Which Way to the Beach?

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Continuing on, we first stopped at Cannon Beach to see the famous Haystock Rock. One travel book I read said there are about 6 places in Oregon that have a "Haystack Rock", but this is the most famous.

We got our toes wet, jumped the waves, splashed around and generally had a great time.

Leaving Cannon Beach we went further south to Arcadia Beach where we saw all kinds of cool things, like starfish, barnacles, crabs, anenomes, and sand crabs. Eric, my nephew, showed us how you can grab a handfull of sand near the water, throw it on the ground and watch all kinds of tiny little sandcrabs wiggle around until they quickly borrow back in the sand without a trace.

One other thing I did here was to start taking photos of my neice, Alyssa. She'll be a senior in high school this fall and my sister ask if I would take her graduation photo while I was out there. Never one to miss an opportunity to take pictures (except for a wedding gig I turned down last month), I said, "Sure!". My goal was to wait until later in the evening, right around sunset, but since I was eager to get going, I found some nice locations and in spite of the bright sunlight (bad for portraits), we went through about a roll of film. I've got these print back now and they turned out as I expected...too contrasty due to the sun. Some turned out nice though.

After exploring more sea creatures, we headed to the next beach on our itinerary, Hug Point State Recreation Site. Another piece of interesting history is at this location. The site gets it name because it used to be a stagecoach route. Before the highway, the beach was the only way to go. At one point on this beach, the stagecoach would have to skirt around a big rock formation that was covered at high tide. It would have to hug the point, hence the name. Since it was covered at high tide, they could only pass at low tide. Make sure you have a tide table if you visit this place. Low tides are awesome for finding sea creatures. Knowing the tide schedule will prevent you from getting stranded. You can get a tide table at hotels, visitor centers, or online at the NOAA website.

At one point, it seemed to me that the water was coming up. Maybe I was imagining things, and maybe my parental paranoia kicked in, but after trying unsuccessfully to get Thomas to the side of Hug Point where we came from I told him I thought the high tide was coming in. In his mind, he was thinking tidal wave and he made a bee-line for the other side. I didn't think any more of it until Cheryl asked me what happened to him. Turns out he was pretty scared and had tears coming down his face. He wouldn't go anywhere near the water and wanted to go...bad. Finally I convinced him that there wasn't a tidal wave coming and tried as best I could to explain tides to him. He finally relaxed and all was well.

Some other neat things to explore at Hug Point are the caves and waterfall. We stayed here until dusk. There were a lot of clouds on the western horizon which I hadn't noticed until the sun started going down behind them. I then rushed to take more shots of Alyssa. The light was awesome and there should be some great protraits coming out of that. Not only did we have some great light, but Alyssa was a natural at modeling. It was a lot of fun and in that location, I got to pretend I was a professional photographer. While I was shooting, Thomas asked, "Why is dad taking so many pictures of Alyssa, is she a supermodel?"

We took some obligatory sunset shots, said our goodbyes to Therese, Eric & Alyssa and went on down the coast and they headed back to Portland. Back in the truck there was a noticable sadness coming from the back seat. All three of our kids were really bummed. We had just left my sister's family and already Katie, Thomas & William were missing them a great deal, even shedding some tears. Later, when were back home after the trip, Thomas would say that his favorite part of the whole trip was playing with Eric. They sure did have a ball together. I guess I was bit sad to part ways too...the three days with them went by way too fast.

We hadn't eaten supper yet, and hadn't lined up a place to stay, so that was first on our mind. The next town down was Manzanita. We drove around a while and found every restaraunt had closed at 9pm and it was 9:15am. Not good when the crew is starving. We decided to head to the next town and at the edge of Manzanita, found one place still open. I dropped them off, told Cheryl to order some seafood for me and I went back to the center of town, where had seen some motels, to get a room.

The room rates were too high for my taste. Granted they were on the beach, but it we'd be going straight to bed and leaving first thing in the morning. I tried negotiating a lower rate, but to no avail. I called ahead to Shiloh Inn in Tillamook and booked a room, then returned to restaraunt where Cheryl had ordered a wondeful smoked salmon caeser salad for me. We ate a great meal then drove to our room in Tillamook.

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Photos

More Starfish & Anemones - Arcadia Beach
How many starfish can you find? I count 9.

Thomas Rock Climbing - Hug Point
Just before the "tidal wave" incident.