Another picture of a marmot....this one was right beside the trail and entertained many hikers.
After the hike we had a late lunch at one of the picnic tables scattered around the lower overflow parking areas for the visitor center. Not a bad view for a parking lot!
On Saturday, a very large and noisy group moved in to a spot across from us...and kept us up....even though Harris asked them to quiet down at 11PM. The bad thing about camping this time of year is that there aren't any camp hosts around to help out. So, we moved camp in the middle of the night to one of 3 spots left in the last loop, and got some sleep.
On Sunday, Harris decided he wanted to watch the Seahawks play....(when did he get to be such a football fan???). Where could we go? Since we were on the way to the Oregon coast, we decided to call Judy's brother and see if he was going to watch the game. Of course! Come on over! So, we detoured to Battle Ground, watched the game, and stayed for a delicious salmon dinner. The company, salmon, and wine took the sting out of the poor performance of the Seahawks.
Ralph and Charlotte told us their favorite spot on the Oregon coast was Ecola State Park. So after dinner, we drove on for 2 and a half hours to find it. It was dark by the time we reached it, and so we must have missed the sign that said Day Use only...if there was one. So we had to retrace our route (which was very twisty, up and down, and dark),...and search on. We ended up at Nehalem Bay State Park. It is a huge park, and was surprisingly only about half full.
On Monday, Judy explored Cannon Beach, and Harris went geocaching around the town. He found one geocache that was billed as "the prettiest sewage treatment plant in the world".... and it was!
This cache got bonus points for cleverness. It was inside the electrical box.
You have to walk over a dune or two to get to the ocean, but you can hear it at night.
Monday afternoon the clouds rolled in. Judy tried flying her little pocket kite, but the wind was too strong.
These 2 showed up later that evening, got out with bullet proof vests and rifles, and started down the path next to us. We didn't ask them any questions....
Guess they don't take too kindly to trying to skip out without paying for your campsite!
Tuesday found us going up the coast toward Washington. We stopped for a last look at the Oregon coast while eating our lunch. We looked at Cape Disappointment on Long Beach, or should say we tried to look at it. We wanted to drive through and see the campsites, but the ranger wouldn't let us unless we paid the day fee. All the beach spots had been taken, so we just drove up to the city of Long Beach. We rode our bikes along the path there and found a few more geocaches before we started home.
This was a startling sight for us....this huge cruise ship was docked at Astoria...it looks too big to go up river! We listened to the Mariner game on the way home, and enjoyed the fact that traffic wasn't bad going through Olympia, Tacoma, and Seattle that time of night! Harris really enjoyed the fact that the Mariners won beating the LA Angels 13-2.
