Oregon Coast

We left the luxurious Cat dealership "campground" to make our way over to Highway 101, via I-5 and Highway 30 toward Astoria. Sean was interested in seeing the Columbia River Maritime Museum, which is located in Astoria. To get to Highway 30 in Oregon you have to cross over the Lewis and Clark Bridge, that expands the width of the Columbia River south of Longview. This is also where you cross the state line into Oregon.

Once in Astoria and settled into a parking spot (or spots) we made our way over to the Maritime Museum. It was definitely worth stopping to see!

We stayed the night at Fort Stevens State Park that was home to many army bunkers, wreck ship ruins, and rough surf. We learned to love the Oregon State Parks because the sites were a reasonable price and very nice, and with an overnight stay you can get into the day-use only parks for no 

additional charge!

On our way to the ship viewing platform, we ran across these elk hiding in the brush. Elk live near the coast? Then later, we saw a few deer near some old barracks ruins.

 

The next day we were head down 101 through Tillamook, where the Tillamook Cheese Factory is! We were super excited to go and get some good cheese! Sean hadn't bought any cheese for about a couple of weeks in anticipation of Tillamook, which is saying something for the cheese enthusiast he is.

Once we bought and tasted our fill of cheese, we set off down the road to Beverly Beach State Park where we planned on staying for a couple of nights.

Beverly Beach SP is very close to Depoe Bay, which is a small and very touristy town north of the park. We decided since we had a bit of time to check it out. It is apparently home to the World's Smallest Harbor. As you can see in the photos, it is a very rocky area and the surf can be quite rough.

This would be more convenient for us because we wanted to go to Coburg, OR to take tour of  Marathon Coach (where Prevost buses are custom designed with the buyer and cost between $1-2 million), but wanted to continue with the motorhome down 101 and not have to zigzag inland and back. The Marathon tour was interesting, and it was neat seeing Sean's eyes light up like a kid in a candy store, haha!

Very close to the Marathon Manufactorer, we found Monaco, where our motorhome was made. Unfortunately, they don't manufacture anywhere motorhomes from their Oregon location, but they do still service coaches.

Since we headed back with a few hours to spare, we set course to visit the Yaquina Bay Lighthouse, which is a 2 story house with a light and lens on top. 

Once we arrived back at the park, the sun had been out a while (which was a change from the few days of cloudy/rainy/foggy weather) and warmed us up a bit, so we decided to take Molly out to the beach for what Sean dubbed the "Doggie Superbowl."