Day 11 - Cruisin the Coos

Another week is gone already!  Time sure flies when you're having fun! 

Today we had a bit of a lazy morning.  We woke up to some pretty thick fog which was disappointing.  But, after relaxing for a bit the fog cleared up and we headed out to downtown Coos Bay for the market and the Sunday Funday.  There were lots of vendors selling some weird shit and some not so weird shit.  We picked up some organic veggies from a guy who talked way to much.  He made us eat a piece of onion he cut with his dirty hands at 10:00 in the morning.  That wasn't too fun for us.  On the upside, we got some cheap organic veggies for dinner!  After the weird hippie dude, we visited the Visitor's Information Center and got some info on things to do, and we were off! 

Our first stop was groceries at Fred Meyer where some sketchy dudes ran in quickly.  Since we are in America and they are all crazy and have guns, we got worried that they were tweeking and were going to kill us.  We avoided them and managed to get out of Fred Meyer without getting shot at. 

After groceries, we stopped by the casino to pick up the pie Trent has been dreaming about for weeks.  It was a VERY big coconut cream pie.  Look at him so excited!!

PS - That's a camera case not a man purse.

Trent so happy about his pie! 

After picking up the pie we headed to Spinreel to go dune buggying on the sand dunes!!  The sand dunes are INSANE.  It's crazy to think how they originated. 

Us taking off!

We went out for an hour and headed straight for the beach.  There is nothing like dune buggying on the beach!  We stopped for a few quick photo ops.  When I got out, the sand was a good 2 feet deep EVERYWHERE!  I got smart after the first shoe load of sand and walked in barefeet!



Trent buggying on the beach
 

The beach was amazing near the dunes. There was nobody out on it and it was beautiful!!  We got to see the tide pools and feel the nice breeze.  It was only about 14 degrees out but it felt SO much warmer!  The sand was really hot too, which kept things warm!

The beach at the dunes

After the beach, we headed back towards the dunes.  We wanted to keep close to where we had to return the ATV as they charge you $8 per minute that you are late.  Talk about ass rape!

Me cruisin the dunes

Trent riding the dunes

The dunes are hundreds of feet high and you have to make sure you ride them up and down rather than sideways or else it's really easy to flip.  Becuase of the winds, there are lots of drop offs so when you crest the top of a dune you have to watch for the drop offs as well as other people out there.  It was so much fun ripping around in the sand!

After our hour was up, we headed back in shook the sand out of our clothes.  Our next stop was a drive to Charleston.  Just past Charleston is Simpson Reef in Sunset Bay State Park.  This area is famous for the sea lions and rocky reef.  As we came into Charleston the fog was setting in.  It didn't hamper the view of the sea lions at all.  It was pretty cool becuase you could hear them barking.  There were hundreds of them sprawled all over the rocky reef.  Such a neat sight!

The sea lions hanging out

After the sea lions we headed back to the RV park to prepare dinner.  Dad and Mumsey picked up a bunch of fresh seafood on their travels.  Shrimp cocktails and salmon were on the menu for tonight.  The shrimp was TO DIE FOR!!!  So was the salmon!  SUCH good seafood!  Trent and I thought about going to the Casino to play some more craps, but we both have sore throats and it's 9:45 and we have a long day ahead of us tomorrow.  Long day meaning about 4 hours drive to Woodburn.  If we make it all the way there.  We will see!

Anyways......not sure if we will have wifi tomorrow or not.  Even though we will just be driving, I will try to take lots of pics for your viewing enjoyment.  Do you miss us yet?

Have a great Monday and we will see y'all soon! 

Day 10 - Waldport to Northbend/Coos Bay

Good Morning All!  Happy Sunday. As I am typing this I am having issues uploading pictures with this wifi so in case no pics are posted, SORRY!  But I will post when it works.

I was too busy gambling and drinking last night to post, so you get a sober me instead!  Be thankful.

Yesterday we left the KOA at Waldport and headed south to Northbend/Coos Bay.  We have reservations at the Mill Casino for 2 nights which is great becuase EVERYTHING is booked up!  It's quite insane really.  We woke up yesterday to clear skys.  The fog had lifted and thank god becuase there were some nice views on the drive!

Before we left the KOA we took Sophie for a walk down to the beach. 

I got a shoe full of sand and water but it was all in good fun!

To answer Laurie's question since she is the ONLY ONE leaving comments.....geez come on people, are you reading this thing or what!?  Sadie hasn't been making too many trips to the beach with us becuase she is still taking it pretty easy with her bad knees.  We are actually amazed how far she is walking but really don't want to overdue it.  That and the fact that anytime she is near water and someone is in the water (even just their feet) she feels the need to rescue them and freaks out!  Strange girl! Anyways - while walking there was a guy wearing tall Ugg boots.  Maybe I am out of it when it comes to fashion but seriously.....they must have been his wife's or something.......

The road was very twisty and rough but it sure paid off when we stopped at Cook's Chasm Bridge.  I should mention that we got a new camera becuase the old one was dropped a few too many times and was covered in sand.  Oh wait - I think I may have mentioned that already.  Anyways, the new one is awesome.  It takes 10 frames per second and has a panaramic and 3d panaramic setting on it.  I took a panaramic at Cook's Chasm so I really hope I can upload it for you all as it's pretty freaking amazing!!

Pretty amazing view!!!

After the viewpoint we pulled over at another one along the way to see the spectacular views.  Our next stop was the sea lion caves.  Now this stop was a little disappointing.  We were going to go down into the caves but there was only one sea lion in there and she could leave at any second.  So, it would have been $25 spent for nothing but taking pics of a view.  Apparently there were another 30 or so laying out, but we felt like our money would be better spent at the Woodburn Outlet mall in Portland.  So we headed off. 

We rolled into the Mills Casino RV Park at about 1:00.  Our site is right on the bay and the view is pretty spectacular.  We can walk to the casino or take a shuttle bus if it's too windy or if we are stumbling too much.  We did a trailer clean, stripped the bed and did a couple loads of laundry before heading off for dinner.

This is the highlight of the trip for Pops and the reason we are staying here.  At the buffet restaurant at the casino, they have a seafood buffet on Friday and Saturday nights.  They have an early bird price if you go between 4 and 5.  With my parents being seasoned buffet veterns, they like to get there early before people are gross and take their dirty plates up, etc.  The early bird price for seniors was $16 and I think for us $21.  They left a bit before us as we had to finish up our laundry and pee the girls.  So we got there at about 4:15.  The reason I don't know how much it cost us is because we actually ate for free.  We know nothing about buffets and we just walked in, looked at the lady at the front and said oh, we are with them.  We sat down with my parents and headed for the buffet.  Apparently, you pay as you walk in.  We didn't.  And we didn't ever get charged for it either!  Haha the funny thing is that there was hardly anyone in the place when we got there, so she should have known we weren't paid for!  We did buy a bottle of wine, so felt like we spent SOMETHING there! 

The buffet was out of this world!  They had everything from smoked salmon to an oyster bar, crab legs to peel and eat shrimp, fried oysters and mussels, clams, pasta, rice, potatoes, vegetables, beef, pork, more seafood, not to mention a huge salad bar and dessert bar.  Pretty awesome for free!!! 

Me - Warming up at the fire outside the casino

Trent and Pops were in heaven with the all you can eat crab!  They got their fill in and we all left at different times so we weren't caught at the door dining and dashing!  Hahaha  We wandered around the casino and signed up for the players club which got us $5 free in slot play and $5 free on the table games.  I played a bit of roullette and lost.  We then headed for the craps table.  OMG new favorite game!  Since I was feeling pretty good by this point (I forgot to mention we had a happy hour at the trailer before dinner) I was super excited to get to throw the dice!  I only threw off the table twice - not bad I thought since I was slightly inebriated!  I did get yelled at by the pit boss, but she got over it.  We played craps for a good half hour or so until some douchbag rolled a 7 and cleared the table.  We walked away $25 up so that was good!  I played the slots for a bit and we left the casino at about 8:00 and were $60 up!  Woo hoo!  I can't wait to get back to the craps table tonight!

I was asleep by 9:00 last night and had a great sleep on the ocean!  That brings us to today.  There is a market in Coos Bay this morning and the area is covered in sand dunes.  We are hoping to go dune bugging at some point today!  It should be fun!  I will take our old camera for that.  The new one doesn't need to be filled with sand just yet!

Fingers crossed that this fog lifts and we can get some nice views of the bay!  Have a wonderful Sunday and I will post pics when I can.

Love Love to All!

Another great shot!

This is my sorry post.....

So today I was FINALLY able to get wifi so I posted ALL the posts from the last week!  Sorry!  You might want to start reading a couple of posts down to get the full effect........

We are at the KOA in Waldport and have wifi!  YAY!  We didn't do anything too exciting today.  We woke up and it was 10 degrees and foggy.  We have lucked out and today was the first day of fog which was good, but disappointing.  We ended up going to the outlet mall at Lincoln City and spent the day shopping.  It was a good day to spend some money!

We picked up a few things including a new camera.  Along with Tom Tom my camera has died on this trip.  It's been dropped a few too many times in the sand and the shutter barely opens.  Anyways....I can't wait to snap some pics tomorrow on my new one!  It's too bad today was so foggy because I would have liked to have stopped at Devil's Punch Bowl and some other cool spots.  Oh well....shit happens. 

As I am waiting for my laundry to finish I don't really have anything entertaining to tell you about! 

Tomorrow we are headed for the Mills Casino at Northbend.  There is a seafood buffet we are going to hit up and hang out for two nights enjoying the sites.  I am guessing there will be wifi so I will keep you all updated on the excitement!  Until tomorrow, I leave you with this.........

A little dancing on the beach at Cannon Beach!

Day 8 - Trent and his cheese!!

Trent smiling for his sick obsession - cheese!

Wow – Day 8 already!  I can’t believe we’ve been gone that long already!  Do you guys miss us?  I would…….

This morning we packed up and decided to check out the Fort Stevens historical site before heading out on the open road.  It was pretty cool to see all the old bunkers and the fort that actually operated until the 1940’s.  We saw the Battery Russell as well as the actual fort and all the out buildings and other batteries that made up the fort. 

Trent and the girls posing on the Battery Russell

Each commanding officer had his own battery that he was in charge of.  We were able to walk through the bowels of them and you could feel the eerie feeling of death in some of the bunkers.  It was interesting to learn the history of how they Japanese bombed/attacked Fort Stevens and to see how everything operated.  We even got to ride in a military Jeep!

After Fort Stevens we packed up the rigs and headed for Cape Lookout State Park which was our camping destination for the night.  As I sit here at Cape Lookout typing this…..without wifi……I can hear the waves crashing to the shore.  It’s a pretty surreal sound and feeling.  I really wish Brooke and Chad could have been here with us to enjoy the sunset on a windless beach and have a fire.  I miss you guys and I tip my tiny hat to you!

Anywho – back to our day………

We left Fort Stevens and our next stop was Bay City.  We stopped at Pacific Oyster for yes – Oyster shots!!  Trent and I have never had raw oysters before and I wasn’t going to have any but I have to send props out to ma’ lady.  I had three for you!  They were AWESOME!  It’s quite the experience and I urge anyone who has the chance to try fresh oysters off the boat to do so!  There were three sizes, medium, petite and Kamomoto.  We started with a half dozen – three petite and three Kamomoto. The smaller the oyster the sweeter and the Kamomoto are the smallest.  We each had one without chewing and then the next was chewed.  They are SOOOO much better with a slight chew as you can taste the flavor so much better.  The combination of lemon, hot sauce and salt is intoxicating!  

The first half dozen we ordered

Trent having his very first oyster shot!

We ended up having a dozen between us.  Mumsey didn’t have any but Trent, Pops and I were all flushed from the endorphins.  You know what they say about raw oysters!  Wink wink, nudge nudge.  After the oysters, we had some lunch.  My salad was loaded with fresh shrimp and crab and it was to die for! 

The boys had chowder (of course) and Mumsey had the steamer clams.  Everything was so good!  We were filled up and ready for the next stop!

We wound our way another 10 miles along the coast to Tilamook.  Yes – Tilamook.  The glorious land of dairy and everyone’s favorite cheese!  This was Trent’s highlight of the trip.  Mine was the ocean and shopping (of course) and his…..well……as anyone knows……cheese.  Unfortunately, the factory was closed down for maintenance, but we still managed to sample some cheese and pick up a couple of souvenirs!!  

We looked through the factory and had some of the best ice cream – of course I didn’t have any but they did have sorbet which was great!!  We made a quick stop on the love tour and sat in the baby loaf bus!  

After Tilamook we took the scenic highway to Cape Lookout State Park.  The park is right on the ocean (of course).  We setup and Trent and I took Sophie and headed for the beach with a couple of drinks in hand.  After about 5 minutes on the beach, I had to pee and raced back to the trailer to get Dad and Mumsey.  They had to witness the beauty that is Cape Lookout.  You walk over a bluff and there in front of you in the glorious ocean.

We sat on the beach with our chairs for a couple of hours enjoying the sunset and having a couple of drinks.  The beach filled up with people watching the some come down and the girls enjoyed a little beach time as well!  

Trent and Soph enjoying a leashed walk on the beach

Now – it’s 9:30 as I sit here blogging.  Probably for no reason at all since I can’t seem to find free wifi anywhere!  I was trying to leach off some random connections, but only to get booted off.  Oh well….

Tomorrow we are up bright and early and headed to Lincoln City, which is an hour away.  They are supposed to have the best outlet shopping in Oregon and of course….NO TAX!!  So we will see how that goes!  Hopefully well……since I can always shop!  You have probably noticed that we only travel about 2 or so hours a day.  It’s perfect for us to get all the sights in!

Anyways….it’s Thursday and tomorrow is Friday, so it’s the weekend!  Enjoy everyone and we hope to be home next Friday or Saturday to enjoy the weekend before getting back to work!  We will have a beer/cider on the beach and enjoy the sunset while thinking about you all!

HAPPY FRIDAY AND LOVE LOVE TO ALL!!! 

Cape Lookout Sunset

Day 7 - Astoria!!

Well……still no internet.  I spent over an hour tonight in the Safeway parking lot in Seaside trying to connect.  It wasn’t fun…..let me tell you that!  This morning we woke up and Brooke had the virus.  She figured it was some sort of throat infection, so they decided to head home two days early.  We were sad to see them go.  We miss you guys!!

We headed off to Astoria to explore the town and see where movies such as Kindergarten Cop, Point Break and of course The Goonies were filmed!! 

Astoria is the point where the Pacific Ocean and Columbia River meet.  The history of the town is quite spectacular.  Our first stop was Bowpickers Fish & Chips boat.  They use tuna to make the best fish and chips ever!!  

 

After we stuffed our gullets full of food we headed to the Maritime Museum.  We heard it was awesome and gave a great history of the area.  We definitely weren’t disappointed.  We took some pictures and enjoyed learning some history.  Crazy how I hated history in school but this American shit is pretty cool! 

Maybe it’s because I’m getting old.  Who knows. 

Trent out at sea!

Me trying on some of the rain gear 

As we navigated the hills of Astoria, some bitch yelled at us because Trent was going slow down the hills.  The area was hard to navigate because some areas were four way stops and others not.  Anyways…..to make a long story short, she was a bitch, she yelled and I could have sworn she was a JAFA.  Oh….speaking of JAFA’s, those fuckers are everywhere!  We were leaving Fort Stevens to go somewhere and some asshole flew through a stop sign without stopping and guess where they were from?? You guessed it!!!  ALBERTA!!  Ugh – back to our trip.

The Astoria column was used as a lookout of sorts or something.  I am not too sure but it was 164 steps up this narrow winding stairwell to get to the top.  I made it 60 steps before my claustrophia kicked in and I felt like I was either going to pass out or barf.  I headed back down gripping the railing while Trent counted his way to the top.  He took some fabulous pics from the top!!

The Astoria Column

 After the column we headed for the Goonies house!  If anyone else out there loved the Goonies movie, they will know how exciting this is!  We walked up the drive and had a quick photo op. 

Goonies House!  Can't you just see Data ziplining into the window??

After the Goonies house we passed by the school which was filmed in Kindergarten Cop.  It wasn’t as exciting for me, but still cool to see. 

Trent hanging in the cell faking his death

Me outside the jail

Next stop was the County Jail and Oregon Film Museum.  The County Jail was used in the Goonies movie at the opening scene.  It was small but pretty awesome as the majority was dedicated to Goonies. 

After filming some scenes, we headed across the street to the Flavell house.  Captain Flavell was the only bar pilot in the area back in the olden days.  It was a tough job navigating through the channels of the river, so he was rich.  There is more history to it than that, but who’s got time to explain it all.  Anyways – this house was amaze balls.  Very beautiful and the history was so interesting. 

Flavell House

We left Astoria and headed back to Seaside to pick up Pop’s truck as the muffler was being fixed on it.  Nothing like getting mechanical work done in the Americas.  It only cost $149 for a job that was quoted at well over $500 in Canada!  We headed back to camp for a drink and a relaxing night. 

We turned in early to get all slept up for our next adventure.  Since I am writing two days in one technically, I will tell you that our next day consisted of the cheese factory and a very happy Trent!  But more on that in the next post!!

Day 6 - Happy Hump Day!

I can’t believe it’s Wednesday already!  Wow time flies.  We are having a great time.  The weather has been beautiful which makes it even better!  Today we went into Seaside to explore.  It’s kind of like a carnival themed town.  There is a carousal and some carnival games and rides.  It’s pretty fun.  We were going to ride the carousal until we saw how fast it went.  After my day yesterday of windy roads and pepto bismal, I decided it wasn’t for me.  Not to mention the greasy hands of the children who were riding it.  We took a picture in front of it none the less.

We wandered around Seaside for awhile and went into some fun little shops.  It’s very touristy of course but the views at the beach were once again pretty amazing. We stopped for a few photo

ops and ran into a VERY scary shark! He tried to bite Trent’s face off!!

Very scary shark!!

We spent some time taking in the sights and stopping in at some fun little shops.  I even bought a kite to fly on the beach!  We decided to stop for lunch at a seafood house as the guys were craving chowder.  The food wonderful!  After filling ourselves up on seafood we headed for Cannon Beach.

Cannon Beach is one of the cutest towns I have been to.  The shops are very quaint and the town alone is beautiful.  Our first stop was the fish market where we picked up some canned tuna that is local fresh tuna and canned in Cannon Beach.  It’s supposed to be the best tuna ever! Next we wandered through a few shops and headed for the Cannon Beach Farmers Market.  It was a total organic market and the produce was great.  There was wine tasting so of course we did that and bought a bottle of wine.  Trent saw a couple of puffins at sea! 

A very demure Trent and the puffins!!

 After walking around the market, we went to the beach for some fun in the sand.  Dad and Mumsey headed back to camp and to pee the girls, while we went to snap some ocean pics!

I should mention that the weather is sunny and quite warm in the sun but the wind is crazy!  One minute you are sweating and the next you are freezing.  We walked down towards the beach and the haystack rock from the Goonies movie!  

Amazing!!

It was pretty breathtaking!  We played on the beach for awhile and snapped some shots around haystack rock.  
 

We have heard from a lot of people that Oregon can be quite foggy in  September.  So far, so good for us!  There was a little fog rolling through the campground this morning, but other than that we haven’t experienced any bad weather!  Fingers crossed that it keeps up!

After playing on the beach for awhile our ears were getting pretty cold and the wind was throwing us off a bit so we decided to head back to the campsite.

Along the way we stopped at the Ecola State Park and viewpoint.  Brooke heard that the views from the park were pretty spectacular and that you could see the lighthouse in the water.

We wound through this tight little road for what seemed like forever.  Good thing we weren’t hauling the trailer through there!  The views were out of this world and not a speck of fog!  Well look at that!  Brooke and I spotted the lighthouse!

We left Ecola and headed back to camp.  Our plan was to have a weenie roast and fire on the beach so we fed the girls, had a drink and packed up and headed for the beach to watch the sunset and roast weenies.  The wind was howling, but it didn’t stop us!  We found a spot and I let Sophie off her leash.  Well that was a big mistake.  The night before she was so good but tonight…….completely different story as there were birds all over!  She chased a bird so far down the beach and into the water we honestly thought she was going to kill herself.  We were so lucky a wave didn’t come crashing in and take her out to sea!  Little Sophie of the Sea finally came to be and I snapped that leash on her and chocked her out.  She was dying to run but that’s not going to happen again! She is sooo bad ass! 

It was too windy for a fire so we stuck to a drink and kite flying while watching the amazing sunset.  It was absolutely breathtaking!!

Here is a picture of Mumsey having her hand at flying the kite with Trent and Pops.  

We enjoyed watching the sunset but had to come back to camp to roast the weenies and have smores. 

After a couple drinks, the windy day had the best of us and we were all off for bed.  But not before having a mama deer and her two babies visit us at the site!  The girls didn’t spot them so they didn’t freak out which was nice!

Today we are heading into Astoria.  There is a place with fish and chips that is supposed to be to die for.  They use fresh tuna in the fish and chips so we are going to check that out.  Rumour has it that they start lining up at around 11 so we will have to get there early! 

We are also going to check out the Goonies house as Astoria and Cannon Beach are where the movie was filmed.  There is a Maritime museum we heard was great so we will stop there as well as check out the civil war site at Fort Stevens.  It should be another fun filled day so I will post pics of our fun!  Hopefully I can find some wifi and get this shit posted!  Have a great day everyone!!