Growing up, some of my fondest memories from our family vacations came from our many trips to Seaside OR and Fort Stevens. So, of course, I was super excited when we decided to take a mini vacation there. Late Friday afternoon we headed out for a 4hr drive, planning on reaching our campsite around 7ish, set up our tent, roast some hotdogs on the fire, and then hit the sack….well, that was the plan. What actually happened was this: We decided to take White Pass, which we have heard is a very pretty drive. Well, about 2hrs into the drive, we get stuck in some traffic. Turns out, there is a major car accident and the main highway is closed, so we must take a detour over the mountain. This “detour”, if you even want to call it that, was an old two lane hwy with top speeds up to 40mph. It was going to add about 1.5hrs to our drive. That stunk, but it was do-able. What we didn’t know was that, of all weekends to go to Seaside, we picked one of the busiest! It happened to be the weekend of the Hood to Coast marathon. This marathon consists of relay teams that walk from Mt. Hood to the Seaside coast. The real kicker to this is that the route for the marathon of walkers just happens to be the same route as our lovely detour! UGH!! Not to mention that there are literally over a thousand different relay teams, each with up to 5 members, and each driving multiple vehicles to meet at the pit stops that were every 5 miles, where they switch walkers. And we were behind all of them! Our 4hr drive became 9hrs!!!!! It was horrible!! But, the kids took it like champs (thank heavens for the dvd player in the car – total lifesaver!) and only fussed a little. Luckily, they were able to sleep the last couple hours, but poor Kade kept randomly waking up complaining that his bum was hurting.
Well, after our miserable drive there, we woke up refreshed on Saturday, and ready to start our day. We spent the whole day exploring Fort Stevens, and all the old military bunkers. We spent a few hours on the beach, and then hung out around our campsite.
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| The boys watching the cannon demonstrations |
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| Blake wasn't fooled, he knew they were really bowling balls painted black:-) |
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| She LOVED the sand, and cried when we had to go! |
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| Blake found a real treasure!! $16!! |
On Sunday, we traveled the short distance from our campsite and spent the whole day in Seaside. I LOVE this place!!! So many unique Mom n’ Pop stores mixed in with a bunch of small touristy stores. From the beach to the carousal in the mini mall to the little aquarium, this place has so much to do. The kids had such a blast, and so did Momma and Daddy.
