Knowing that this would be our final summer vacation before Aaron launches into adulthood, we thought it would be fun to revisit a favorite vacation of the past. Although we've had many family vacations that we've loved, the decision was still easy: back to the Oregon coast.
We knew there would be a couple of things we'd want to do again from last time (looking at you, Kelly's!), but we also knew we wanted this to be its own vacation and not just a repeat of everything we did in 2022.
We decided to stay farther south (Lincoln City instead of Seaside), which meant we had a whole new area of beaches and hikes and restaurants and activities to explore.
As usual, we vacationed with my brother, Gordy, and his family, and they continue to be such a good complement to our own family and are always good sports about all of our plans.
I didn't think we could love the Oregon coast more than we did in 2022, but turns out, we can! I don't know how long we would have to stay there to feel ready to go back home, but we definitely didn't hit our limit this time (in fact, we felt like our trip ended sooner than we expected--more on that in a minute).
Highlights coming right up (most of the photos in this post are mine, but Mike, Aaron, Gordy, and Brooke all contributed as well!):
Bend, Oregon
We left bright and early on the morning of our departure. We were planning to stay overnight in Bend, Oregon but we wanted to have enough time to do some things when we arrived. We made it there by 3:00, and our first stop was the one and only, last remaining, Blockbuster in the country. It made Mike and me almost giddy to step back into the past, but the boys were unimpressed.
Next we floated the Deschutes River. We rented tubes and then got dropped off at the head of the river.
We all had our own tubes, including Silas. We had the most relaxing time floating down the river for a solid two hours. At times, it was almost too relaxing as some of us would come to a complete stop, so Mike would jump out of his tube and give us a boost.
There was only one section of rapids, and these were very mild as well. Mike and the boys, including Silas, navigated through them effortlessly. However, I was not so lucky and ended up getting pushed out of the rapids to the side where I struggled helplessly in still water to paddle my way back over. I would finally get back to the rapids only to get pushed out again at the next drop. Mike eventually came to my rescue and I rejoined the rest of the family.
There are some beautiful homes along the Deschutes River, and I think in an alternate life, I might like to live in one of them along this peaceful stretch of water.
After the river, we went to a food truck park for dinner. It was a hoppin' place, and we were all so hungry, and everything tasted so good.
The next morning, Mike and I took Silas and Ian on a little walk along the river before we all packed up and headed the rest of the way to the coast. Overall, I was quite charmed by Bend and would love to make it an actual destination sometime instead of just a mid-way point.
Blue Pool Hike on the MacKenzie River
Some of my kids might not consider this a highlight for reasons that will soon become clear, but it was definitely memorable.
The destination for this hike is something called the Blue Pool. When we started, we knew that it was a 4.25 mile round trip hike. Anything over three miles is pushing it for some people in our family, but we figured we could turn around at any point if people got too tired.
The hike to the Blue Pool was lovely. It was mostly in shade with a river running along it and little inlets of water that tempted us as it got hotter and hotter. "But just wait until we get to the Blue Pool!" we encouraged. We saw lots of hikers going the opposite direction, and many of them were very positive: "Definitely worth it! You're almost there!"
And sure enough, soon we got a peak at it from above, and it was stunningly beautiful. A striking azure blue. We couldn't wait to put our feet into it.
The problem was, we couldn't figure out how to hike down to the actual pool. We kept following the trail, but it never started to descend, so we turned around. Then we found someone who said that the trail was the right one, but we had to keep going. So we turned around and hiked around it again, even farther this time, but still without any apparent way down to the pool. Unfortunately, we had neglected to download a map before starting, so we were just going off of instinct, which was not helping us much. By this time, we had hiked an extra mile (30-40 minutes), and we had many hot, cranky kids.
So we gave up, admired the pool from above, and started the hike back out. This time, we did take advantage of the little pools of water along the river, which helped cool us off, even if they weren't as beautiful as the Blue Pool.
Our Beach House
The house we stayed in was just perfection in every way (except that the water heater broke while we were there). It comfortably accommodated both of our families and was right on the beach. We arrived right at sunset and immediately went out on the balcony to watch the sun sink into the ocean.
It was a quick, easy walk down a few flights of stairs to be on the beach itself, and we were there often, multiple times a day: going for walks, playing frisbee or football, (a little bit of) swimming, combing through tide pools, digging in the sand, or flying kites (see below).
The beach was covered in driftwood, and Clark, Rose, and Aaron (as well as some other less committed contributors) spent hours collecting wood and building a shelter.
The house had a beautiful view of the ocean and a hot tub, which everyone took advantage of multiple times a day. (The weather wasn't exactly warm while we were there, and the ocean was cold, so the hot tub felt so so nice.) Silas basically never passed up an opportunity to be in the hot tub. There was also plenty of game playing, relaxing, puzzling, knitting and video games
Our time in our lovely beach house came to an abrupt, and rather traumatic, end. On our last full day, we had a very laidback morning on the beach. The wind had died down, it was perfectly misty, and it was probably the warmest morning we'd had the entire time. It felt so peaceful and unrushed (foreshadowing). We eventually made our way back to the house and the kids got in the hot tub before getting dressed. We planned out the rest of our final day: go on a hike, then out to lunch, maybe to a movie in the afternoon, then we'd have another couple's date for dinner and enjoy one final sunset. However, it was not to be. We got to the trailhead for the hike and had just started walking when Mike got a phone call. It was from the owner of the property. "Hey," he said, "the cleaning crew just showed up, but they said all your stuff is still in the house. Checkout was at 11:00." (It was 11:45 at that moment.) Somehow in the joy of our vacation, we had mixed up our dates. We thought we were checking out the following morning, but it was actually that morning, and instead of packing up, we were on a hike! We all felt so sad as we rushed back to the house, stuffed wet swimming suits and towels into bags, recklessly threw away food, and packed up in record time.
So the beach house was awesome . . . so much so that time escaped us and we kind of wanted to stay forever, but someone else had the audacity to book it and kick us out.
Kite Flying
We heard that Lincoln City was known for kite flying, which seemed kind of random. But then we got there and found kites in the garage of our AirBnb (not in great shape, but Gordy got them mostly fixed) and ended up giving it a whirl.
And . . . it was the most successful kite flying experience we've ever had. The kites were easy to launch and easy to keep up in the air. Even Silas could do it. Ian literally took his kite for a walk all the way down the beach and all the way back up without having it crash once.
(It goes without saying that this meant we had some pretty breezy days on the beach, which comes with some drawbacks, but you can't have everything.)
Gordy even ended up ordering a few more kites, and flying kites was one of our recurring activities while we were there.
Tide Pools
One of the reasons we decided to stay a little farther south this time was to get closer to beaches with tide pools.
The beach we stayed on, which didn't really seem to have a name (maybe Spanish Head Beach?) had a great area of tide pools. We saw an abundance of sea stars, hermit crabs, mussels, barnacles, and anemones.
We also went to Fogarty Creek at Depoe Bay where Ian counted over 200 sea stars and almost everyone played Scatter on the flat, packed sand.
We also went to Seal Rock, but it wasn't the ideal time for tide pools, and the wind was absolutely frigid, so we didn't stick around for long.
Robert's Bookshop
Although Mike and I were the only ones to stop here, it deserves a mention because if you're looking for a book (any book! any edition! any publication year!), chances are fairly good Robert's has it . . . if you can find it. This bookstore was packed to the brim, floor to ceiling, with books.
When we first walked in, I was overwhelmed. It felt cluttered and disorganized. But on closer inspection, every book actually did have a place, and the staff had even left helpful little sticky notes throughout, somehow anticipating where you might look for a book and guiding you to where it was instead. Anyway, I came away with three books: one new, one old, and one out-of-print.
Tillamook and Crabbing
I'm grouping these together because they are the only repeats from our Oregon trip four years ago.
We didn't go on a tour at Tillamook this time; we were only there for the food: pizza, baked potato soup, mac and cheese, burgers, and of course, ice cream. Skipped the cheese curds this time. Everything else was top notch.
Then we headed over to Kelly's Brighton Marina to go crabbing. This was a highlight last time, and it was just as fun as we remembered. We rented a boat and also rings for the dock.
Mike navigated the boat, and Gordy manned the dock. Everyone else rotated between the boat and the dock. Since we had done it before, we were old pros this time: dropping the baskets, pulling them back up, identifying crabs, and throwing back the ones that were either female or too small.
We ended up with two crabs we could keep, which we had them cook for us at the end (probably everyone's least favorite part, to be honest, but it felt only right to eat our catch after all that work).
Depoe Bay, Yachats, Newport
Other than Lincoln City, these are the other towns we spent some time in.
Depoe Bay: went to the whale watching center, bought too much taffy at one of the many candy stores, did some souvenir shopping (where the most random items were grouped together), loved the laid back vibe
Yachats: the rock shop was impressive, and so were the fish and chips, plus this was a fun name to say
Newport: the place where we ended up after getting kicked out of our house, very touristy, not as cute as Lincoln City or Depoe Bay
Cape Perpetua
When we arrived at Cape Perpetua (near Yachats), we were greeted by a ranger who wanted to know if any of the kids wanted to get the junior ranger booklet. Believe it or not, our kids have never earned any junior ranger badges at any of the state or national parks we've been to. But we decided to give it a whirl at Cape Perpetua, and the younger kids loved it. They were fully invested and then got to make a pledge at the end (including that they would eat broccoli without making a funny face) in order to receive their badges.
Cape Perpetua itself was absolutely beautiful. It was a short walk (made shorter because one of the paths was closed) but had a great view and lots of pretty vegetation. Mike and some of the kids climbed down to Thor's Well, which was a rock formation that becomes an impressive blowhole at high tide.
Regatta Park
Brooke's brother was also visiting for part of the time we were in Oregon, so their families went to Regatta Park to hang out and let the cousins play together. We weren't going to encroach on their family time, but then Gordy texted and said the park wasn't windy at all and very peaceful. We thought he must be joking because we had been experiencing at least some wind everywhere we went, but he was right. The park was in a sheltered cove and completely still, and the kids had a blast playing.
Spyglass Ridge Trail
This was the hike we were starting out on when we got the call to pack up and get out. After the traumatic rush, we came back to the hike, and the peaceful contrast was exactly what our souls needed.
It was a low-effort trail but easy to make some wrong turns on, so it was good Gordy was navigating. So much green and it smelled heavenly.
Food
You knew this was coming, right? Here are the highlights:
Eleanor's Undertow (Lincoln City): famous ice cream, beware the risqué statue out front
Squatchsami (Lincoln City): super friendly staff who went above and beyond, and the fish tacos were super excellent
Inn at Spanish Head (Lincoln City): date night with a view of the beach; stayed for dessert even after Gordy and Brooke left
Highway 101 Burgers (Lincoln City): they write the name of the (very yummy) burger in ketchup
Thai Bay Restaurant (Lincoln City): we ordered takeout, and it was these leftovers we were most sad about throwing out when we had to leave our house in a hurry
Luna Sea Fish House (Yachats): best fish and chips of the trip
Otis Cafe (Lincoln City): cute diner vibe
Cobblestone Pizza Co. (Newport): not fast, but great pizza
And that's it. From the length of this post, you can probably tell that pretty much the entire trip was highlights. We loved it so much. We had a lot of family and friends who also happened to go to Oregon this summer, and every time one of them went, I was jealous that we weren't with them. I'm sure we'll be back.
