Posts tagged ‘beach’

Sea Lion Caves

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One thing we have in common is that when we were kids, Jessie and I both visited the Sea Lion Caves just north of Florence, Oregon.  Jessie and I also have Sarah Michael in common, so the only thing left to do to complete our lives is bring together Sarah Michael and the Sea Lion Caves.

Done!

But first, let’s back up to this morning.

We slept well last night, and we probably could have slept in a little more except that our next-door neighbor Mr. Maple Lane RV Park and Marina Weekender fired up his Harley at 8am to go to work.  Ahhh, that nearly-trademarked Harley Davidson sound.

Once we were up and about we were able to see what this RV Park actually looks like.  This place is really nice!  Our spot next to the river really is the best spot on campus and I’m glad we’re here.  Yes we are 15 miles east of Florence so it is a drive to get anywhere, but having such a beautiful and peaceful home base for a few days is excellent.

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The first thing Sarah Michael and I did was to start decorating and setting up the outside of our RV.  We noticed in Cannon Beach that many of the obviously-experienced RVers made an effort to make their camps feel like home with various kinds of decorations.  So we set out to personalize our spot.

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We hung lights from the awning, fun little strings of lights with stars and moons and strings of flower lights.  They’re kinda horrible, they’re kinda cute.  We also laid out an outdoor carpet and set up our folding chairs and table. These touches really make the place feel comfortable, it doesn’t have the temporary any-moment-we’re-gonna-bolt vibe, this shows we’re committed to having fun.

While SM and I decorated, Jessie did laundry. We needed to do laundry after only two nights on the road? Well, no, not really, but we discovered the laundry here is free so Jessie decided to start making her $28 a night camping fee really work for us.  I also have this feeling that Jessie secretly enjoys doing laundry.

Now, let’s talk Sea Lion Caves.

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In order to understand this place you have to know two things:

  • there are Sea Lions
  • they are in a cave

To get to the caves you pay your admission then walk down to an elevator which takes you 208 feet straight down into the rocky cliff.  The elevator doors open and you are greeted to a smell that is, well, strong.

You walk down a tunnel to a viewing area where you get to witness many Sea Lions hanging out on rocks, fighting each other for a better spot on the rocks, and otherwise doing whatever they do to create stench.

Not that any of this is bad, it is just that until your nostrils become accustomed to a new way of life you are quite aware that something really stinks.

The Sea Lion Caves are really neat, actually, so when you do your trip along the Oregon Coast be sure you make the stop.  Check out the pics.

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After the cave visit we were going to go back up to Newport to see the aquarium, but the highway was blocked by an accident so instead we turned around to go back and chill at the RV.

On the way back we stopped at the beach and walked and ran and enjoyed the sand.  It was really windy on the beach and the sand felt good on our toes.

Eventually we returned to our little river paradise and relaxed for the rest of the afternoon.

Ahhhhhh.

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Day 2, we’re further South

Our second day in the RV world was a success!  We had no trouble flushing the sewer pipe and disconnecting this morning, that was really my biggest worry.

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We went to the beach and walked down to Haystack Rock.  The beach of Cannon Beach is always fun to walk on and since the tide was out we got to look at beautiful starfish in the tide pools.  I took several pictures of some of the life attached to the rocks, so be sure to see our pics up at Flickr.

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Unfortunately as we we were starting south down 101 out of Cannon Beach we had a bit of a mishap.  Sarah Michael was sitting behind the passenger seat in the chair beneath where I have the wireless internet router gear setup when I took one of the windy turns a little too fast and all the stuff fell down right onto SM’s head!  She started bawling and we quickly pulled over to fix her up and better-secure the equipment.  Later we got some velcro from Fred Meyer to hold things down and that worked well the rest of the day.

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In Tillamook we stopped at the Tillamook Air Museum which is cool.  It is housed in an old Navy hangar that was built during WWII for K-class airships- blimps.  The building is enormous and is impressive to stand inside.  They have many different aircraft there including an F-14 Tomcat and a Mini Guppy.  This was really a fun place to visit.

Traveling even on the windy roads was fine, I really like driving.  Our jobs today were that I drove, Jessie passengered and Sarah Michael alternated between playing and singing along with her iPod.  She loves the songs she learned at Vacation Bible School a couple weeks ago and so we loaded the CD onto the iPod. Jessie and I got quite a laugh out of hearing her mis-sing the God of Wonders song, instead of singing “You are Holy” she would belt out “You are Hoe-y”.

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When it was dinner time we were driving through Newport, so we decided to find a place to eat.  We parked the RV and drove the Jeep down to the historic bayfront area to find some seafood.  Parking was a bit of a problem, we saw lots and lots of restaurants, with lots and lots of cars filling every spot.  So we kept driving until we were nearly at the end of the strip when parking started coming available.  At that same time we spied a restaurant called Local Ocean Seafoods that had that level of busy-ness that suggested we were at the right place.  Jessie and SM shared some crab, I had fish tacos.  The food was great.

More driving after dinner and then we finally we ended up in our new location.  We’ll reveal all tomorrow.