Birthdays are usually a big deal
in our house – starting off with breakfast in bed and opening presents. But being on the road, either it is hard to
make it feel special or every day feels so special it is hard to
differentiate. We skipped both breakfast
in bed and presents today. Julia started
today as she has many other days – exercising.
When we started on this trip she and I both committed to doing a workout
every morning and while I have done exactly one workout in the past 24 days,
she has almost completed her four-week Nike Training program. (I blame blogging for my lack of exercise…but
I’m really proud of her commitment level.)
After her workout, we had the breakfast buffet at the Hampton and
started off down the coast. The weather
along the coast is significantly cooler than the other places we’ve been to
date – and it was really nice to be able to pull out our long sleeves and long
pants we’ve been hauling around for weeks.
We were running a little later than we had hoped so we were on the fence
about stopping at the Lewis and Clark National Historical Park, but decided to
stop in briefly. We got lucky that the
Wednesday following the fourth of July each year is Seaman’s Day, honoring the
Newfoundland dog (Seaman) that accompanied Lewis and Clark on their
journey. So, Fort Clatsop was full of
Newfoundlands and their owners. And not
just any Newfoundlands – the first one we met, Buddy, is the actual mascot for the Lewis
and Clark College Pioneers – the dog who leads the team out before football games and who
was the model for the statue we had already photographed for the scavenger
hunt!
There are nine lighthouses along
the Oregon coast on the national registry of historic places and we thought it
would be fun to try to see them all on our way down. The first one is between Seaside and Cannon Beach,
visible from Ecola State Park and is known as Terrible Tilly for its location
about a mile off shore on Tillamook Rock.
We drove into Ecola State Park and walked out to a spot where we could
see the lighthouse.
 |
| Terrible Tilley |
 |
| Looking down on Cannon Beach |
 |
| Warnings! |
From there we drove
to the cute, seaside town of Cannon Beach for lunch at a great placed called
Season’s Café and picked up a couple of delicious cupcakes at Simply Cakes by
Jae. We shopped around town getting Julia
a book for her birthday at the local bookstore and some candy at Bruce’s Candy
Kitchen. I had pictured spending time on
the beach and going to the famous Haystack Rock but it was very windy and cold
on the sand so we didn’t spend much time there.
We continued south down the
coast, driving through the little town of Manzanita (in search of a slice of
pizza we had read about, but the restaurant was only open for dinner), and then
stopped at the Tillamook Cheese factory.
We could have stayed there for hours learning about cheese-making and
studying the assembly line process. It
was super interesting trying to figure out what each machine’s role is, and it
was also pretty clear that being an assembly line worker must be unbelievably
boring and difficult at the same time given the amount of attention they must
pay. We heard to get a milkshake there, but
so many flavors looked good that three of us (all but the birthday girl) decided
to get junior ice cream cones. My
marionberry pie ice cream was really great!
We didn’t stay long since I was anxious to get to our next location –
the surprise hotel for Julia’s birthday.
With so much driving to do, we decided not to take the extra detour to
see lighthouse #2 at Cape Meares (and so unfortunately also missed the nearby “octopus
tree”).
Years ago I read about a place
called the Sylvia Beach Hotel, a B&B for book lovers where each room is designed
around a different author, and I knew someday I wanted to surprise Julia with a
night in the JK Rowling room. So when I
started planning this trip, being in Nye Beach, OR on July 8
th was
one of the parameters I started with. I
was able to reserve the JK Rowling and the Agatha Christie rooms and was so
excited to surprise Julia when we arrived.
Though the Agatha Christie was a huge ocean-front room - featuring a
large wrap-around private balcony - that could have slept all four of us, we
didn’t want to miss the opportunity for Julia and Rachel to spend a night in the
Harry Potter-themed room. The room was complete
with (among other things) wands, Hedwig, a sorting hat, a three-headed dog, a four-poster
bed, a golden snitch, a Gryffindor scarf, and even Moaning Myrtle behind the toilet! Julia was just as thrilled as I had
hoped.
The Agatha room was also really
cool – and had hidden clues to hunts that other guests had left over the
years. Jim and Rachel got started on
clue solving and spent the rest of the night following clues, taking a break
only for dinner. The hotel has been
there for 28 years and only a few of the authors have changed during that
time. They were able to make room for JK
Rowling because, although people thought the Edgar Allen Poe room was very
cool, it was too creepy for people to actually stay in. At 7 pm, they rang a bell announcing dinner
was served, and we were sat downstairs at a table with two other guests – a couple
from Eugene staying in the Jane Austen room. Bonnie (a college philosophy professor)
and Erin (a kindergarten teacher) raise chickens and ducks and love to garden,
so had advice to offer on many subjects (from how to handle our squirrel
problem to college selection and majors).
After a 2.5 hour dinner, we went back to our rooms to read. Rachel built a fire in the Agatha Christie room
and I feel asleep while she and Jim were still tearing the room apart around me
in search of clues.
Birthdays are usually a big deal
in our house – starting off with breakfast in bed and opening presents. But being on the road, either it is hard to
make it feel special or every day feels so special it is hard to
differentiate. We skipped both breakfast
in bed and presents today. Julia started
today as she has many other days – exercising.
When we started on this trip she and I both committed to doing a workout
every morning and while I have done exactly one workout in the past 24 days,
she has almost completed her four-week Nike Training program. (I blame blogging for my lack of exercise…but
I’m really proud of her commitment level.)
After her workout, we had the breakfast buffet at the Hampton and
started off down the coast. The weather
along the coast is significantly cooler than the other places we’ve been to
date – and it was really nice to be able to pull out our long sleeves and long
pants we’ve been hauling around for weeks.
We were running a little later than we had hoped so we were on the fence
about stopping at the Lewis and Clark National Historical Park, but decided to
stop in briefly. We got lucky that the
Wednesday following the fourth of July each year is Seaman’s Day, honoring the
Newfoundland dog (Seaman) that accompanied Lewis and Clark on their
journey. So, Fort Clatsop was full of
Newfoundlands and their owners. And not
just any Newfoundlands – the first one we met, Buddy, is the actual mascot for the Lewis
and Clark College Pioneers – the dog who leads the team out before football games and who
was the model for the statue we had already photographed for the scavenger
hunt! 
Years ago I read about a place
called the Sylvia Beach Hotel, a B&B for book lovers where each room is designed
around a different author, and I knew someday I wanted to surprise Julia with a
night in the JK Rowling room. So when I
started planning this trip, being in Nye Beach, OR on July 8th was
one of the parameters I started with. I
was able to reserve the JK Rowling and the Agatha Christie rooms and was so
excited to surprise Julia when we arrived.
Though the Agatha Christie was a huge ocean-front room - featuring a
large wrap-around private balcony - that could have slept all four of us, we
didn’t want to miss the opportunity for Julia and Rachel to spend a night in the
Harry Potter-themed room. The room was complete
with (among other things) wands, Hedwig, a sorting hat, a three-headed dog, a four-poster
bed, a golden snitch, a Gryffindor scarf, and even Moaning Myrtle behind the toilet! Julia was just as thrilled as I had
hoped. 
The Agatha room was also really
cool – and had hidden clues to hunts that other guests had left over the
years. Jim and Rachel got started on
clue solving and spent the rest of the night following clues, taking a break
only for dinner. The hotel has been
there for 28 years and only a few of the authors have changed during that
time. They were able to make room for JK
Rowling because, although people thought the Edgar Allen Poe room was very
cool, it was too creepy for people to actually stay in. At 7 pm, they rang a bell announcing dinner
was served, and we were sat downstairs at a table with two other guests – a couple
from Eugene staying in the Jane Austen room. Bonnie (a college philosophy professor)
and Erin (a kindergarten teacher) raise chickens and ducks and love to garden,
so had advice to offer on many subjects (from how to handle our squirrel
problem to college selection and majors).
After a 2.5 hour dinner, we went back to our rooms to read. Rachel built a fire in the Agatha Christie room
and I feel asleep while she and Jim were still tearing the room apart around me
in search of clues. 
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