Oregon trip part 4 -- Driving down the coast

On Sunday morning, we drove out of Corvallis by mid-morning. Our plan was to get back to the 101 (Oregon Coast Highway) as soon as possible, and stick to it. We had a six-hour drive (by people-without-infants-and-toddlers standards) ahead of us, but we were in no hurry and planned to enjoy the day however it played out. Considering the amazing places we were about to drive through and our tired kids' need for sleep, this strategy actually worked for once (having spectacularly failed in the past).

By lunch time, we made it to the coastal town of Florence where we bought a taco picnic lunch and drove a bit further to one of the access lots of the Oregon Dunes Recreational Area. There are places along the Oregon Coast Highway there where the pines are shorter than the dunes that bump right into the forest, and right up to the road.

We ate lunch with some sand in it, and then played on the beach. The fishermen were trying for Surf Perch there, and we watched a young boy catch his first ever. I tried for a family portrait.

Getting ready for lunch on a tarp. We must be in camping mode already.

My first attempt of many on this trip for a family photo.
Cora is so far in the background (laying on her belly)
that she looks like she belongs to someone else.

Cora, as usual, made some friends and hunted shells. Silas tried belly-sliding down a dune:

This is Silas' version of rolling down a dune,
which his dad and Cora demonstrated for him.

Once we got back on the road, the kids slept through Coos Bay and all the little coastal towns down the 101. We drove through Humbug Mountain State Park, which really impressed me and Nate with its steep cliffs, bright sun, and long Pacific vistas. Plus we saw a family hunting for the ubiquitous blackberries. We agreed to camp there next time we were ever anywhere near it.

Around Gold Bay the kids woke up. At that point we were practically at our camping destination, Harris Beach State Park.

All that day we'd been driving in the hot sun. About 20 minutes north of Harris Beach we approached a wall of fog. It never lifted from the area for the five days we spent there. If we drove north or south, or inland, we could escape it. But our short-term home at Harris Beach and in the nearby town of Brookings was spent in cool, grey weather. We still loved every minute of it.