I hold special love for Oregon coast, it goes back to the happy easy going days before I lost my mom and before I had my own family. My mom and I would take our shoes off no matter the time of the year, and stroll down on the wide stretch of the wet sand, letting foamy waves wash over our toes.
To my absolute joy, my heart sister moved to Oregon recently, so we now frequent the coast together, we both get easily amused by everything nature and we never get tired of the waves and sea creatures. This time around we rescued a bay pipefish, a seahorse relative. that got loose from its eelgrass home. My sis believes it's a sea worm, but I won't argue with her - she moved to Oregon first, so I assume that gives her honorary marine biology credentials.
For the adventurers: Cape Kiwanda is epic for anyone, It is part of the Three Capes Scenic Route, along with Cape Meares and Cape Lookout. You can drive directly to and on the beach, there are sea stacks, arches, and even a large sand dune that is easy to climb on, the beach to the south of the cape is a surfers' favorite spot, and they are fun to watch. In winter you can watch king tides breaking into the cliffs and splashing high in the air. You can easily spend a whole day exploring here, watch people paragliding, or come for a picnic and a swim in summer or fly a kite.
I like to stay in Beaverton on the outskirts of Portland because I love everything that Portland offers, but without traffic, plus Beaverton is closer to the coast, so I don't have to cross Portland and its hustle when we make day trips to the coast, and it's close to the Gorge and to the mountains and the forests, because, lets be honest, I also love chasing waterfalls. My favorite place to stay is Beaverton Garden Loft- it's a very fun small colorful house with a loft, filled with local art on the walls and plenty of interesting table books.
