We wonder, does a person ever get tired of looking at the ocean?  And especially watching waves crash violently against huge rocks?  I can’t think of anything else that people will universally stand and stare at like they do with the ocean.  Dennis and I think maybe it’s a combination of rhythm and white noise and the unending horizon and the unknown.  Somehow the ocean is both terrifying and peaceful at the same time.  

The Oregon coast is nothing short of gorgeous.  We spent almost two weeks in three different locations:  Newport at South Beach State Park, Florence at Honeyman State Park in the Oregon Dunes, and Reedsport at Umpqua Lighthouse State Park.  Each had some features that made them unique…but they all had rough and rocky shorelines where it was mesmerizing to watch the waves crash on the shore.  I think I could watch all day and not get tired of it.  

Our first stop was Newport, which is a pretty nice sized coastal town with an active wharf and lots of fishing activity. Our campground was along the coast, but about a half mile walk to the beach, with a thick barrier of medium-sized dunes covered in grasses and a deep flat beach.  While there, we took advantage of the paved trail to ride to Rogue Brewery and mooch their wifi to stream the UK game.  We also spent a day hiking along the beach from Beverly Beach park up to Devils Punchbowl, which they believe was a sea cave where the roof had collapsed hundreds of years ago, leaving behind a “bowl” for the waves to slosh around in.  While there, we ate at a little bitty cafe called Mo’s where Wyatt had some AMAZING clam chowder and Dennis got oysters so large they had to be eaten in two huge bites.  We later discovered Mo’s is a bit of a local chain, with 6 locations.  

We ended that day with a drive to several lookouts to look for whales.  There were so many grey whales along the section of coast from Depoe Bay to Devil’s Punchbowl that you could spot a spout almost every time you searched the water.  Grey whales are a little harder to watch than humpbacks, though, because they don’t seem to come out of the water as much, and we never saw one breach.  They do show the tails, or “fluke out”, some, but not as dramatically as a humpback.  However, we really hit the jackpot when we pulled over at the Cape Foulweather lookout.  The tiny building sits on the edge of a cliff 500 feet up from the water, giving you an almost direct view down into some pretty deep water.  As a result, we could see a few whales right under us and even see them under the water between breaths.  We didn’t get any pictures of them, though, because we were too excited watching them!

While in Newport, we also reconnected with some people we had met back at Glacier.  Rob and Karen both attended UL for the music program and now live in Newport.  We lucked into being there on the weekend when the Newport Symphony Orchestra had a performance, for whom Rob is a cellist.  The kids have never been to a symphony, and this one sounded like a very good introduction for them as several of the pieces were accompanied by a choreographed photography show with pictures of local sights and nature.  Honestly, the kids were less than thrilled when we told them how we were going to spend the afternoon, but afterwards they both agreed that it was better than they expected.  We were extremely impressed with the performance and were really happy that we lucked into the opportunity.  

As we left Newport and made our way to Florence, we had lunch along the way at a perfect example of what we’ve come to love about the Pacific coast:  a pullout on the side of the road overlooking huge boulders with dramatic crashing waves and even a few sea lions to gawk at.  Once we got to Florence, we pulled into the Fred Meyers to restock…and found great big dunes right behind the store!  This was just impossible for the kids to resist, especially since the dunes are one of the things Wyatt has really been looking forward to.  We let them climb around for a little bit before heading on to the campground.  

The next morning we ripped through our schoolwork so that we could go out to have some more fun on the dunes.  After watching a safety video and hearing about all the ways we could kill ourselves, they let us loose on ATVs.  These dunes were near the campground and put the grocery store dunes to shame.  Big enough to get lost on and tall enough to flip over or go flying off the steep edge…they were the real deal.  Three of us were a bit cautious to start and took it easy, but unsurprisingly Maya decided to go all in and was fearless.  By the end we were all jumping small hills, though, and the kids are already talking about ATVing more on some of the other dunes we will come across later in the trip.