Oregon Coast

Ever since I was young I have heard rumors about how beautiful the Oregon coast is. During a long weekend getaway to the beautiful city of Portland Lindsay and I decided to take our little Mini Cooper and to cruise up the coast to see what all the fuss is about. Needless to say we were not disappointed in the least. One of my favorite movies growing up was Goonies. I remembered that this took place in Astoria and so we decided to start there. The short drive from Portland to Astoria is beautiful as much of it follows the Columbia River. We made it to Astoria in the morning just as the local farmers market was started. We walked around downtown enjoying the market and the local goodies. We ended up getting some fresh fish/chips and local fudge for the road. We then worked our way across the beautiful old bridge that connects Astoria, Oregon with Washington. We quickly came back across to the Oregon side and began to cruise south along the coast. On the way back through Astoria we stopped by the Lewis & Clark monument which sits atop the hill. The views from this area were breathtaking! You can see the coastline to the west and the beautiful mountains, rivers and valleys to the east. It was at that moment that I began to realize why people say this area is so gorgeous. We eventually made it to the Cannon Beach area which is the rocky coastline at the end of the movie Goonies. I think the best word to describe this area is SPECTACULAR. There are green mountains that fade into rocky shores with the occasional beach mixed in. We found one particular look out point that took our breath away (we had to hurry as we were to cheap to pay the fee to get in and we thought we were going to get a ticket). We eventually parked the mini and walked up and down Cannon Beach to take in the scene. The water was freezing, and the temperature was cool, but there were still hundreds of people enjoying the sand and water. Eventually our perfect day on the Oregon Coast came to an end and we hoped back into the Mini to head back to Portland. Although we have been lucky enough to travel all over the world there are few places we have seen that can top the beauty of the Oregon Coast.