New job, new home, new residence, new year. Since our harrowing drive here, we've been in constant over drive accomplishing way too much in too little time. From unpacking boxes, decorating for Christmas, to getting to know the local area, last minute Christmas shopping and shipping, and arranging furniture. It was finally our first official weekend with nothing really on the schedule to do and our first row of sunny days. With nothing but rain and clouds since we got here, I made the command decision to do something fun. Since we've gone north to Mt. St. Helen's, West to Astoria, and East to the Columbia River Gorge, I thought we should try south. My search yielded the Mt. Hood Scenic Byway. We packed our camera gear, strapped on hiking boots and set off. Halfway into our drive, we noticed the clouds were getting thicker, and that the sunny skies seemed to be north, where you could actually see Mt. St. Helen's. But I had a plan that we were gonna stick to. Even though I tend to be a 'technology' navigationally challenged person, I didn't have much trouble finding the byway. The signs every 100 yards or so helped too. The first part of our drive was quite boring. All downtown city streets. Then you would find a set of open fields, then back to downtown city streets. We finally found ourselves in the mountains...I mean hills. But there was nothing awe-inspiring the entire way. Then we connected back with the main highway, and went on our way to Mt. Hood, to just find heavy, wet snow and roads that hadn't really been plowed. Just cleared from all the traffic going to the ski resorts. As we passed a chain up area, there were several cars stopped, removing their chains. We stopped too, and turned around. The plan had back fired. Nothing amazing, no neat finds, no surprise Bald Eagles. At home, I spent the rest of the evening finally tearing into the final boxes and got the last room finished. Now that everything was sorted, and the checklist completed for today, I decided we'd go on another drive to celebrate. And this time the plan would NOT backfire.
I suggested Cannon Beach and Bryan suggested Cape Meares Lighthouse. We Googled both, and found each were the same distance away. I opted for Cape Meares. Again we packed the camera bags and strapped on hiking boots. The skies were blue in all directions (you could see Mt. Hood to the southeast, just to spite us). We got on the 5 and went south to pick up the 26 going west. After crossing the main bridge in Portland, there's a tunnel that goes directly underneath a bunch of homes and apartment buildings. As we were in the truck, Bryan couldn't resist. He rolled down both windows, down shifted into 3rd and took off. The rumbling exhaust became a thrashing tornado. I think we scared the small Honda Accord next to us, as he shot off like a rocket. After leaving the city, we entered a bunch of 'plains' with vineyards everywhere. If it hadn't been so green, I would think we were leaving Sacramento heading for San Francisco. We then hit the hills and started our slow, winding climb. There were plenty of fishermen off the side of the road. At the tippy top of 2000 feet, we had to cross a bridge that was in the middle of construction. It was a little creepy. You hoped nothing would go wrong as our 3+ ton truck crossed. Halfway down the other side we passed a semi, and we gave each other sideways glances. We pulled into Tillamook about an hour later. We had been through here on our 2004 west coast trip, and hadn't really enjoyed it. The pouring rain, and car sickness from winding seaside roads had made us crabby travelers. This time the sun was shining. We rolled down the windows to be blasted with the worst cow manure smell ever. It made me think of our old South Park video game. It was a James Bond type shooter style, and one of the 'gun' devices was a cow bazooka. It would shoot out a cow that would land on your opponent's head. Then your opponent would squirm as the methane 'killed' the character. The road to the lighthouse is in bad need of repair. I accidentally saw the sign for Cape Meares, and pointed Bryan straight, when the sign for the lighthouse pointed left. Oh well. After driving a road that needed to be repaved before we were born, we found us a beach with a sea monster. And I found an oyster shell. We then headed back for the turn, and saw a sign that said rough road ahead. After the short jaunt we had to the beach, we couldn't imagine what would be deemed rough road worthy. And it was nothing. Much like Peter crying wolf. The lighthouse was small and looked very similar to the lighthouse in Lowestoft, England (where my mom's family is from). Bryan got some great pictures of the ocean with the dazzling sun, and then learned a cool technique, only to not be able to try it out as the lighthouse was a popular destination. We're not much into pictures with random strangers, and we are not photo shoppers. One of the many history signs pointed out all of the lighthouses along the Oregon coast. The next one was called Tillamook Lighthouse, so we decided to drive north to see it and then would head back home. Along our way, we saw a small gas station with the label Tillamook Smokehouse Outlet. We stopped and found ourselves in beef jerky heaven. We bought a bag of reject skewered teriyaki jerky and a bag of sea salt and pepper jerky. Delicious! So good, I couldn't put the bag down and finally had to zip it up after grabbing one more piece and then stowed it behind my seat to stop. After we hit the town Garibaldi, Bryan realized we should have found the lighthouse by that point. We stopped at a beach parking lot to get better directions, and found the lighthouse was at Cannon Beach, which was only another 25 minutes north! We took the turn off for Cannon Beach (which is really for the town, not the beach), and drove through the center of town. It's a miniature Park City. There were tons of people on the beach looking at Haystack Rock, so we decided to go to Ecola Park. The first beach had great views of Cannon Beach. We took shots of the tiny town with fog rolling between the hilly peaks. We then drove a short distance further to Indian Beach, and finally found our lighthouse. It was built out on the ocean on a rock in the late 1800s. The workers sometimes would go weeks at a time before more supplies (building and food) could arrive. Ten days before it was completed, a British ship crashed in the area. No one survived. It was eventually shut down as it was too hard to keep maintained. It's now used as a cemetery for ash remains. I kept my head down while walking along the beach, looking for treasures and found a sand dollar! I yelped and picked it up to show Bryan. It was broken around the edges some, but looked pretty good. Then he noticed a perfect sand dollar a few steps away. After a little research, come to find out that sand dollars are a type of urchin. We got plenty more amazing pictures, and then stuck around to get the perfect ocean sunset. After the bombshell plan yesterday, today had been much more fruitful. The drive home was even eventful as we were in the dark on a mountain road we've never traveled before, that had not been cleared either. At one point, while zooming past a slow poke, we careened a right hand curve over an icy bridge. After that scare, we took it a little more slowly. Just until our hearts got below 200 bps. The rest was uneventful, unless you count the tunnel into Portland with sleepy homeowners above. Imagine being on a Harley with the exhaust blasting into your ears. If the tunnel had collapsed in the rear view, I would not have been surprised.
