Day 5 - Hanging Out on the Oregon Coast

After a restful sleep knowing we didn't have another 500 miles to go, we got up and were greeted with a most fantastic view:

We got everyone up and ready to go and decided we would head up north. We wanted to pay a visit to the famous Tillamook Cheese! Along the way, we stopped at a little roadside place that has fresh fruit, vegetables, and sauces/jams/jellies. We were trying to decide if we could leave the Boys in the truck by themselves if there were places we wanted to both look in and thought this would be a good test. Since it was a little warmer inland where this was, we left the truck running with the air on for them and we shopped. All told we were gone maybe 15 minutes and the Boys were great! They didn't bark or get all crazy while we were gone so they passed the test!

We bought some fresh green beans, ears of corn, some rhubarb marmalade, Oregon berries jam, and several sauces for the fish we intend to buy out here.

We then headed onward to Tillamook to get some cheese. This time, it was much cooler since we were close to the ocean (around 66 degrees) so we left the Boys in the truck. We blocked the front window with our sweatshirts (Yes! It was a bit cold - especially when you're used to the Texas heat!) and left them to shop. Again, not gone long and the Boys did great!

We also ended up going to the Tillamook Country Smoker for some jerky as well.

Here's our haul for the day (except the beans & corn - I forgot to get a picture of those):

We then wanted to get the Boys out to the ocean and headed for Cape Lookout State Park. Before that though, we stopped at a little building along the side of the road advertising fresh fish and chowder. We were both pretty hungry and bought a tub of chowder and some Halibut and Chips. Yum - Great Chowder!!

We made it to the park and had our lunch at a spot overlooking the ocean:

We then took the Boys for their first close-up of the ocean:

Angus was pretty interested but Dash not so much! Unfortunately, we didn't make it to the beach as it was too steep and rocky so that will have to wait for another time - Sorry Angus!!

We then took them for a hike along the trail to Cape Lookout-here's some random pics from along the trail:

Here's a couple of us with the Boys on the trail too:

 We did see the following sign showing we were still on the trail:

However, as we got closer, we got a little worried:

Yikes! We moved along pretty quick after that and ended up turning back when the trail became too steep.

We did find this weird "plant" on the way out - not sure what it is but it was pretty interesting - looks like a dinosaur egg of some sort:

We headed back to Lincoln City and along the way got this shot of the ocean from a wayside spot along 101:

After stopping at the Safeway to pick up some dinner - salmon! we headed back and the Boys promptly fell asleep:

Jen then got this last shot of the sunset colors and the moon from behind the trailer:

We then turned in for the night - after watching a couple episodes of Dexter (Thanks Sarah!).

This morning, we are heading south along the coast to Newport and hopefully we'll get the Boys on the beach so they can get their first taste of the Pacific Ocean.