Oregon Minus Hipsters

Hipsters can’t afford houses by the beach.  This I have surmised on our trip down the really really nice Oregon coast.  Not a hipster to be found.  Glorious.

This is going to be a pretty short post (for me at least), as we didn’t do much but stare out at the ocean from high cliffs.  We made a few stops to take some pictures and some others to eat and sleep, but most of the time, we were driving along some nice highway.

One of our first stops was a tiny little state park, that boasted the highest waterfall in Oregon: Munson Creek Falls.  The falls were a very short hike from the parking lot and wound through what seemed to be an enchanted forest:

It enchanted because the trees have moss on them.  Duh.

The falls:

After a few minutes admiring and a few minutes of hiking, we were back in the car and on our way.  For a short time.  Not a long time.  We were stalled by brand new road lines being painted:

Awesome.

Once the lines were dry, we followed the pilot car really slowly through some farmland.  Amanda didn’t much like the smell of things:

Once things cleared up a bit, we made our way down the coast and finally to some dinner:

This place boasted being “right on the beach”.  It was not.  It was basically on a river or bay or something, as there was no sand, or waves, to be found.  Regardless of our disappointment, we headed upstairs (as the owners lived on the first floor), sat down and ordered some food:

Some clam chowder with a light dusting of paprika.  It was good, but the clams and potatoes in it were diced a little small for my liking.  Next up? A burger and vegetables:

Meh.

The burger was standard, but the vegetables were waaay overcooked.  I like them a little crunchier than not crunchy at all.  They were basically much.  I could have eaten them toothless.  No good.

Amanda had higher hopes for dessert:

Chocolate mousse is always good.  Nice work.

The next day, we started our drive down the coast in earnest, stopping at various points of interest.

Cape Foulweather (which had very nice weather):

Somewhere near Cape Foulweather:

Near a lighthouse whose name escapes me (I have a terrible memory.  This is why I take so many pictures):

This next one is from the same little beach near the lighthouse.  For some reason, the lighting was crazy:

Just kidding.  Photoshop is something I’m good at.

The next stop was The Devil’s Churn, which is basically a big inlet with crashing waves.  It was super violent:

The above picture was taken right after this:

I was wet.

The walk up from Devil’s Churn was a little less violent, and frankly, much better looking:

Photoshop strikes again.

Somewhere down the coast, we happened upon some sweet sea lion caves.  Sadly, we weren’t the first folks to happen upon them, as there’s a tourist trap attached to them.  We paid our crazy fee and headed down the elevator (200 feet down) to see some smelly sea lions yelling at each other inside a cave:

This cave only smelled like sea lions.  There were none.  Crap.

Apparently, this time of year they spend their time outside of the cave.  What a gyp. We did walk a few tens of feet to another little viewing area where we could see about fifty of so of them smashing up against some rocks trying to climb them in the surf:

You can see a bunch in the water near the rocks and a bunch that actually made it up somehow.  Well done basking sea lions.

After watching the sea lions get injured for awhile, we headed down the coast further for some lunch:

A muscle car themed diner?  In America?  What?!?

More on the inside:

I only know a few things for certain.  This is one of them: Old women like trundle seats almost as much as they love purple.

Oh, one more thing I know for certain: Pictures of old men missing limbs standing outside of a chopped old car holding some sort of achievement plaque will always make me laugh:

I had a humongous chocolate milkshake and a humongous cheeseburger:

 

Sure, it doesn’t look too huge there, but trust me, I had to fit it into my mouth; i was big:

The reason we stopped at that sweet diner was because we were on our way to the Oregon Sand Dunes and their State Park.  Since we had terrible luck with the stupid wet dunes in Idaho, we figured we should give dunes at least one more try.  This time, we had much better weather:

Not to mention rented ATVs.  They were sweet:

What’s it like driving around in some sand dunes?  It’s like this:

And this:

And this:

Awesome!

After we dusted ourselves off and handed the keys back to the greasy depressed man at the ATV garage, we hopped back into the car and kept on driving.  And stopped for a few more panoramamamamas:

And one last series of pictures connected together:

Sunsets on the west coast are much nicer than those on the east coast.

See?  A short one.