on the oregon trail: day 9

Yesterday was a hiking/walking/nature day.

We ventured out quite early in order to see the tide pools around Haystack Rock at low tide. It was well worth our early getting up time. Steph took hundreds of pictures of the starfish, crabs, clam shells, barnacles, and sea anemones. (Well, it wasn't really hundreds . . .)

Haystack Rock. (Not in the morning, but I thought you'd like to see it.)

Starfish.

Then we went to Beth's bakery (Cannon Beach Bakery) for delicious breakfast items and Waves of Grain Bakery for coffee. We then drove to Hug Point, which is under water during high tide. We were able to walk around on the beach and on this rock roadway that people used to drive on before there were other roads around.

Then we went to Falcon Point and hiked a 2.5 mile trail. Along the way, we saw slugs, snakes, and lots of bees. It was fairly easy hike, but it was long. However, we all survived!

What we saw when we came out of the brush at the end of our hike.

Nate & Beth at the Falcon Point trail head.

We went to Seasons Cafe & Deli for lunch. Beth and Nate shared a sandwich, Steph had a French dip, and Val and I both had bagels w/ cream cheese. Then we went to Bella Espresso so I could blog.

We spent most of the afternoon in Ecola State Park. First, we drove out to Indian Beach, where portions of Twilight were filmed. Then we went to another area of the park where we found a picnic table to sit at, and read, slept, and chatted for a while.

The Twilight Beach. Even I recognized it, and I don't remember much about the movie except that I couldn't wait for it to end.

Around 8 p.m., we drove out to Camp 18 for supper. It's modeled after a logging camp, and the food was spectacular. (Have we had any food that hasn't been spectacular? I don't think so . . .) Val said something complimentary about it, and then she said, "And you can quote me on that!" but we can't remember exactly what she said. It was along the lines of: "I wish I lived closer to this delightful establishment so I could come here every day." We were all very tired, and something set us off while we were waiting for our food--Beth and I were laughing so hard we were crying!

When we got back to Beth's, Nate baked cookies for Beth while watching Muppet Treasure Island. Then we crashed for the night . . .

Nate had to be as close to the TV as possible while still working in the kitchen . . . he couldn't miss any of the movie!

We're spending tomorrow in Portland with our cousin Kim, so I probably won't have time to blog about today, tomorrow, and Sunday until Sunday night, provided our hotel (which we're going to get through Priceline sometime along the road on Sunday) has wireless.

About the coffee rating system (which my dear brother asked about) . . . it was a nice, though highly mockable, idea, but with the lack of internet access we've had, I haven't taken the time to do it. Perhaps when we get home I'll catch up???