Day Three – Sunken Ships and Haystacks

If you are just tuning in,you may want to check out the table of contents first.

The night was SOOOO cold! I wore three hoodies and buried myself under towels and my sleeping bag, and I still froze. We woke up before the sun even rose, so we decided to go to the beach and watch the sun come up.

That stretched white mark in the sky is actually Venus.

First stop was the top of the hill looking down at Nehalem Beach

We took the same photo a few years ago:

Next stop was Cannon Beach. When we got out of the car we noticed this guy clinging to the roof…had he driven with us? Couldn’t be.

Jorden named him Javier. I dunno why, but Javier he was.

We left Javier guarding the car and went to grab coffee at a cute little coffee shop

Then went to take a look and the beautiful – but way too expensive – blown glass shop.

We decided to drive a little further into the main town area. When we got out of the car, Kelsey noticed Javier was on the door. He was touring the coast with us, apparently.

We headed to the beach to go see Haystack rock

Kelsey got busy squishing little people:

Jorden leaned on a rock:

This beach is amazing, it’s really “Planet of the Apes”-ish.

Taken from the other side:

We sat for a bit and enjoyed the sites and sounds. I love the hole in the rock:

A picture quite a LONGER time ago taken in front of that very rock:

We went back to walk around the quaint but touristy town, taking various photos along the way:

Could it be….HARRY?

Funny signs:

We went to the taffy factory for some delicious, chewy, salt-water taffy in every flavor imaginable:

We went back to the car and couldn’t spot Javier. “Ooohh!” came the whines.

Photo on the way:

Next stop: Fort Stevens State Park and a sunken ship that remains rusting on the shore:

We went to have a quick look at the old Fort:

Back to the car and we pulled out. As soon as we started driving we noticed Javier clinging to the bottom of the side mirror for what appeared to be dear life. He gradually made his way onto the mirror where he was a little more guarded from the wind shear:

we were all becoming attached to this little grasshopper! (Or rather, he was attached to us…literally.)

We stopped at some outlet to do some shopping and had some fast food lunch. When we returned, poor Javier was nowhere to be found. That was the last we saw of little Javier, I guess he got tired of the tour.

Back at the campsite we went out to the beach and Jorden thought he would try swimming.

This is how that ended, seconds later:

Another great day, tomorrow we pack up camp and move down the coast to camp at the lighthouse and do some dunes!