Good-bye to Nehalem, Manzanita and up to Lewis and Clark Territory

We slept in as we sometimes do on foggy mornings.  We even had a 2 day old paper to read with our coffee.  Is anything important happening out there in the real world? We walked to the ocean a bit later through the sand dunes and sat for a few hours, hunkering down in the dunes to avoid the wind and enjoy the sunny afternoon—no where to go, nothing to do—what could be better than that?  We stayed a few days, doing exactly that—not too much of anything but walking the beach, reading in the sand and laughing at Boo loving being off leash and experiencing a little freedom himself.

Who couldn't relax gazing at this?

 

The first view of the ocean from the path.

When we left the next day, we hit a Laundromat down the road.  5 loads and $20 later, we had clean sheets and clean clothes once again.  It seems that we live in the same kinds of clothes all the time.  Once again, my closet is full of things I never wear-what was I thinking!?!    The outfit of choice for both of us is jeans and sweats and fleece and T-shirts, Crocs for the beach and slippers in Maxine.

After the Laundromat, we were craving Mexican food so, we stopped at a darling seaside town, Manzanita, and had burritos at the Left Coast Siesta.  We roamed the town for awhile and declared it a place we’d love to come back to—very laid back, several nice restaurants, sweet cottages, several cute boutiques and a nice beach.

So many dog friendly restaurants in this part of the country

We decided to see Seaside and Cannon Beach from afar since we were anxious to get to Ft. Stevens at the tip of Oregon at a decent hour.  The Cannon Beach area, especially, is beautiful , even from the highways which are abundant with foxglove and wild parsnip.

I have been reading “Undaunted Courage” about the Lewis and Clark expedition in the early 1800s and was anxious to see what I’d been reading about.  We toured the Ft. Clatsop site (named after the Clatsop Indians who befriended the Corps of Discovery during the winter they were camped here). 

Entrance to the fort

Where the men slept-ouch!

Lewis and Clark's bunk room

A beautiful statue of Sacajawea that Boo just loved

 We camped at Ft. Stevens State Park, the oldest and largest of the Oregon State Parks.  This one was a little too big and crowded (we were here on a weekend and a free camping day) for us but it was a great location to experience so much of the history of this area.  Ft Stevens was built in the mid 1800s to guard the mouth of the Columbia River from the Civil War through World War II.

There are extraordinary hiking and biking paths to various beaches, historical sites and lakes.  The campground itself was full of tall spruce , Douglas firs and hemlock trees.

We walked a couple miles to Coffenbury Lake and then to the beach where the 1906 wreck of a ship, Peter Iredale, sits right on the beach. 

Gorgeous trail to the beach

After a few days here, we needed
underwear again.
Look who is doing the laundry line?

The next day we took turns biking to the historical site and back.  The biking trail was just beautiful through a lush forest along a creek to the remainder of the eight gun batteries.  We were amazed to learn that this site was the first U.S. mainland military base to be fired upon by a foreign power since the War of 1812.  In World War II, the I-25 Japanese submarine fired about 17 shells into the fort, causing minimal damage.  It alarmed coastal residents that a Japanese invasion of the west coast could be imminent, which of course, never happened. 

The bike trail

Such a happy looking Civil War encampment family!

Remains of one of the batteries

The Columbia River from one of the batteries

Note:  I am sitting in the Wi-Fi room in an Indian Reservation in northern Washington, trying to catch up on my blog.  Just so you know, if you are reading this, that I am way behind.  We are further along on our journey than this blog indicates.  Don't be too hard on me for bad grammar and punctuation (Janet!) as I'd like to get this done and off to more beach time.