I was originally going to take Monday off but because I started a new job that would make me look really bad taking my second day of work off. Ben submitted the days at Lowes but at the last minute scheduled him a shift. I asked him if he could trade with someone and he said he would ask. I love how when you have weekends where you're not busy and need something to do but they don't schedule you hours but when you have plans you schedule the weekend away. It's stupid and I was annoyed. It was a long drive and you needed at least two-three days to enjoy it. At that point it was going to be a kamikaze mission down and back without enjoying it. Basically leave at 2 p.m. on a Saturday and come back Sunday. We wouldn't be there until dinner time. I really didn't want to spend my whole weekend driving. I told him to tell his manager that it was his sister's 30th birthday and that it was important that we come down for it. He did end up trading with someone else and that left a little bit more time to enjoy our trip down there. We would be leaving really early Saturday morning and leaving Sunday. Still not ideal but we will have to go with it.
We packed most of our stuff the night before so we would have less to do really early in the morning. I made sure the Escape had gas in it and that the seats were down to maximize room in the back.
The next morning we got up around 6 and packed the rest of the stuff in the Escape. I told him to eat a banana because we were going to find breakfast on the way there. We left officially around 7 a.m. The weather was beautiful.
We got onto the freeway and headed south down I-5. I asked Ben what sounded good for breakfast and he said the usual, which was a full on, sit down breakfast. I knew of a place I haven't been to and people have raved about it. Let's go try Judy's in Centralia. He said sure. We got there and it was insanely packed. Okay, raincheck on this one for another time. The only other place I knew about was the Country Cousin. We both had eaten there before. The place was busy but it is much bigger and can old more people.
We sat down and ordered. It didn't take very long for our food to arrive. It was delicious and hit the spot. As we ate, I told him what our itinerary was and he was like okay. He usually just went with my travel plans since I knew my way around more than he did.
We finished up, paid and headed back down I-5 south.
Traffic was pretty minimal and we got to Longview pretty quickly. I had Ben call Trish to find out where they were and what route they were taking down. She didn't answer but called us back when we were in Astoria. We crossed over the Lewis & Clark Bridge into Oregon and headed west towards Astoria. I picked a few caches (with favorite points) along the way to get just so we weren't in the Escape for hours driving.
Our first stop was in Clatskanine, a small town not too far away from where we crossed over the bridge. I had Ben tell me where to go with the GPS. We missed the small gravel driveway so we had to turn around. PUD (GC5TCGR) was really hard to pinpoint because the coordinates were so bad. I eventually just started looking in the trees. After a few minutes we finally found it. The cache was pretty cool.
We continued a little further down Hwy 30. There really wasn't that much traffic which was nice. As we got closer to the next cache, I could see the pull out next to the guard rail. We stopped, got out and expected something really cool. Canned Fish (GC5KQY1) had a lot of favorite points but we found out it was just a generic guard rail cache. It had been replaced without the owner's permission. Later on, he messaged me telling me that it was suppose to be a fish and send me a picture of what it used to look like. He later archived it.
We continued west to Astoria. When we got there Ben and I remembered the last time we were here last year with Trish and Amy. We had stayed in Long Beach. Just outside to Astoria, near Warrenton, Trish called us back to let us know that they had just finished breakfast in Hawks Prairie. "You are still in Hawks Prairie??" Ben and I both asked. She said they got kind of a lateish start but they had no other stops planned until they got to the coast. They were going to go towards Aberdeen and take 101 down. I told her that was a really long drive. They were okay with it. We had several stops along the way I wanted to do so they might catch up to us. She told us that they would see us at the condo.
I saw a Goodwill just as we pulled up to a traffic light in Warrenton so we stopped. We thought since we were here we should use the restroom. We found two shirts for Ben for under $10. He needs some new t-shirts because his were getting pretty ancient.
There really wasn't any need to stop at Seaside, plus the traffic through there was insane today, so we just passed our way through. I told Ben about the last time I was in Seaside, which was about eight years ago. We continued down Hwy 101 until we got to Cannon Beach. I missed the turn off because I wasn't paying attention so we had to flip a U. I followed the directions to the earthcache, Beach Sand (GC7Q999).
After figuring out where it was taking us we decided to park in the public lot and walk to it. We changed our shoes, grabbed what we needed and enjoyed the beach for a while. We started with the earthcache. It taught us a little bit more about sand, erosion and the basic properties of the beach itself. We had a fun experience getting the sand to squeak under our feet.
We walked to the shore to find Haystack Rocks! (GC20CAX). It took us a while to find because the hint was terrible and our coords bounced all over the place. I eventually just started looking at every shrub, tree and large rock. Yay! We found it!
We walked the half mile back to the public parking lot. My calves started to get tired so I moved to the wet sand. When we got close we tried to remember which trail we took onto the beach because they all looked similar. We found the correct one, got in the Escaped and left Cannon Beach for our next stop, which was at the overlook off of Hwy 101. I wanted to get Haystack Rock (GC2MA37) which was an earthcache. I was actively trying to get to my 100 earthcache milestone this weekend and I was super close. All we had to do was answer a few questions about the rock and some approximates from where we were standing. .
Several miles later we came up on a really cool overlook from Hwy 101. We stopped, got out and took a few pictures. Ben got some on the GoPro. So pretty.
We drove through some small towns called Manzanita (which had a coastal tornado October 2016), Nehalem, Wheeler and Nedonna Beach. Just south of there we stopped again to grab a TB Hotel that said it had travel bugs in it. I was trying to collect a bunch of TB's so I could make my own TB Hotel. We pulled into Manhattan Beach and it was just in time for a bathroom break. We used the facilities and then walked out to where Manhattan Beach Travel Bug Hotel (GC5PN7M) was on the small trail. It was an easy grab but unfortunately there were no travel bugs inside. This was my unhappy face.
Since we were unhappy we finished the trail out to the beach to get happy again. Ben took a really nice pano of the beach before we walked back, got into the Escape and continued our journey south on Hwy 101.
When we got to Rockaway Beach we tried finding two more caches but they were either missing or just really well hidden. Oh well. There are plenty more to find.
We continued south down Hwy 101 and got stuck behind someone going ten under the speed limit. It was hard to pass them because we had gotten to some swirly roads with not many opportunities to pass. If there was a straight stretch someone was always coming from the opposite side.
When we finally did get to Tillamook I noticed they did a lot of changes to the creamery and the visitor's center. It looked like a completely different building than the last time I was there...which was probably six years ago. We found a parking spot and made our way to the visitor's center. We looked at some of the artifacts and then got in line to try the various flavors of their "squeaky cheese."
We looked at some of the gifts in the gift shop before making our way to the crazy ice cream lines. I knew what I wanted but had to wait for Ben to decide because he has a hard time deciding on food and desserts for some reason. I got mint chocolate chip and Ben finally decided on monster cookie. I usually get pink bubble gum because this was the only place that served it but sadly they did not have it this time. We sat outside and enjoyed our ice cream.
We tried getting the cache, Say Cheese (GC2CECJ) but it was behind the fence that was not open to the public yet. Bummer.
Now came the longest uninterrupted part of the journey (no stopping for geocaches.) We had checked in with Trish after spending some time at the Tillamook Goodwill across the street from the creamery. She said that they were just south of us in Hebo. They had finally caught up to us and passed us up. We had some serious mileage to put behind us. We maneuvered our way down the coast and slowing down at the many small towns along the way. We got to Hebo and the highway 22 junction towards Salem...we continued on. When we reached the highway 18 junction and many memories came flooding back about when I lived in McMinnville. I shared some of those stories with Ben as we drove.
We finally got to Lincoln City and our long drive was almost over. I was so ready to relax for a while. I almost turned into the wrong driveway to the condo when we looked at Nuvi. She tried to lie to us. We found the building our room was in and called Trish to let us in. We brought up a few bags, she gave us our keycard and brought up the rest of our stuff. She showed us what room we would be staying in.
We chilled for a bit, went outside to walk around and see the views from the cliff (Ben had to bother the Canadian Geese) and then figured out where we wanted to go to dinner.
There was a place called Maxwell's that had a karaoke bar. We all decided to do dinner before hand and then head on into the other room for pool and karaoke. I had a French dip sandwich and fries and a Pepsi on the side. It was delicious and our waitress was hilarious.
We paid and went into the other room just before karaoke started. I am not much of a karaoke singer so I opted to play a few games of pool with Ben and Trish. I was badly out of practice and played really horrible but still had fun.
We were only there for about an hour and a half...enough time for Amy to sing a few songs. I looked to see if there were any geocaches nearby and found one in the parking lot we parked in. Ben and I took a few moments to look for Visitors Use Me (GC11QFZ) which was hidden in a hole with a lid on it. We all headed back to the condo in Depoe Bay.
I took a shower and got ready for bed. I was exhausted from getting up in the morning and all that driving. Plus, we had to get up at a fairly decent time tomorrow so we can enjoy part of the day at the coast before we had to drive all that way back home. This was definitely going to be a quick weekend.
Next Adventure: Driving Home From the Oregon Coast and McMinnville
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