The Southern Coast

Before when we've taken this trip we've always stayed on the upper end of the coast, and we love it there. We love the steam train, and Rockaway Beach, and we love to go to the Tillamook Creamery and get ice cream and cheese. But when I planned this trip I didn't even know if the Tillamook Creamery—or anything—would be open again after the pandemic closures! It was too sad to think of NOT being able to go there, and I found a rental house down on the Southern Coast that looked good, so I figured we'd just find new things to do in a new place!

But there was a general uproar when I said we might head down the coast without going up to Tillamook first. It turned out that the Creamery WAS open, and the coastal drive was just as fast as the other way, with the added bonus that we could eat at our favorite restaurant, The Fish Peddler, if we went up that way first. So that was settled! We took the loveliest route (bypassing Portland on small roads) to Tillamook Bay and then planned to drive all the way down the coast from there to Coos Bay where we were staying.

While we waited for lunch, we played on the rocky beach of the bay. Teddy discovered that when he lifted up any of the rocks, a whole bunch of tiny crabs would scuttle away. They were so cute! Junie managed to catch one in a shell:

And Gus was totally enthralled with them! He made cute squeaky noises at them to show how cute they were.

The daisies were out in full force as well!

Somehow I have driven up the lower part of the Oregon/California Coast (above San Francisco, and through Crescent City etc.) and I have driven the upper part between Netarts and Seaside, nearly up to Washington, but I have never been along the middle part of the coast. It was such a beautiful drive! Sam and I loved it. There are beautiful rocky cliffs and green forests, as on the upper coast, but as you get further south there is also a long stretch of sand dunes right along the beach, which was cool to see. And there are lots of bays and inlets and bridges, many built in the same Art Deco style.

We ended up driving back north a little ways (on another day) to find the sand dunes. It was a little tricky because everywhere seemed geared completely toward ATV's and not just people playing in the dunes, but we did finally find a spot where ATV's weren't allowed. (We actually looked into renting one for the big boys, and they were excited about that, but it turned out Abe couldn't drive anyone except himself, and Sam and I didn't want to have to leave the little kids behind and drive one, so that didn't work out either. The big boys were SUCH good sports about it! Even though they were disappointed.) We had a good time anyway, jumping around and digging in the sand.

Gus blundered around falling down every two seconds, and laughing about it. Sometimes he would just stay down and start rolling rather than try to get up again. He was THE DIRTIEST by the end. But he enjoyed every second of it!

Another fun thing on the southern coast, south of Coos Bay in Bannon, was this little wild animal park/zoo. They had quite a few cool animals like tigers and lions and gorillas, and the kids even got to pet a baby cheetah. There were lots of goats and deer to pet too. Gus and Ziggy and Teddy loved it!

A fox with his nose tucked under his tail—I didn't know they really slept like that!

Abe got to see this bear stand up (for a treat) and wave his paw. Cute!

AND, the other good thing in Bannon was Face Rock Creamery, where they had amazing cheese curds and $2 "child size" ice cream cups that were HUGE and SO GOOD. We went there twice, and the second time each person got his or her OWN ICE CREAM. Do you know how rare that is for a big family?? VERY rare. And everyone was SO happy about it.

Our house itself was just outside of Coos Bay, and when we got there we were amazed at how beautiful the view was! There were windows all along one side of the house, and I could have sat there and watched the ocean all day. Then, there was a little tiny beach area down below, at the bottom of some tall rocky cliffs. We had to walk around and down some steep stairs to get there, but once there it was really secluded and (nearly) cut off by the tide from the rest of the beach. It felt like our OWN little spot! You could look down on it from the backyard:

And this view is looking back UP at the house from the beach.

It was a great yard, too, with a little mossy path…

under these two beautiful trees. Sebastian wasted no time putting up his hammock!

And then this pretty little overlook to the ocean.

We had mostly grey and overcast weather at this house (which we loved! It felt sooo good to have temperatures in the 50s and 60s!) but it cleared up sometimes in the afternoons, and we even had a beautiful clear sunset the night before we left. The coast is so beautiful in every possible weather! We loved eating our meals here and watching the waves and the tide going in and out! The house wasn't enormous, but it made up for that with this amazing view!

AND, there was a cute little bunny who lived in our yard, and we got to see him come out in the mornings and nibble on buttercups. So that was great. Can you spot him?

And luckily our girls don't mind sleeping all in one bed! Sweeties.

From the house you could see this beautiful lighthouse, the Cape Arago Lighthouse, on a little rocky island. There used to be a bridge to it, apparently, but it's all broken down and now you can't really get across to it. I went on a hike and got a pretty good view from down the coast a bit.