More Exploring

Our first stop this morning was the post office to pick up our mail. We use a mail forwarding service in South Dakota called Americas Mailbox. Whenever we are going to be in an area for a few days, I email them and they package whatever mail they have for us and ship it General Delivery. Today, we got the registration for the Jeep and immediately put our South Dakota plates on the car. Now we are all legal!

Again, the day was cool and drizzly but we decided to drive south to Cannon Beach. Our first stop was at a historical marker along the road. We love to stop at these. It gives us a break from driving and what a fun way to learn history. This sign told us about the Cannon Beach history.

And this is a replica of a cannon that washed ashore from a ship that had crashed on the rocks. That's how Cannon Beach got it's name.

Before we got to Cannon Beach, we turned off to check out Ecola State Park. It's pretty much just a day use park but wow oh wow. We drove for miles up a windy (barely two lane) road that was lined with huge Sitka spruce. We thought we were into the Redwoods at first. When we reached the top, we found a lovely park overlooking the ocean.


We followed the paths to the overlooks just as patches of sun broke through. But as you can see from Doug's jacket, the wind never stopped. Thank heavens for digital cameras. Doug took over a hundred photos of the spectacular scenery.


The rocks below the cliff are where sea lions and birds find sanctuary. We didn't see any sea lions, but the pelicans were plentiful.


It's hard to describe such views.


When the wind became too much, we drove down to Indian Beach. And to my surprise found a lone surfer. We watched him for a while but the wind and tide was so strong that he couldn't get out far enough to catch a good wave.


Finally, we drove into Cannon Beach. It's a major tourist trap. But, we saw lots of nice restaurants and shops, though we didn't do any shopping. We found an access to the beach at the end of a road where we were staggered at the sight of thousands of birds. This picture shows only about one fifth of the birds. And when they took off it was amazing.

It was a nice day, but by now, Doug has my cold too. We felt crummy and decided to go home. A quick stop at the store for milk and soup and back to our humble abode.