Rockaway Beach Part 4

Our third full day here on vacay just happened to land on Father's Day...and so L got to call the shots for the whole day. Funny thing, L is not one to request material gifts for this daddy holiday. Instead, staying true to fashion, he drove us up to Astoria to visit the filming locations of the 1980's film Goonies.

This is the Goonies' house where Mikey and Brand lived.

Right across from it is Data's house. The window in the upper right corner is the same one he jumped out of to zip line into the Goonies screen door.

We also stopped by the top of the mountain to see the Astoria column. The column itself was closed due to renovations, so we couldn't climb up its stairs to the top. But the view from the plaza itself down into the valley below was incredible enough.

L and the kids with the Astoria bridge in the background.

Mommy's turn to pose.

Afterward, we stopped at Seaside on our drive back south. I had read somewhere the northernmost access to the beach on 12th street close to the mouth of the river yielded the most unbroken sand dollars on the coast. And as it was my goal to collect them, I had to try my luck since L insisted.

Miss Soph in her own world, dancing her little heart out.

Daddy and his girls. Look at that view.

Following the leader, the leader, the leader...

We had to pry off her wet jeans and haul her off the sand or we would never have made it out of there before dark.

And no, I did not find a sand dollar. But L did, despite his fierce doubt we would ever find an unbroken one. And as it turns out, the Momma got a gift on Father's Day. Go figure.

We spent the rest of the evening, vegging out on the couch, resting our feet, and watching Goonies until it was time for bed.

Rockaway Beach Part 3

The sun came out today! The girls were so excited, they threw on some warm clothes atop their pajamas and hurried outside to play in the sand.

Dylan had been DYING to try out the skimboard supplied by the owners of the rental. Although, the water temp didn't get warmer (as confirmed by D's occasional wipeouts), it was great weather to try his skills at it.

He did pretty well! He would have chosen to do it all day had it not been for the party pooper parents who insisted he would come down with a case of hypothermia if he didn't march back into the house and directly into a shower to warm up.

Here is the view from the deck in the back as the sun started to set.

Earlier, we also took the short drive to Tillamook and checked out the cheese factory. We had some taste testing (Horsradish laced aged sharp cheddar is to die for).

We also got very adventurous and wanted to taste-test their ice cream flavors...ALL 38 of them! It's called a 38 flavor Ice Cream Tour and cost $25.00 to have a kiddie scoop of each ice cream flavor dumped in a large bowl and the entire ice cream serving crew sing some cheesy song about it complete with cowbell and everything. They had some regular flavors like vanilla bean and rocky road....but I was more interested in the Mountain Huckleberry Swirl, Oregon Black Cherry, and other stranger concoctions. Needless to say, our table was a great conversation starter and we about met and conversed with all the other patrons of the place as they stopped by to gawk at the monstrosity of the bowl set before us. We tasted most flavors...but between the five of us, could only manage to eat about six scoops in all. Some flavors like Black Walnut and Huckleberry were a common favorite. The white licorice flavor, however, received a unanimous thumbs down.

They gave us a lid so we can take it home...but really, the thought of all those 38 flavors melting together and re-freezing into a congealed mish mash of yuck convinced us to dump it in the trash before we checked out the gift shop, where I found a great little cheese block with cheese cutting utensils tucked in a hidden drawer.

Rockaway Beach Vacay Part 1: Sand Dune

This vacation rental has got to be the best little house we could ever find. Initially, we were looking at houses at Cannon Beach until L decided he wanted a place more remote and removed from the tourist flock. We went through Oregon Beach Vacations on the internet and picked this little beauty in the more quiet Rockaway Beach, about 20 miles south of Cannon Beach. At first, I was reluctant to veer from the artsy town up north...but now that we're here...L's decision was the right one. The unit we chose is a duplex on the beachfront. And when I say beachfront...I mean beachFRONT. You open the sliding glass door in the back and step down from the Trex deck and you are there in the sand.

The unit's named Sand Dune, and it was cute to be welcomed into the house with this sweet sign hanging in the foyer.

This is the great room. All those windows and that glass door look out onto an unobstructed view of the Pacific Ocean. The floors are tiled (I love it so much, I want to tile my kitchen with the same materials). Everything in the place looks like something I would have put together. This definitely isn't an old run down beach house.

The kitchen is equipped with new stainless steel appliances. All cooking utensils and cookware are supplied.

One of the rooms.

The other bedroom.

The master bedroom had a queen sized bed with a master bathroom with double pedestal sinks. They had a small pantry upstairs in the great room full of board games for the family. Downstairs in the laundry room (front loaders with supplied laundry soap) there is a full-sized pantry stocked with sand toys, croquet, horsheshoes, and volleyball sets, kites, and skimboards.

These owners have thought of everything. The only thing I would have wished for (and this is nitpicking) are non-wire hangers and a better spice rack. Awesome place.

If anybody is looking to have a beach vacay...this is the place to go....or at least Oregon Beach Vacations. Their pictures and descriptions are accurate, and customer service is superb.

Rockaway Beach Vacay Part 2

After yesterday's endless trek to Rockaway, we were disappointed to wake to the pitter patter of rain against the windows. Thankfully, it was just a slight drizzle, but it was totally sweater weather. After munching on breakfast at a local diner, we headed over to the teeny tiny local market (cash only) for some essentials. Then we headed down the street to the Jetty Fishery in Nehalem Bay to pick up some crab.

The Jetty Fishery has a long dock perfect for crabbing with little ones. They rent out crab rings outfitted with bait, which are lowered into the waters. After fifteen or so minutes, the kids have the opportunity to measure the captured crabs' sizes and gender (you can only keep a male crab that has grown to a certain size) and toss the unfit ones back into the water. I like that not only is it fun, but it teaches the kiddies about responsible fishing/crabbing. This time, however, because of the weather, we postponed the crabbing plans for a fairer day.

We simply picked out four live crabs and asked them to cook them for us. (Not that I am unable to do so...I simply didn't want to stink up our rental in the process.) They boiled the crabs in seawater to bring out its best flavor, and handed them over to us after twenty minutes or so.

Here we are waiting for the crabs to finish cooking.

Here's Sophie's very own. Each of us had one, except for Miss Allergy (Liv), who we put down for her afternoon nap before we dug into these yummylicious crustaceans.

While I emptied the kids' crabs for the remaining meat to make crab cakes tomorrow, Dylan and Soph tried their hands at Twister.

The weather cleared up towards the end of the day and we were able to take the kids out the back to walk and play along the shoreline while the sun set.

Day 1 over and out.