Road Trip part 4... Oregon Coast

The last town we stayed at in Northern California was Crescent City.  Even though it was freezing outside, the kids had fun playing at this fun park.

The Oregon coast is absolutely gorgeous!  It was also foggy and windy and cold!  As with other areas we've driven through, it would be nice to have a week just to explore this part of the coast.  

We didn't find many shells on the beaches here, and the water was WAY to cold to go in.  It was also really windy along this part of the coast.

In Gold Beach, we were able to detour off the highway and visit with my Aunt Leslie, who I haven't seen in about 12 or 13 years.  It was great to see her again!

 We didn't see as many lighthouses as I would have liked to because it was so foggy and we were kind of pressed for time, but we did stop at this one at Cape Blanco.  The wind must have been 100mph here, it was crazy!  

 

The drive along the coastal highway was beautiful...

 We stopped and had lunch at the Oregon Dunes National Park... it takes up miles and miles along the coast.  Everyone had fun climbing on the sand. 

We also went to Haceta Head lighthouse.  It was perched up on a bluff overlooking the rocky ocean.  Just the right amount of fog.  It was gorgeous!  You can do a hike up to it, but since we still had a few hours to drive for the day, we didn't do that.  I think t was 1 mile each way.  You can barely see it on the bluff in the pictures, the building you can see is not the lighthouse.

 

More coastal pictures... 

 

We stopped for the night in Lincoln City about 4pm.  Our hotel had an indoor pool, which we swam in right away.  After getting ready for dinner, the kids were saying they were anxious to see their Grandpa and Grammy so we decided to just keep driving the rest of the night until we got there.  So we checked out of hotel two hours after checking in and got back on the road.  We cut inland and drove up I-5 the rest of the way to Shelton.  I was proud to say that I drove the entire trip so far right up until Olympia, Washington.  And then I just got too tired... it was almost midnight.  So Tad took over for the last hour, hour and a half until we got there.