We packed this morning. Ellen and I took the dogs for one last walk. Since Rafiki will be moving to Virginia later this month, this was probably the last time that Edie and Eli will see their “cousin.” As we walked through her neighborhood, Ellen pointed out some good and bad things. Probably the most interesting was the guy who seems to be building his own version of the Winchester Mystery House out of the pieces of salvaged Victorian homes. We figured it would probably be cheaper to buy food in Portland than on the coast, so we went to Safeway. I found this an unnerving experience. The place was emptier than Ralphs at 3:00 AM. Yet when we went to the checkout the clerk remarked on how busy it was that morning! It made both of us aware of how much as Angelinos we are accustomed to constant crowds.
We left Portland just before noon. As John drove us towards the Ross Island Bridge, I reflected on how many times we have been here in the last few years. Now that Ellen and Mike are leaving, we probably will not be back here for a while. But we certainly have many good memories of time spent here on the banks of the Willamette.
With the unfailing help of Daniel, our Garmin GPS, we drove out towards coast. As we drove towards Beaverton, the sky grew grayer and grayer. We passed farms and then the land grew more forested. As we entered the mountains, though, we could see many swaths of clear-cut forest. It was a reminder that forest products are still an important part of the Oregon economy. It is not all Intel chips and microbreweries. The higher we went in the Coast Range, the more it began to drizzle and we wondered what it would be like on the coast.
But the gloom lifted as we approached Cannon Beach and as we looked out over the water we saw lovely sunlight. We walked the dogs down to the sand. They were so excited!
The sand here is quite white and fine. We went to the far end of the beach where there were quite a few dogs off-leash and let them frolic in the waves.
We drove a few miles south of Cannon Beach to Oswald West State Park. This is one of the most unspoiled parts of the Oregon coast, and the temperate rain forest comes right down to the beach here as it no doubt did until the arrival of the American settlers in the nineteenth century. Dogs are supposed to be on-leash here, but Edie never follows the rules.
Eli went chasing after his ball as usual. He liked the spot where the creek met the ocean.
Edie found a high rock and played King of the Hill.
Eli, meanwhile, found a young admirer who threw the ball to him.
Edie found a waterfall, and decided to pose for pictures.
But, after a couple hours of fun, it was time to leave. They reluctantly headed up the hill towards Highway 101.
From Oswald West, we headed south towards Netarts. We passed through some pretty communities around Nehalem Bay, and then oddly Daniel sent us inland for a while. When we turned again onto Coast Highway, we were just coming into Tillamook. We drove on from there to Netarts and found out cottage without any difficulty.
The Doe Hill cottage is about as basic as you can get. It is a just an A frame with a deck around it. But it does have a view of the distant beach, it is about 500 feet off the highway. After we unpacked our things, we walked down to the beach. As we arrived on the shore, we looked around and remembered that we had been in this area a few years ago. It is a long beach and it took us about two hours to walk up and down the length of it. As we did, Eli ran after his ball and Edie played her game of trying to distract him. We were stunned by the mount of development that has taken place on the cliffs above the beach. The entire length is covered with large vacation homes, all done in the same cedar shingle style. Each house appears to be at least 4000 square feet, and I doubt it there is much more than five feet in between each of the houses. It looked like a favela for rich people.
It was getting dark as we came to the end of the walk. The tide was coming in, and some people had built a small fire on top of a rock. as the water began to surround the rock, it began to seem like an enormous elementary school science fair volcano.
Tomorrow, more beach adventures.
