PCH Day One

Not much time to write as we’re getting ready to start day two, but I wanted to get my thoughts down so I can expand on this later.

We’re roadtripping down the Pacific Coast Highway from Seattle to San Diego and back. We don’t have much of a plan except to “See it all”, so that’s what we are doing.

Yesterday, Day One, we got up early(ish) packed the new Explorer full of roadtrip stuff and headed out. Our first destination was Astoria, OR and we made pretty good time there. Stopped in some small town in WA for a new sleeping bag and after driving in rain most of the way we hit Astoria around noon.

We stopped at the Wet Dog Cafe in Astoria for lunch and a tiny beer sample, crossed the Astoria bridge and back cause it looked cool, went and saw the house from Goonies and then hit the road.

Next up was Haystack Rock on Cannon Beach which was awesome. Just as we came around the curve for the town you could see this giant mountain of a rock looming from the ocean.

After an hour or two wandering the tidal pools around Haystack we jumped back in the car and made way for Tillamook to visit the factory where all our cheese and butter comes from. The factory was pretty awesome. One of the lines was pumping out 40 lb blocks of cheddar and it was pretty cool to watch all the industrial automation going on. We also picked up some fresh snacks and got to try “squeeky cheese” which is fresh cheese curds that for some reason squeek against your teeth when you chew them. It’s weird.

From Tillamook our goal was to head for Florence, where is where we are going to see some seals that live in caves, but first we decided to stop for dinner in Pacific City. We ended up at the Pelican Pub and Brewery which I will later write an entire book about. After that we were a little too tired and drunk to keep on to Florence. We ended up stopping at a really nice motel in Lincoln City, the Coho. We got a wide open ocean view and a great room for $100. This morning we got up early to get moving again and got to watch the moon, colored red by the clouds, set over the ocean.

Pictures and more words to come!

[slickr-flickr tag=”PCH2010Day1″]