Grandma Theresa joined us for a short vacation to the Oregon Coast. This year we rented a small house in Lincoln City. Upon arrival I made the comment that it was "dumpy" and Colin cleverly nicknamed it the Dumpsite.
We had a nice view of the beach from the back deck, but no direct access. We had to walk down the street a ways to actually get on the beach, which wasn't anything special, but not very crowded either.
We had one day of very nice weather, but otherwise it was foggy and hazy.
On a previous visit to the coast I spent a little time at Arch Cape, where it is easy to see lots of starfish and other interesting things around the rocks. We set out to drive there, not realizing at first that it was an hour and 50 minutes away, rather than just 50 minutes away. We had lunch in Tillamook and then turned back.
I think the highlight for everyone was kite flying. Grandma and I took our two broken kites into Northwest Winds Kites & Toys, where they were nice enough to fix them for very little. Colin got a new "pocket sled" kite, which was perfect for him. The wind wasn't quite strong enough for my steerable 2-line kite on the first outing, but it was great the next day when we visited Agate Beach.
Seems like we spent too much time driving around. Maybe it was the weather, or maybe it was the location. Colin became irritated with all the stops to see beaches, viewpoints, lighthouses, and so on. One day we tried to hike the The North Lincoln Hospital Optimist Trail, but we couldn't find it. I don't think it exists any more.
Colin did have fun learning about the tides, I think, thanks in part to a free ipod app that graphs the tide level over the course of a day. We also had a lot of fun tracking Hurricane Irene on the weather channel.
On our last day I gave into the temptation of taking pictures of a waterfall. Driving to the Drift Creek Falls Trail, hiking 1.5 miles in, then out, then driving back took about an hour longer than I expected. I was delaying everyone's dinner. It was a cold reception upon my triumphant return, to say the least. The hike was nice, but the pictures were not worth it. I'm sure the falls are more impressive in the spring time.
