We started our US adventure in Seattle, staying at a KOA campground (the kids fave) close to downtown, we were able to hop on public transit to explore. We started the day with a history tour of Seattle's "underground" city- OK, ready for me to nerd out on you? Back in the 1800's Seattle burnt to the ground, most of the downtown was decimated- they had some major plumbing issues (no sewer system) so when they rebuilt the city they built up, above the old city, to accommodate a new sewer system- the result...33 underground blocks. After a very entertaining and informative tour we spent the day exploring the city, visiting the Space Needle, the famous Pike's Fish Market, Seattle's waterfront and the Bill and Melinda Gates Visitor Center. The city really is quite lovely, and we were lucky there was no rain!
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| Pikes Fish Market- delicious Seafood! |
After Seattle, Johnny really wanted to see Olympic national Forest and Park...so off to the coast we went...for all you Twilight fans- this is where Forks and La Push is located. We ended up spending the day at Ruby Beach just south of Forks. Very beautiful, wide sandy beaches with incredible rock formations jutting out of the water...many places to stop along the coast and lucky us, we watched a pod of Gray Whales feeding in the ocean (we couldn't get any really good pictures but it was totally amazing!)
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| Ruby Beach WA- Johnny on the left and the girls are on the right |
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Ruby Beach
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We left the Washing Coast and we were going to head straight down along the Oregon Coast but after reading our friend's blog about Portland we decided to spend 1 night there to check out the food trucks- the city is famous for them! We arrived in Portland and unfortunately there were fires pretty close by so the air quality was so bad (you could totally smell smoke in the air), all advisories were saying to stay indoors.. too bad for us we could not explore. We did manage to have lunch at the delicious food trucks- (you name it it was there), we sampled, Indian, Thai, Mexican and Middle Eastern...(and Liv had some chicken soup that she was craving)- we left with full bellies but still had enough room to stop at the famous Voodoo Doughnuts for some pretty spectacular goodies- (Johnny maintains that Tim's Apple Fritter is far superior, but the girls and I were pretty happy with our choices). One thing we noticed was the huge amounts of homeless people in Portland, there were so many I actually did a little research and learned there are 4000 people living in shelters or on the streets, so sad.... Overall my impression of Portland was not great, however I am sure the weather and the smoke played a huge role in this...too bad.
Cannon Beach- WOW- this place was amazing, I loved every bit of it (and the weather was crap!). Voted by numerous sites (Outdoor Life, National Geographic etc) best surf town, best beach town, best beach ....this place was so pretty. For those that may remember the Goonies, this is where some of it was filmed, the big rock seen in the film is called Haystack Rock and it is unbelievably huge.
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| Cannon Beach |
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| Haystack Rock |
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| Cannon Beach |
A few minutes north is the beautiful Ecola State Park, Indian Beach- also a site to see, the kids spent hours looking in the tide pools at all the starfish, anemones, and crabs.
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| one of the many tide pools in Ecola State Park |
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| Indian Beach |
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| Indian Beach |
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Tillamook Trailhead-Ecola StatePark
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| All the trees along the coast grow like this |
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WW2 Bunker, we were on top
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We did a pretty big hike (all uphill, ugh!), sadly when we got to the look out point it was the thickest fog I have ever seen, you literally could not see anthing in front of you... the hike itself was through an old growth forest and there was some pretty impressive trees, there was also an old WW2 bunker at the top that was pretty cool. In the end, despite no grand finale-the hike was totally worth it.
Overall we absolutely loved Cannon Beach... I can't imagine how much more we would have enjoyed it if the weather was nicer. Definitely a spot you should put on your bucket list.
