Road Trip Day Six: Driving along the Oregon Coast

It was very stormy when we woke up. It's hard to tell in the photos but it was pouring rain and very windy. 

My mom really wanted to get in a morning run along the beach and so she decided to go out and do it even in these conditions.

There she is heading out! I watched for as long as I could see her.

I started to worry about her after a while but she eventually got back, drenched!

We got ready and packed the car back up again to head further south. 

We were heading to Tillamook.
We wanted to visit the Tillamook factory. I found out before that the visitor's center was closing for a refurb so I emailed them to find out if it would be open during our visit. It wasn't but they did have a temporary visitor's center that was smaller in the parking lot.
It wasn't open yet so we ran to McDonald's for some breakfast and to let the girls play for a few minutes.

Then we went back over as soon as it was open.
Maddy wanted a pressed penny...

They loved the VW bus set up for photo ops. 

They had a really cute display about cows.
Maddy loved this.

Then we got to try some cheese. 

Some was delicious, some not so much. 

Then we went through the gift shop and got some cute things along with some of my very favorite yogurt- the Tillamook Greek vanilla yogurt with coconut granola. 

Then we got some ice cream to try. Yum.

Afterward we set out to visit a lighthouse. 

I loved seeing the farms in the area and the cows that were probably the ones used for Tillamook!

It was very windy and the ocean was crazy choppy!

As we got closer to the lighthouse there were a lot of trees downed and debris in the road. We got to the road that would go to it and there was a park ranger that told us we couldn't go. They were closing the road for safety. 

So we went back to Tillamook and once again began heading South. 

We made a few stops along the way to look at scenery. 

We stopped at this beach to walk around.

Lighthouse!

We stopped to see another lighthouse and it was a really funny moment. 

My mom and I got out to take pictures. 

As we were walking right after I took this next shot, a huge gust of wind hit and my mom was knocked off the sidewalk into the road. It was crazy windy.

The lighthouse was hard to see but as we drove away we were able to look back and see it better. 

Our next stop was something I was really looking forward to. 

As a kid I remembered visiting the Sea Lion caves near Florence, Oregon. So I really wanted to go there with the girls. 

But it was closed because of the winds. 

We did go in the visitor's center and take a few pictures. 

Then we kept driving. We stopped at the Highway 101 Christmas shop.

Then we pulled over to see another lighthouse....

When we got to our hotel for the night.... I didn't feel right about it. I had such a bad feeling. 

We walked in and it looked really nice but I couldn't shake the feeling that I didn't want to stay there. 

Because of that I feel like we had a small miracle. 

As we went to check in, we found out that the storm had knocked out their power. 

They said we could still stay but if we wanted to cancel we wouldn't be charged. 

So we cancelled and drove further south to another Best Western that ended up being really nice. 

We ate dinner in our room while watching Ramona and Beezus on the tv. 

It was another nice day, albeit stormy. While we weren't able to do everything we wanted to, we all really enjoyed Tillamook!