We have close friends who have a get-a-way place in Cannon Beach, and they have shared many wonderful stories about the Oregon Coast. I’ve wanted to visit the area for a long time and I am just very sorry our friends could not be with us.

We headed about an hour and a half from Portland to the Oregon coast. It is strikingly beautiful. Raw, windswept, vast, and COLD.  I still have trouble with the concept of being on a beach with a blanket and windbreaks in July (we saw no swimsuits)! We drove north on Highway 101 along the coast to the historic town of Astoria (1792) and enjoyed seeing the Victorian homes as well as the locations used in the movie Kindergarten Cop. This is Lewis and Clark territory, and the imposing Astoria Column was built in 1925 to commemorate their expedition as well as other westward expansion. You don’t need to climb the 164 steps, the views from the top of the 30-acre site are impressive.

Heading back to Cannon Beach we also saw the cute resort town of Seaside.  I loved the starfish lights decorating the town’s light poles.

Walking on the beach here is pure pleasure.  The beaches are huge and not crowded (by our Florida standards), and at low tide, you can walk right up to the famous Haystack Rock, the visual most often associated with the Oregon Coast.  Haystack is 235’ high and part of the Oregon Islands National Wildlife Refuge and looks much larger in person and dominates the landscape for miles.  Impressive.