Cousin Adventures

The Mr's niece came to visit us this past holiday weekend. What a great excuse to get out and explore! For some reason when I think of places to go, the beach is always the first to come to mind. For my husband, the mountains are first on his mind. This time we compromised. We went to a sort-of mountain on the coast.

Cascade Head is a wonderful hike through the forest and then up - way up - over a beach. You can see the ocean for miles.

The Beginning

So the 8 of us headed out with plenty of food, water, and energy. Within the first half hour I realized how out of shape I am. It has been 2 years (!) since I ran a marathon, and now I can run only 3 miles; but the stair-climbing hiking was what terrorized my legs. Ouch. Thankfully the path leveled out now and then, with breathtaking vistas where we could rest for a minute.

Our Little K did wonderfully, most of the time. Towards the end she was pretty tired and hungry, but we were able to cajole her onward. At one of the rest stops she found wild strawberries! As they were right off the trail we decided it would not be a wise choice to sample them, but we let her get a picture with them.

A warning to those who want to try this for the first time. There is a sort of false summit. Just when you think you have made it to the 'top' you see that you could go further on, but then as you go further, there really isn't any stopping point until you make one. The trail just continues on back towards a different trailhead. So I stayed down below, and watched the others head up and over and then return happily.

The hike down was beautiful because we got to look out over the ocean a bit more as we went down. Of course the old-lady knees didn't like the steep downhill so much, but it didn't last long, and by the time we got back to the car I didn't feel any pain.
The kids were tired. And hungry. And the top of the car seemed like a good place to rest.

As the Mr called around to find a certain restaurant and menu, I took a couple of the girls out to the dock near the parking lot. A man and his little girl were crabbing out there so we went to see. They had just landed 4 cute tiny little crabs that were scurrying over the dock.
We loaded up our troupe, struck out to Lincoln City and enjoyed a lovely dinner at Mo's. Even though it was a late night getting back home, it was worth every minute.