Beaches, forest and falls

Let the outings begin!  Yahoo!  Uncle Dan had  a wonderful coastal loop to show us on our first taste of Salem/Oregon scenery.  Aunt Sally,  Uncle Ed and Rosemary joined us.  Our first stop was toward the coast to stop for picnic fixings in Lincoln City.  Of course wouldn't you know (well we do now!), that it started raining.  I guess you can't complain of all the rain when you like to see all the greenery.  Our first picnic stop was rained out.  Aunt Sally put on her sunglasses to give us some much needed hope that the sun would break through and it worked.  Our picnic stop was at the mouth of the Salmon River.

The crew

Ok, maybe more like tailgate party, but the ground was wet!  We wern't  here too long.  It was time to move on to Neskowin Beach and see the remains of the "ghost forest".  Tree stumps that remain long after they should on the beach, just sticking up.  Very weird, anyone say global warming?

Jason and Uncle Dan "stumped".

There is a really cool rock in the middle of the beach which involves lots of questions of how it got there.  We tried to walk around it, but wound up climbing part of it.  Most of what we were stepping on (6-8 feet up from the beach) were shells, that made me think I don't want to be here during high tide.  We gave up climbing with the tide inching its way up, but found some cool caves.

posing on the rock

Everyone is a little too tall for the cave

Uncle Ed the explorer

It stayed dry for the remainder of the day, so we drove on to Cape Kiwanda and it's 200 ft. sand dune.  Race anyone?  The boys ran up ahead of us, and then ran up and down another time...oh to not need Motrin in the morning!  The views were amazing from the top.  Our shoes carried away a portion of the dune.  We all had a good time climbing the dune and earned ourselves a pint at the brewhouse at the bottom.

just a breather! Alex on trip #2

looking up the coast

Oregon has amazing colors

Andre showing of his many talents

That was it for the first day of the coastal route.  The next day we took the inland route to see Aunt Janet at work in Eugene, then off to the covered bridges and the McKenzie river.  The weather was not cooperating with our plans as we chased a storm cell the entire way!  We found a spot for a picnic... under umbrellas.  The weather was not going to let up.  We have some great photos of our picnic area and now understand why moss grows everywhere!  We are planning another attempt of the bridges at a later date, sunshine hopefully.

Whose the kids now?

After taking a break for a day and catching up of daily living, we found our day filled with warm temperatures and sunshine, yay!  It was off to Silver Falls, to view 10 falls on a scenic hike.  On our first fall to view, the sign of no dogs allowed plunged our spirits of a great day.  We brought Elwood figuring to give him some exercise and the park not mentioning no dogs allowed on the trails.  There was a rim trail that dogs are allowed on, so off we went.  We were able to see 3 falls and take Elwood down to one of them (no signs posted not to!).  It turned out to be the perfect amount of hiking for the day and got us into the hiking groove again.  We made a 6 mile loop in all, and the boys slept the entire way home!  We are making plans to visit all of the falls at a later time, and without the dog.  On our drives, it's been cool to see the fields of grass seed, christmas trees and vineyards which make up some of Oregon's industry.

Our first week in Oregon was wonderful!  We got to see family and go explore.  Next week work begins for me :(, but I can't wait to see where we go on our next outings.  

South falls, the boys and Jason ran down to it

Oh boys!

Twin Falls, reminded me of Last of the Mohicans,with it's overhang-under rock-behind-waterfall trail.  

North Falls, Elwood got to play in this one, it was REALLY cold!