October 5, 2009--Cannon Beach to Florence, Oregon

Today we back-tracked a bit up the coast to Ecola State Park, just north of Cannon Beach, at the suggestion of our waiter from last night. We enjoyed the sweeping vistas he promised, then back in the car for our drive down the "north coast" of Oregon. I can't come up with enough superlatives to describe the beauty of the scenery, so I'll let the photos do the work for me. We made several stops along the way, with dramatic overlooks or natural formations. And we discovered Oregon's lighthouses!

Along the way, we passed through many tiny coastal towns, whose economies had been fishing or logging based, but now seemed to be struggling... Of course the part of the towns that 101 takes you through were probably not the most charming areas; however we weren't tempted to stop and explore any of them. We made an exception for the classic tourist spot--the Tillamook Cheese factory, actually kind of interesting!

We ended up in Florence, Oregon, where we had booked a room in the Best Western overlooking the Siuslaw River. We were directed across the river to the historic old town for dinner (which was pretty deserted, but looked like it would have been fun to explore in the daytime), where we ate in a friendly bar & grill filled with locals.

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