Adventures on the Oregon Coast

Ever since we moved to the PNW, it has been hard not being able to go back home for every holiday. Given this, we decided to try and make a new tradition for Thanksgiving where we try to explore more of our area. This year we chose to make the trip down to the Oregon coast, since we had been told multiple times about how gorgeous it was. Spoiler alert, it was honestly so stunning!

We started our adventure on Thanksgiving day by first heading to Cape Disappointment State Park at the southeastern part of Washington. With a name like Cape Disappointment, my curiosity had me wondering how disappointing it could be. We arrived and were taken back with the beauty of the Pacific Ocean. We had been to Hawaii in the year prior and witnessed the ocean then, but this was different. The waves were crashing, the air smelt salty, and we knew we had made the right decision. Before venturing too far, we sat down at one of the picnic tables and got to enjoy our “Thanksgiving” dinner, a Chicken and Dumpling freeze dried meal and cranberries!

After we completed our hike, we continued on to our final destination, Garibaldi. We decided to stay at the Garibaldi House Inn as it was a great home base for everything we had planned. Since it was Thanksgiving, not many places were open to eat, so we finished the day off by watching the Thanksgiving Charlie Brown and with another freeze dried meal from Mountain House, Chicken Teriyaki. We also tried the Apple Crisp one for our dessert. This was our first real experience with the freeze dried meals, and we have enjoyed the flavors that we chose for this trip.

The next day, we ventured to Cannon Beach. It was a drizzly day, which honestly made the sights even more fun! We got to explore the Haystack Rock and got to see how chaotic the waves could be on the coast.

We also stopped at this cute little coffee shop, the Sleepy Monk, for a warm beverage and some dessert. The coffee shop is right on the main strip and not too far away from the beach.

Before heading back to the lodge, we stopped for some pizza at Pizza a’fetta. We tried their Princess Margarita pizza which was perfect after a full day of hikes.

We finally arrived at Thor’s Well in Yachats, Oregon, and it was definitely worth the drive. For those who have never heard of this amazing attraction, it is a sinkhole that appears to be bottomless that swallows the unbroken stream of seawater around it. It was truly amazing to see the water drain into it and then burst up into the air.

We ended the night by eating at the Pelican Brewing Company in Cannon Beach. We tried one of their non-alcoholic beverages which was an Acai Sparkle Hops. It mainly just tasted like sparkling water. For our meal, we had the Spicy Korean Cauliflower to start, and then had the Tri-Tip Sandwich and Pulled Pork Sandwich for our main meal. Finishing up our meal, we chose to have the Chocolate Chip Cookie Brownie which had a scoop of ice cream on top!