrees higher than is normal), but the water cooled it off quickly...so as long as we walked along the wet sand or in the shallow water, it wasn't too bad.
At Cannon Beach, I did take a few photos, since there are some interesting looking rock formations nearby. I took this photo of Sarah at the ocean, and then this shot of both of us. In case you couldn't tell, I'm getting a little tan from all the time outside in the sun lately.
There were quite a few seagulls, so I shot some photos of them: bird with an itch, low flying seagull.
Then I shot some photos of the rocks around Cannon Beach, this shot is looking north up the beach, and this shot is of one of the more recognizable landmarks along the Oregon Coast, Haystack Rock at Cannon Beach...it's looking south from where we were on the beach.
We then continued south and stopped at a couple of scenic overlooks taking this photo, and this photo.
We then got to Tillamook, OR, known for it's cheese factory. They have self-guided tours, windows where you can look down on the factory floor, and a cafeteria/gift shop where you can buy cheese, ice cream, or other Tillamook Cheese merchandise. It was a pretty impressive operation, but I still think there's something to be said about making cheese the old-fashioned way like we saw last summer in Wisconsin. Anyway, we bought some cheese, and some curds that we ate on the way back to Portland. They were decent...again, not as good as Wisconsin, but the were at least squeaky...the way fresh curds should be.
Then we drove back into Portland, about 30 miles of it through a state forest, which was pretty windy, but was nice and shaded most of the way. We got caught in some of the rush hour traffic heading north out of the downtown area on the way back through though, so it took us about 15-20 minutes to move two miles at one point, but it wasn't too bad...our car's air conditioning is still working great thankfully.
Anyway, that's about all we did today, got back to the hotel at around 7ish, our time. Tomorrow it's off to our hotel downtown, and time for my meetings and business stuff. It's kinda like it's back to work, but not exactly. I like to think of it as easing myself back into work, then getting another four day break as we drive home. I'm not sure what the situation will be for internet at our next hotel (it's supposed to be $10 a day for it), so updates may be infrequent until we leave on Sunday. Then again, I probably won't be going much of anywhere interesting, so there won't be too much to show you anyway.
You might hear from me tomorrow if I can find free wireless internet somewhere near the hotel. G'nite.
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