Spring Break on the Oregon Coast

We went to Seaside, Oregon for Spring Break the first week in April. We rented a two bedroom house in Seaside two blocks from the beach and at the very north end of the Promenade. It was nice to have some room to spread out in and a full kitchen to cook and eat in. I did feel like I was living in an Ikea store though since everything down to the silverware had been purchased at Ikea.

Spring is wet in an already fairly wet Oregon. It rained every day, but all but one day had a good break in the rain during the day so we got to do some playing. All that water meant the waterfalls were spectacular. Multnomah was almost three times the size it was when we saw it on our 2010 trip. Plus there were lots of waterfall in the gorge area that we could see from the van while driving. There was a pretty one with lots of water on the north end of the beach in Oswald State Park. And we hiked to another ten minutes from Tillamook.

Sunday we put a 300 piece puzzle together, visited the beach, and played at the park and had a game of croquet.

Monday we went north and visited Fort Stevens and Astoria. We rode the trolley in Astoria and then climbed the 167 steps up the Astoria Column and threw balsa wood airplanes off. Kaley climbed the whole thing and her plane flew the farthest so she won. Makayla didn’t want to throw her plane since she just got it so she brought it home.

We enjoyed our trip to Tillamook Cheese factory on Tuesday. In Tillamook we also fed some chickens and an emu and a saw two yaks. That might have been Kaley's favorite part since she loves animals so much and kept asking about seeing animals. On the way back to Seaside we stop at the beach at Oswald State Park. Jarl, carrying Emma in the backpack, Kaley, and I walked the beach and got as close to the waterfall as we could without getting our shoes wet. We wore our shoes and coats everywhere. Jacob and Makayla played on the beach, threw sand at each other, and Jacob tackled Makayla. They tried to come after us but couldn't get past the rivers of water running across the beach to the ocean. Jarl and I had some nearly wet shoes crossing them.

It rained all day Wednesday so we did some shopping in Seaside and the kids and Jarl rode the carousel. The kids all chose to get a toy instead of a shirt or something. That afternoon we went bowling since it was still raining. We bowled two games and had a good time. They had bumper pads but not a ramp to roll the ball down. However they did have a 5 pound bowling ball with four finger holes and 1 thumb hole so Jacob and Makayla got to really throw the ball instead of just push it for the first time.

Thursday we hiked the Clatsop Loop in Ecola State Park. It was beautiful and rained on us periodically. We did get to see the Tillamook Lighthouse from the viewpoint this time. When we were there in 2010 it was too foggy to see. Unfortunately, there was lots of mud, especially through the forest on the way back. We all ended up muddy. We had lunch at Mo's and then let the kids play on Cannon Beach for almost two hours. They had fun digging and building sand castles (Jarl and Kaley had bought a cool sand building kit at Walmart about a month before we left). We tried walking over to Haystack Rock but there was too much water to cross on the beach and we didn't want our shoes wet since it was too cold for sandals. We did bring a loaf of bread and Jarl and the kids fed the seagulls which was fun.

It was a good trip. We did end up leaving the camera on the fridge at the house. Fortunately the housekeeper found it and mailed it back to us so we didn’t lose all the pictures of our trip and all of the month of March.