And to the beach we went!

Portland** was just gorgeous- Oregon and Washington are just beautiful- I am very fond of the Columbia River gorge and it was sad to leave it, but wow was the next stop amazing.  The Pacific Ocean was definitely worth that 1.5 hour drive to get to.  I have to say my compadre and partner in all things travel and I do a DAMN fine job planning these trips.  We really do hit the sweet spot between having an agenda and winging the hell out of it.

**  Yeah that was quite the break in posting from last fall to February!

We went through the Tillamook Forest and ended up heading over to the coast and both of us were able to see the Pacific Ocean for the first time.  YAY.
It has been quite a long time since I started this post and since we were in the PNW.  So I have photos and I will outline what we did - not a real lot- cuz, man, we were tired.

This was one of the 3 places we stopped and walked/hiked.  If I figure out where, I will edit!
Oh- never mind, It is on my phone:  Cape Meares.

We drove to the coast and stopped at a few places on the way to our condo in Rockaway Beach.  There was hiking on some really great trails, and we were overwhelmed (or at least I was) by the sheer power of the ocean.  It was quite incredible.  The waves were just relentless.

You know what was weird?  Seeing Tsunami danger zone signs while we were over there....  that was weird-

Oceanside, Or

Cape Meares

Oceanside

After our sojourns to the edge of land to stare down at the ocean below, we went and collapsed a while on couches and then went on a stroll along the beach.  It was pretty amazing.  And pretty chilly.  It was hot the first day we were in the PNW, and got a bit cooler as the week went on.  It was quite chilly by the ocean, and we are lucky we got out when we did, as there was some pretty stifling weather right after we left.  

Still at Oceanside- I think

A lone Mad-English teacher photographer guy

We did get over to Cannon Beach, the idea being get there at low tide and be able to get out to those big ass rocks, but since we are putzes, it sort of worked out.  And there wasn't much of a colorful sunset which was unfortunate....  oh well.  It was marvelous.

Cannon Beach

Though the sunset wasn't spectacular, it still was so lovely- we had a perfect view.  

How can you NOT want to walk through there?

Path to the sun

What a view!  Rockaway Beach

We ate in Cannon Beach, at a really nice little pizzeria that night, did a little shopping earlier where some souvenirs in the form of T-shirts and such were procured.  I know we ate breakfast at a cute little coffee shop, but we were on a mission to get to Portland in time for our flight, so we wasted little time.

One of the cute little vignettes I saw while at Rockaway

And of course then I got to ride in a plane again and that is always a hoot!  AND  we had an empty seat next to me, so we had a tiny bit of room to stretch out and dump our (my, it is always my stuff) stuff.

My self shifted to the aisle seat as soon as we began to depart.  :)

Another awesome adventure in the books!  and I am planning my travels for this summer and it is going to be a humdinger!  Yes I said humdinger....  :)  It is going to ROCK!

And that will be some joy to look forward to as I looked back at this!