Only The Beginning

Yep, the pictures just about sum it up - pretty darn beautiful out here!

VacationGirl and family's internal clocks are still set to good old Eastern Daylight Time - we slept in until 8:00 today - EST - 5:00 Pacific time. UGH! But it did get us on the road and out of Seattle by 7:00!

First stop was North Head lighthouse in Washington. We were able to climb to the top of the lighthouse here. (first picture) VacationGirl made a critical discovery at this lighthouse. She enjoys looking at lighthouses, but not climbing up them! This was a very important revelation as it will save many bones, muscles, ligaments and other little used body parts from unnecessary strain as we visit the remaining lighthouses on the west coast tour. Discoveries like these are very good! So in this sense, the trip has been a rousing success thusfar!

Next on the agenda was Cape Disappointment - and it was! Oops - it wasn't that bad! Seriously, it is a nice lighthouse but not worth too much effort. There's a nice view from the Lewis & Clark Interperative Center as you can see from the 2nd picture. Steven found a trail that was only 7.5 miles to the lighthouse. Ha! Another important discovery made before disaster struck. VacationGirl very quickly reasoned that hiking 7.5 miles to see a lighthouse (that she can see quite nicely already) would be just as bad as climbing to the top of one. So she chose to visit Mr. Lewis and Mr. Clark in their Center while Tim & Steven hiked to the lighthouse. While VacationGirl meandered around and leisurely made her way to the car to relax and read, thinking she had a LONG wait, she spots a familiar face. Hmmm - did they come realize that VacationGirl's very importnat discovery was truly remarkable? Nope - they made it to the lighthouse and back. How could this be? Dots are such peculiar creatures - especially when they are not seen correctly - 7.5 was really .75 miles. So much for relaxing and reading.

So on down the road to Cannon Beach. (More stops were made in the land of lighthouses, bridges, and mountains, but those details will come in the scrapbooks later). Cannon Beach draws visitors from all over - the main attraction is a rock. Granted, it's a very big rock, but nonetheless, it's a rock. But in keeping with the tradition of Couch family vacations, rocks are something we visit. Haystack Rock is the name of this remarkable creature - it rises 235 feet from the ocean and is full of all kinds of living sea life - as you can see in one of the pictures.

Although our hotel had an ocean view, it was from about a block away and the rock could not be seen from our hotel room. But a short walk to the actual beach left us with wonderful views. It was low tide so we walked down the beach to the rock to see all of the sea creatures that call the rock home. The hotel manager said the rock was about a quarter mile down the beach.

He LIED!

It was at least 6 miles away. Ok, it just seemed like 6 miles. It did take us about 20 minutes to actually reach the rock. It seemed so enticingly close. But no matter how many steps VacationGirl took, that damned rock never got closer. Or so it seemed.

Finally, VacationGirl made it to the rock. She had to wade through the water a little to get to the rock to see the sea life - thank goodness VacationGirl's family doesn't travel with video cameras. There's a whole episode just waiting for America's Funniest Home Videos! Two camera's hung around her neck - trying to keep her balance amoung all the tide and rocks! This is when VacationGirl makes another very important discovery -

The Pacific Ocean is darn cold!

But after wading for about a minute or two, one's feet are numb to the cold! Finally, her kind, loving husband came to rescue her from the rocks and start the journey back to the hotel. Is it possible for the distance back to be longer than the distance to the rock? Well, just ask VacationGirl, because the distance was at least 3 times longer! Or at least her poor legs thought so. But we all trudged to the hotel (ok, the 16 year old got cute and jogged down the beach) only to be greeted by the prospect of walking up 3 flights of stairs to the room.

Note to self - ALWAYS get a ground floor room or at least a room with an elevator!

And although VacationGirl hoped for a Haystack Rock sunset picture, the restaurants were not cooperating and she couldn't make it back to the rock in time. However, sunset over the Pacific WAS captured and still looked beautiful.

Now, it's time for VacationGirl to attempt to crawl to the bed - the floor is looking really good right now - no climbing involved - and get some sleep for the next day's agenda of more lighthouses, bridges, and mountains.

Until then.....