Lincoln City, Oregon

 First on the agenda was the Astoria Column.  It's a 125' tall lighthouse-like structure that was built in 1926 to honor the discovery and settlement of the western areas. 

  It sits high above Astoria and gives a beautiful view from the top (after you climb 160 stairs, that is...)

 

Nicely maintained inside....

 

It was a fun little walk.  

Moving south, the next stop was a curvy ride up the park road to Ecola St. Park.  Some elk grazing beside the parking area

 Just awe inspiring views!  These photos are from Ecola Point, Indian Beach and Cannon Beach.

Lighthouse at Ecola.

Duane snapped a photo of me....

 

 Lots of  "pull over" on the side of the road shots as well.  

And what visit to the Oregon coast would be complete without visiting the Tillamook cheese factory for a tour!!  (And samples!!)

 

 It was good fun - the samples were wonderful....I wanted to buy an ice cream but the line looked an hour long....no thanks....

Fun to see the process - looks complicated and very clean.

Back on the road....now to visit the Cape Meares lighthouse.  More beautiful views.

 

Short light house on a high cliff.

 

View from the lighthouse.

 Next up was to visit "Tunnel Beach"....which is technically on the Oceanside beach.  It's a 90' long tunnel dug in 1926 by resort owners to cut thru the ocean side mountain to connect one side of the beaches to the other side.  Totally commercial - I had assumed it was some sort of military thing....

Inside the tunnel.

The tunnel opening on the other side of the hill.

View out of the tunnel.....

Just one of those kinda weird things.....

The last stop was to check out Cape Kiawanda where there is a large, tall sand dune.  They allow hang gliding from the top of the dune.  But it was just too far for us to walk over so late in the day so we ended up giving a close up view a pass.  You can see some para gliders on the dune if you look close.  Strange to see a dune so high here since most of the beaches so far have been extremely flat.

 

 And then there were many more "pull out" photos as we drove to Lincoln City for the evening.....

Astoria, Oregon

 

 We left Forks in the morning, heading south towards Oregon along the Washington coast.  It was several hours of driving, one of the longest driving days of the trip.  I had picked a couple of random activities to break up the drive during the day.

First up was to visit the Westport fishing village "boardwalk".   We'd arrive just at lunch time so the idea was to find a fish n' chips place for some good greasy food.

We found the cool place - Merino's Seafood.  They are a local fish processing/packing place with a side hustle restaurant.

After way too much food, we wandered the boardwalk - tourist shops for candy and knick-knacks.  They have a nice concrete tower for good views of the harbour.

Views from the top.

 Continuing further south, next up was the Carriage Museum in Raymond.  I don't know why that caught my eye during the planning of this trip, but I'm glad we stopped by.  It was pretty cool seeing all the restored buggies.  Worth the stop and small fee!

 

I also enjoyed looking at the clothing on display up-close.  So interesting!

 

Amazing fabrics from so long ago!

 Time to make our way further south....the final stop for the day was the Cape Disappointment State Park, specifically the lighthouse trail.  There is a Coast Guard station alongside the state park.

 

 

Nice trail with pretty coastline views on the way to the lighthouse.

 

Huge jetty protecting the harbour viewed from the lighthouse hilltop.

 

The lighthouse is still in operation.

 

Beautiful views from the lighthouse.

 

The harbour on the way out of the park.

 

Driving along towards Oregon, the jetty with mountains in the distance.

Across the bridge from Washington to Oregon.  This is the view from our hotel room.

 

We're adjacent to the marina in Astoria- our only "hotel room" of the trip.  All the rest are AirBnB apartments.