Cannon Beach to Bandon, OR

From Portland, we headed back to the coast for a night in Cannon Beach, which is primarily a vacation spot and popular place to have a second home.  From there we headed south along the coast, stopping to camp at Devil’s Lake State Park in Lincoln City.  We camped again and played in the dunes at Jesse M. Honeyman State Park near Florence.  Then we continued south to Bandon before turning east to make our way back to Ashland.

Happy Birthday: We rented a cottage in Cannon Beach for Paula's birthday and the boys helped me make a real birthday cake for the occasion (Rusty doesn't have an oven).

Haystack Rock is in the background as Paula and the boys play at Cannon Beach.

Taking it all in: Paula thinks deep thoughts as she enjoys the peaceful beauty of Cannon Beach.

Jake models in front of our cozy little Cannon Beach cottage operated by Hidden Beach Villas.

"Moo!" We stop at the Tillamook Cheese Factory in Tillamook for a self-guided tour and some free samples.

That's a lot of cheese: the cheese is stored and aged in 40 pound blocks before it's cut up and packaged (that's what's going on here).

Jake helps me drive the boat we rented on Devil's Lake.

Nate is more focused on fishing, but unfortunately, we got skunked!

The world's best play structure: locals on Devil's Lake rallied to build a massive wooden play structure that rivals any I've ever seen. The boys (i.e., the experts) give it top marks.

Bear with me... here come a few shots that caught my eye as we drove down the coast of Oregon (I highly recommend it).

I love the variety in the scenery...

And the bridges definitely add character.

Do not attempt without cold beer: Paula prepares herself to climb the sand dunes at Jesse M. Honeyman State Park.

Some of the dunes are daunting... but they don't slow Nate down.

"It's like ice cream" - Jake's description after eating freshly shelled (by him) Dungeness crab.

I wish I had the video upgrade: You could have seen Nate and Jake sprinting down the face of the sand dune.

Ready to go again: Nate refused to tire or stop after many trips down the hill. I made a few trips myself, and it's good exercise coming back up 🙂

We rented a peddle boat at Honeyman State Park - the water was quite refreshing after we hit the dunes again.

Crabbing! We rented a crab ring to fish for Dungeness crab off the dock in Bandon. Here the boys are emptying our ring of crabs too small to keep. (It was a good lesson in patience - if the boys brought up the ring too soon, there'd be no crab. But if they waited, there were always a few even if they weren't "keepers.")

No fear: Jake had no fear or hestitation when picking up the crabs despite their healthy sized and mean looking claws.

You want some of this?! A close up of an angry crab after we brought him up in our ring. (Even though he wasn't happy, the boys loved it!)