The Coast

On Monday, July 9th, we took a family trip to the coast. It was supposed to be about 90 degrees in Portland and we thought it would be an excellent day to go to the coast. The coast is about 70 miles from Portland; a nice hour and a half drive.

Our first stop was in Seaside where James cooked up some hot dogs for us. It was a lot cooler than we expected - as in, "wow, glad I brought my sweater" and "oops, I forgot to bring some warmer clothing for Gibson" cooler. The temperature dropped 25 degrees in four miles; basically, from the turn off to get to the beaches to the beach. It was 59 degrees, overcast and very windy.

I bundled Gibson up in a blanket and put his hat on for warmth. While we were eating lunch, I was wearing him in a wrap and was able to zip my sweater over him so he was nice & warm.

James took a picture of an interesting tree root on the beach.
After our lunch, we walked around downtown Seaside for a little bit. It was chilly and we decided to go to Cannon Beach, 8 miles down the coast. Wow, what a difference 8 miles makes! The sun was shining and it was WARM when the breeze wasn't blowing. We decided to sit on the sand for a while. I put Gibson's feet into a stream that was flowing into the ocean. The water was cold, but felt good in the heat - at least to me and all the kids who were innertubing in the current. Gibson didn't like it at all.

Here's Gibson in front of the famous Haystack Rock. This is looking South.

Turn around and look to the North towards Ecola State Park (and Seaside), and you could see the clouds rolling over the hills. Fortunately, they stayed there.

When we got back to our car, we jump-started a car for a group of teens. I'm pretty sure that's them in the above picture. How ironic.

When Gibson got fussy, it was time to leave. He did enjoy looking around at everyone from the great spot on his dad's chest, but it was difficult to look anywhere but down because the sun was so bright.