4 Year Anniversary - Oregon Coast

On September 25, 2008, Jaime and I celebrated our 4 year wedding anniversary! Usually we just do something low key for our anniversaries, but this year I wanted to do something really fun. Growing up, my family always went to the Oregon Coast on spring break and I loved it so much! I haven't been able to go for quite some time and Jaime has NEVER been, so he has no idea how beautiful it is. So we planned to go to the Surfrider Resort between Lincoln City and Depoe Bay, Oregon.
Jaime was able to get Friday off, so we left town early Friday morning. We took the scenic route through Astoria and down highway 101 so that we could stop in Tillamook at the Cheese Factory! We took a quick tour and then bought some YUMMY cheese curds (squeeky cheese), chocolate milk, and peperoni sticks before we continued down the coast.
We finally arrived at our hotel and couldn't wait to get checked in to see the view from our room. IT WAS AMAZING!!! Check it out!
The resort has a beautiful (mostly private) beach down below so we threw our stuff down and headed down to the beach. It was low tide so we played around in the tide pools for a while.



That is our hotel in the background up on the cliff.

I'm not sure what Jaime is doing in this picture. But we were playing around on this cliff.

The next day, we slept in of course and then pack up some goodies and headed down to play on the beach some more. Jaime wandered around playing on the rocks while I laid out in the sun and read. You can see him in this picture at the top of the big rock he climbed.
I was sick all weekend, so I was all about laying around and resting in the 70 degree sunshine.

After a while, Jaime got bored running around the beach so we decided to head into town, Depoe Bay, OR. While we were driving through, I was reminded a lot of the spring break trips I took with my family down there and I remember one trip in particular where we went whale watching. I figured it was too late in the season to do it in late September. But it was just our luck...they had one more boat going out at 3:30pm!! We made it just in time! We gave them the money and headed down to the marina and got on the boat. The boat captain promised us they had been seeing whales all day! It was very warm out so it felt good to get out on the ocean and feel the cool breeze. Right as we got out to sea, we came up to a buoy and saw that a big old sea lion had someone climbed up on top of it and was basking in the sun.
It was quite the site. We did see quite a few whales, but I didn't take any pictures because I didn't want to risk dropping my camera in the ocean. Plus the pictures wouldn't have turned out very well. But it was amazing seeing these huge creatures come out of the water. I was very impressed. Once the whales slowed down, we headed into a bay called "Whale's Bay". It was so beautiful in there. One of the prettiest beaches on the Oregon Coast, and since it was low tide, there was TONS of harbor seals laying all over the exposed rocks in the sun.
Once we watched the sea lions for a while, it was time to head back towards Depoe Bay. On the way back, the captain opened the boat to full throttle and we hauled along the ocean. I couldn't believe such a boat could go so fast! The water was spraying up all over everyone and I suddenly regretted wearing shorts. Plus the afternoon cool breeze had picked up so my legs and feet quickly became numb. But it was so fun I didn't really mind. I was glad to be back to shore but bummed that our whale watching adventure was over. Well worth the $18/each.
We headed back to our hotel and got there just in time to run down to the beach to watch the sunset. It was so beautiful I just couldn't stop taking pictures. I hope everyone gets to see a sunset like that at least once in their life. These pictures just don't do it justice.
We headed back up to our room and decided to go to the restaurant in our hotel. It was a very nice restaurant but the food was surprisingly lame. At least the burgers were. Maybe their seafood was alright, but neither of us were in the mood for it. Here are some pictures we took from our balcony before heading off to dinner.Sunday morning came and we were pretty bummed that it was time to head home. But at the same time, I was glad to get home and see my kitties who I'd missed so much! We slept in and had a late check out and then headed back up north. We stopped in Lincoln City at a very pretty beach and said goodbye to the ocean till next time.
Since we were driving through the Portland area, we decided we would stop at the Sonic Drive In in Hillsbaro, Oregon. It was about 1/2 hour out of the way, but well worth it. THEY NEED TO HURRY UP AND BUILD ONE HERE!
Anyways, once we got up to Longivew, WA Jaime got a little cramped so we pulled over at a rest stop. We both got out, stretched out legs and as when headed back to the car, I realized Jaime left the lights on. But that was the least of our problems. It told him he left them on and he patted his pockets to find his keys and guess what........he didn't have them!! We looked in the car, and there they were. Right in the ignition. We were both a little panicked but Jaime went around and started asking people if they had a coat hanger. He kept striking out, so he moved over to the motor homes. First person he asked there had one!! As he started getting to work on the hanger, a very nice man noticed we were in distress and put his trip on hold to help us out. While Jaime and this nice man worked and worked on the car, I noticed a police cruiser pull up. I thought I'd go ask them for a slim jim, but decided against it since the guys were already doing what a slim jim would do. After a while, the cops got back in their car and drove RIGHT PAST US, staring at us, knowing full well we were locked out of our car and needed help. "Protect and SERVE"....my butt!! What a bunch of losers.
Jaime and the very nice man finally got the doors unlocked after about 40 minutes. We tried to pay the guy but he said "HELL NO" when we pulled out cash to give him. I wish there were more people like him in the world.