We haven't done a lot of family camping before, but we decided to give it a try as a fun 4-day farewell to the Eustermans, who are moving to Texas next month. The plan was to drive down the Oregon Coast, stopping at a few key sightseeing places and staying at a couple of KOA campgrounds along the way. The trip didn't go exactly as planned, but we did have a fun time with our dear friends just the same.
On our way to Oregon, we stopped in Longview at Lake Sacajawea park for lunch. So far so good...until half of us stepped in a gift from a Longview dog (right at the bottom of a slide at the playground!).
When we made it to Cannon Beach, the kiddos were more than ready to play in the sand for awhile. We don't have any pictures, but we were able to see lots of cool creatures in the tide pools here, and witnessed nature at its finest when a bald eagle swooped down and snatched a baby seagull off the top of Haystack Rock and flew off with it.
We met a nice lady from Kirkland who agreed to take a group photo. :)
Thoroughly cold from the windy beach, we were all excited to get to the campground and get the fire going.
Aaron liked helping Mrs. Katie with the baked beans...
...but also liked taking breaks and swinging on the porch of the cabin.
Mr. Matt doesn't mess around when it comes to cooking hot dogs for a crowd.
The boys were excited about their bunk bed set-ups in the cabin.
This was Matthew's first time sleeping on a top bunk. (Although, he had a really rough night and ended up in bed with us.)
While the kiddos were tucked away in their sleeping bags, the adults were able to chat by the fire for a bit. Little did we know this would be the only campfire for the entire trip. :(
Next morning, we headed down the gravel path to the campground's pancake breakfast. These two spent a lot of time holding hands on the trip...
After pancakes, we packed up our things and hit the road again. We went back into the town of Cannon Beach for some coffee and walking around town. Good thing there was a fence blocking the way to the beach. We might not have gotten anywhere else.
The drive along the coast was just beautiful.
Photo-op stop for just the parents, since we can get in and out of the car faster.
Meanwhile, this was happening.
Our next stop: the Tillamook Cheese factory!
At this point, we discovered that poor Patrick had a fever. Katie and Patrick sat in their car while the rest of us ate lunch, toured the factory and had an ice cream treat.
We decided to keep going to our next stop, Waldport, OR, and see how things went. When we got there, it was so cold and windy we weren't able to make a fire or really even be outside. The cabins at this KOA had tvs in them, so we ended up going into town and renting a movie for the kids to watch. We had another no-sleep night with Matthew and Aaron, and Patrick was still feverish, so we decided to ditch our plans to see the sea lion caves that day and just head home instead.
Since we were right there, we stopped at the Yaquina Head Lighthouse for a little bit.
The beach there is made up of these crazy black "cobbles" that are hard to walk on, but perfect for throwing in the water.
One last picture of all the kids.
And one more of the lighthouse.
Probably the most distressing part of our abbreviated trip for the boys was the lack of marshmallow roasting. Being Lent, we had told them that we'd wait to do marshmallows and s'mores on Saturday, our last night there. But since we changed our plans and came home, there were no s'mores to be had on the trip. So, to remedy that, we made our own backyard s'mores on Sunday.
And thus we completed our camping trip. It was really sad to have sick kids on such a fun occasion, but we're glad we were able to spend some time with our friends before they leave. And it really was for the best, as it turned out Matthew had a sinus infection (that he shared with some of the rest of us later). Hopefully we'll get the chance to redo the trip another time. :)
