What an incredible day for a drive out to the ocean. Today was probably some of the best weather the Northern Oregon Coast has seen in 6+ months. We got up early and headed out at 0800, bound for Camp 18 Restaurant and Gift Shop on Hwy 26. After an hour or so of driving we made it to the restaurant.
We started with a gigantic cinnamon roll for the table. As you can see in the pictures everything they offer at this place is more than any one person can possibly eat (I couldn’t eat even 1/3rd of the humungous pancakes they gave me, and that is their Short Stack).
After filling up we got back on the road, heading the 25+ miles to Seaside and the Painted Rock Beach where in a previous post from my past visit I talked about the thousands of rocks on the beach painted over the years by visitors to commemorate special occasions. I brought supplies for painting some rocks of our own. B3 and Tatiana each painted their rocks and Kay painted ours with “supervision” from me (basically me confirming for her that her choices were awesome).
After finishing the rock painting and putting a little clear glaze on them to protect the paint we headed south for Cannon Beach. (Now when we come back out we’ll be able to visit “our rock”).
Cannon Beach is a great little seaside town with a long stretch of main street, a couple parallel side streets and a population somewhere in the 1,500-1, 600 range. Lots of little retail outlets, eateries and breweries abound and the city fills up with thousands of additional tourists on the weekends. By plan, this was a Monday though so while parking was a bit hard to find it was easy to get around and there were few lines.
We did a little shopping at this incredible antique and designer store called Sesame + Lillies that has probably 20 rooms across two floors stuffed with goods, managing to find a few items to decorate the livingroom that we both liked. After shopping we met back up with the kids at Tom’s Fish and Chips where we all downed some very fresh and flavorful grilled fish tacos. (I told B3 these tacos should be wiggling still, because they tasted that fresh. He said they were in the top of the fish tacos he’s ever eaten).
Back on the road, with Cannon Beach in the rearview mirror and such a beautiful day ahead of us we had to stop frequently to check out the vistas and take pictures.
Our final destination along the coastline was the Tillamook Creamery.
After taking the self-guided tour of the cheese manufacturing floor we headed down to the food court for some freshly made Tillamook ice cream.
Their Marionberry ice cream and yogurt are my favorites of each product. When I found out they offer a Marionberry Swirl that is only sold at this factory store I had to get it. However, the Campfire Peanut Butter Cup looked enticing, as did the Brownie Batter flavor.
Luckily, they offer a flight of three flavors of your choice, so Kay and I got the smaller scoops of those three and didn’t have to choose between them.
This absolutely made up for the fiasco the night before. Kay enjoyed the Marionberry Swirl the most, and much to my surprise, I was a huge fan of the Campfire Peanut Butter Cup.
On the way home we stopped in at Gangnam Korean BBQ in Hillsboro for dinner. So far I think this is the best Korean BBQ in the Portland area that we’ve found, but it is pretty expensive compared to what we were used to in California, and they don’t have an all-you-can-eat option. The food was delicious though and served to wrap up yet another great day.
Stay tuned for tomorrow where we’ll have a little bit of a down day where the plan is to hit Top Golf in Hillsboro in the late morning then visit the iconic Portland landmark Powell’s City of Books in the afternoon, the largest new and used bookstore in the world. Then, the plan is to wrap up the day with dinner at Ikimono Ramen, a new Japanese joint in town that I’ve wanted to try (and when sharing the schedule I found out that Kay apparently has already eaten their with friends and enjoyed it).