Oregon Coast Vacation: Randomness that deserves documentation.

Everywhere......that's where the wildflowers, and flower gardens were blooming.

Another awesome bridge we crossed a few times. This bridge is at Little Whale Cove. The top right pic was taken of the bridge when we were out on the boat. The other two are taken from a little pull-out spot along the road. 

The Devil's Punch Bowl, geological tourist attraction. The kids took a twenty second look at it. Not so impressive when the tide is low and no waves are splashing into and up out of it. I was obsessed about keeping continuous quarters in the telescope machine I was using at a lookout point, because there were whales and the view with the scope was just incredible. And the kids and Darin? Well....they played with this little squirrel forever, feeding it crackers. This was on a perfect, amazing vacation day, full of some of the highlights of the trip. That night I asked the kids what they liked best that day. That darn squirrel!!

One day these strange, pickle-shaped jelly-fish were washing up onto "our beach". And this sandstone wall was perfect for carving in.Super soft and surely washed away the next day. 

We passes a street called "Ellie Avenue". It was perfect because she had been frustrated that very day that all of the little shops had the name "Logan" on personalized souvenirs, but nobody ever had "Ellie". Love that girl in her head to toe bright pink! Middle picture: beautiful hikes, trails, and parks are everywhere!

Traveling to the coast, (12 hours total drive time) we stayed a night in a small town hotel. Picture of Ellie in the hotel hot tub. We had planned to do the same on the drive home. But we just loved the coast too much, and luckily our cottage was available an additional night. So we did the drive home in one day. We took the long way home, wanting to see a little more of the areas we have never been through. It was beautiful for a couple of hours. Beyond that, it was desolate and made for a super long drive. (15 hours drive time this route.) While still in the beautiful part of the drive, we had to go over a pretty curvy mountain pass. I heard Logan breathing heavy and turned around to look at him. Oh man....we pulled that car over quick. We got him out and breathing fresh are, he gagged a bit but kept the nausea in check. We had forgotten that curvy canyons and viewing a movie in the van has made Logan carsick in the past. And just like in the past, Ellie is so nervous that Logan might throw-up that she almost needs to throw-up herself and is near tears about it all. Just so happened that I had bought children's Dramamine in case he had needed it on the fishing excursion. He popped one of those pills and was in a deep sleep in about five minutes. 

While sleeping he missed out on this....SNOW!! Yep, we drove through a snowstorm while driving over that mountain pass. So surreal and beautiful to see snow in June!!

So long to the best family vacation we've had so far, as a family. It was just an ideal week, and we truly felt "on vacation". It was so, so good to be taking in the beauty of the sights, at a slow pace. No deadlines. No obligations. No schedules or to-do lists. The kids got along amazingly. Brief moments of sibling reality, but over-all it was sibling fairy-tale. I love, love, love it when they have just each other to be with, and forget about the rest of the world and friends and people. I felt so blessed to be in a place where my soul breathes like I feel it was meant to. And exponentially more blessed to be there with my family. So complete. 

 

We will be back.......as soon as possible!!