We Love Oregon! Part 2

Thanks for tuning in again! My last post had us back at our hotel for a much needed moment to recharge our batteries. I must say I was quite impressed with how our girls handled the heat (it was about 29-31 degrees out) and the trek around the park. It wasn't until 3/4 of the way through that we noticed they offered strollers for rental. They look a lot like bike trailers so it definitely would have accommodated the 2 girls during those my-legs-are-so-tired-they're-about-to-fall-off-moments.

Off to downtown Portland we went, with our tummies hungry for some good grub. We've enjoyed visiting the Deschutes Brewery a couple times before that after a hot day like we had, we couldn't stop thinking about the ice cold beer we'd like to enjoy. Best part? Well there's many, but one of them is the fact that it is a child friendly brewery/pub/restaurant complete with a kids menu and coloring pages.

While we enjoyed our sampler (either our own picks or brewer's pick of 6 different types of beer) and a bowl of beer nuts (seriously addicting and the kids loved them too!) the kids enjoyed their delicious mac 'n' cheese and cheeseburger respectively. Hubs enjoyed the brewery burger which he could not stop raving about and inhaled in about 10 minutes and I ordered the steak and blue cheese Caesar salad. Not that I'm complaining or anything but like, there was a LOT of blue cheese. Almost too much. Almost.

Once our tummies were full, we walked over to Powell's Book Store for a peruse in the many millions of aisles of books they had to offer. Emma finished the first 4 books of a series she got for her birthday and I was more than certain they'd have more to grab there. Seriously can't get over how reasonably priced books were. They each got to pick out 4 books. We threw in 2 extra (the Judy Moody series) for Emma because hey, if they cost $2.50 each, why wouldn't we?

After that lovely visit, what better way to end off our night in Portland than by satisfying our sweet tooth over at Voodoo Donuts!

Hubs ordered the original Voodoo donut, Emma ordered the Double Bubble, Olivia ordered a chocolate frosting and I ordered the apple fritter. Now I'm not one to complain about a dessert per se, but this apple fritter was sooo oily, I could feel my arteries congealing with grease. Can't say that I was impressed.

The children zonked out on the car ride home and that was just fine with us. The more sleep they got tonight, the more energy they'd have to play at the beach the next morning!

We have visited the Oregon coast twice before this visit and both times we were welcomed with mediocre weather. The forecast mentioned we'd be greeted with sunny/cloudy skies with a temperature of 20 but feeling like 24. We have learned from the past that it is best to check the weather the day of before we decide to trek to the coast, but since this was the last leg of our trip and we wanted some sand time, we didn't care too much if the sun was out.

Enter rain. Thankfully only during the drive there. I was stupidly dressed in a bathing suit thinking I'd be optimistically dressed for the weather only to be greeted with a slight breeze and a lot of overcast. Off into the car I went to change out of said outfit and then off we went to the beach. 

The view is really breathtaking; especially of haystack rock. You forget how large it really is! 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/40/Haystack_Rock_Oregon.jpg/1280px-Haystack_Rock_Oregon.jpg

(ok cannot take credit for this picture, we were much further away from haystack rock

and none of my pics did it justice!)

The little town of Cannon Beach is also so charming, complete with plenty of handmade goods and delicious food.

It didn't take very long for us to find a spot to set up camp and play in the sand. We walked closer to the shoreline, only to visit for a short time because the water was frigid! Thankfully we were set up by a tide pool which allowed the girls to get their much needed water to build their sandcastles. 

Even I got my hands dirty and even got ambitious enough to recreate Disneyland in sandcastle form. And then I made my family pretend they were visiting different lands. It's not weird.

We flew our kite and built some more and definitely built up an appetite for lunch. We loaded up the car and then took a quick stroll over to Bruce's Candy Kitchen, because of course who doesn't eat desserts before their main meal? They are very well known for their salt water taffy, so we chose an assortment to take home and enjoy. 

Then, off to lunch! There's an adorable little creperie called Crepe Neptune that the girls adored the last time we visited so it was without hesitation that they agreed to crepes for lunch.

Someone is thoroughly enjoying their nutella, strawberries & whipped cream crepe!

The hubs and I decided to order some pizza from Fultano's (GREAT PIZZA!) that would serve as lunch and dinner for us so we would save ourselves a stop on the long journey home.

Another successful trip to Oregon done! We always have a great time and look forward to our next visit back! 

days of summer: haystack rock

so, after you read this post, you'll be thinking

what were they thinking?

well, i guess, we weren't thinking, we thought,

hey! it's all part of the adventure! lets be like

the goonies! 

anyways on to the post:

the next morning we had crepes for breakfast to send off my

sister and fam as they spent an extra

day before we arrived at cannon beach.

the crepes were so delicious we almost went for seconds! almost.

once breakfast was done, we were off to explore the little

town of cannon beach and see what it had to offer.

if you don't already know, the oregon coast is known for it's

salt water taffy. bruce's was in full taffy making swing when we arrived!

but it didn't only have taffy, it had rows upon rows of CANDY!!

bacon candy!

MORE bacon candy!!

bacon. floss.

bacon. toothpaste.

moving along...lol they also had an excellent collection

of starwars memorabilia and -you guessed it: candy!

complete with a darth vader cookie jar!

too many salt water taffy flavors to count!

once we satisfied our sweet tooth, we visited the local toy

shop to get away from the rain.

a vacation isn't complete with the hubby trying on

silly wigs/hats

he's even got emma in on it!

after all of that browsing we built up a 

good appetite so we visited a charming little cafe that

had THE most delicious curried carrot soup (still thinking

about that one lol!) and lamb wraps.

then: it was off to haystack rock. i should note now

(if you can't already notice) that it's dark and gloomy,

rainy and windy. BUT! we were heading down there anyway!

look at all the beautiful houses!

no, she's not crying...

no it's not totally windy..

look! beautiful rocks!!

this is a shot of the wind picking up the sand, which in turn would

pelt our ankles as we trudged through the sand. we also very quickly 

learned that this part of the beach is a seagull graveyard!

every 5 feet you`d see feathers buried in the sand!

there`s haystack rock!!

see! not so bad!!

after rinsing all of the sand off of ourselves,

we managed to have a great relaxing night by the

fire, watching movies while drinking hot chocolate.

there's something so calming about a storm going on outside

your door!

see, it wasn't sooo bad right? i mean sometimes

during a vacation you have to seize the moment, even if it means

your kids will end up hating you! this is a vacation i know they

won't soon forget!

days of summer: cannon beach

when we arrived at cannon beach 

we did not waste any time soaking up

the sights and eats!

it was perfect weather for flying kites

so we ventured through the shops to find the 

perfect one.

the little ones had more fun throwing bird seeds around in the

hopes that they'd find some birds...

there were far too many, which one would we choose?!

we finally settled on a:

mermaid! (sorry its so high up!)

off to the beach!!

it wasn't quite swimming weather, but warm enough to

dip your feet in the water..

and build sand castles..

and bury ourselves in the sand..

haystack rock, made famous by the goonies movie!

perfect weather to go treasure hunting!

or..

be completely silly on the beach!

it cooled down quite quickly which worked out

cuz it was time to check into our little bungalow!

complete with a little fireplace, fold out sofabed (ektorp ikea lol)

a separate room with a queen sized bed and shared ensuite.

and a little kitchen too! super cute and everything we needed

for a weekend in.

once settled in, we went to have dinner at a very

popular pizza joint.

after dinner we strolled along the beach and watched 

as people set up bonfires and played volleyball; so cool,

wish they'd let us build fires on the beach here!

also wish they sold $4 bottles of wine up here too.

and ended off the night with some wine and a sampler

of the donuts we purchased at voodoo!

stay tuned for our wild adventures by haystack rock!