After visiting Mt. Hood we drove straight to the Oregon coast. Our hotel was in the small town of Seaside that we were going to visit the next morning,  We were lucky to be driving through Astoria when the sunset was happening (and Sarah needed to pee), so we stopped for some time to walk around the pier.

Situated near the mouth of the Columbia River where it meets the Pacific Ocean, the city was named after John Jacob Astor, an investor from New York City whose American Fur Company founded Fort Astoria at the site in 1811.

It holds the distinction of being the first permanent United States settlement on the Pacific coast and for having the first U.S. post office west of the Rocky Mountains.

The sun was setting behind the Astoria–Megler Bridge, which was opened in 1966. It is the longest continuous truss bridge in North America.

After the quick stop, we were on our way to Seaside. Once we were checked-in, we headed to the main street where we ate at a brewery. Eitan got fish and chips, which happen to be disgusting and extremely fishy (which was disappointing considering seafood here should be good).

The next morning we headed back to the main street of Seaside, but the town looked very run down with some shops completely closed down.

The name Seaside is derived from Seaside House, a historic summer resort built in the 1870s by railroad magnate Ben Holladay.

This is also the end of the Lewis and Clark trail….

Besides the beach, there is absolutely nothing else to do here. So we started to walk back to the car so we could continue our coastal tour.

There is a nice boardwalk that we took to get back.

Our next stop was Cannon Beach. We parked right in front of a winery taste room,  so it would have been very disrespectful to at least not try it out. This region is famous for their Pinot Noirs, but I will leave that story for tomorrow when we will be visiting the Willamette Valley.

We walked around town trying to find a good restaurant to eat. This town is super cute and way more lively than seaside. Next time we will be staying here instead.

The prices here were significantly higher than what we have seen in Oregon, but we had to eat so we sat at a nice place where we got a delicious Fetuccini Alfredo and  some shrimp cocktail.

After lunch, we headed to the beach. Cannon Beach is recognized for its well-known landmark, Haystack Rock, located southwest of downtown Cannon Beach, near Tolovana Park. This igneous rock has an elevation of 235 feet (72 m) and is often accessible at low tide, especially in the summertime.

They had a really funny lifeguard cart to get to the waves faster in case you are drowning!

After regretting not scheduling a full day here to enjoy this amazing natural monument. We walked back to the car to head south to the town of Tillamook! There were many nice viewpoints along the highway, but we didn’t really have the time to stop on all of them:

The one and only thing to do in the town of Tillamook is visiting the cheese factory. Unfortunately, at the time of our visit, they were remodeling the visitor center so they basically had an exhibit where it basically said that they use cow’s milk to make cheese. Not even the process involved in doing cheese or any other useful information.

The Tillamook Cheese Factory produces more than 170,000 pounds of cheese each day, and packages approximately one million pounds of cheese on-site each week. The factory warehouse has the capacity to age 50 million pounds of cheese at once.

Sarah the delivery cheese person:

At the end of the exhibit, they give you cheese to try to bribe your brain into forgetting how terrible the museum was. The positive side is that the cheese was delicious, especially the cheese crumbles.

Then, of course, the gift shop. Where all kind of cheeses are up for sale.

They have some icecream as well, we chose the white chocolate with lemon filling posicles that were really good.

Our last stop of the day was Pacific City, where we stayed the night. Before going to the hotel we stopped at the beach to enjoy the sunset. There is a big sand hill, but we were very tired so we stayed at sea level to take some photos.

After the sunset, we ate  dinner at the nearby (and the only place open at night) Pelican Brewery that ended having surprisingly good food.