Coastline Escape
- cheeachpak
- Oct 8, 2020
- 5 min read
Updated: Nov 29, 2020
There is nothing like an escape to the coastline. Something about a beach brings a sense of calm to the nerves. Not sure if it is the salty air, the sound of the waves, the sand between your toes, or just a combination of it all. The beach is somewhere we have always been drawn to and are mesmerized by, even our pups will stare off in a daze while there. Only fitting for Garitt's birthday and our next adventure that we decided to pak up and head to the Oregon Coast to get our beach fix in!
Growing up on the East Coast, when you pack for the beach you're packing for hot days, refreshing water to cool down in, and all the beach activities. On the West Coast, we were packing up our wetsuits, hoodies, rain jackets, and other warmer clothes. The Pacific Ocean doesn't heat up quite like the Atlantic or Gulf, but I don't think it is the warmth you are going to the beach for. It's for the haystack rocks, the surf, the views, the hidden finds, the wildlife, the sea creatures, and of course the beach itself that still draws you in during the cold, foggy days.
For the first part of our trip, we booked a campsite at Hart's Camp Airstream in Pacific City, Oregon. This wasn't just your average campground. You basically can call it "glamping", I guess! What makes this campground stand out is that it is made up of many different, modernized airstreams with spots opened for trailers + RVs as well. It is located right across the beach next to restaurants, bakeries and shops, making it a very convenient location right in town. With the airstream rental, you have your own little yard oasis and can be pet friendly! Finding places that allow our fur-babies to come along is hard, so when we find one that does we run with it. There are fences around your campsite, plus it is nicely landscaped to help you feel more secluded and private. This airstream comes with a full kitchen, full bathroom, queen bed, coffee maker, wi-fi, TV + cable, outdoor shower, gas grill, fire pit, picnic table + chairs, and even comes with bikes! The outdoor shower was a dream with its lively plant wall inside. (Bonus: it has hot water!) There were also a lot of friendly bunnies around, our pups weren't too sure about those guys. Here's a little walkthrough video of our airstream + campsite, Kumbaya, below!
Garitt's birthday trip came at a perfect time as we were in heavy, heavy wildfire smoke with horrible air quality so an escape felt like a must. During our time on the coast, we were not allowed to have campfires at our site nor on the beach due to the danger with it being wildfire season. It has been a very dry summer here in Oregon. Driving through the smoke was a sad sight to see, especially knowing the beauty that was being hidden on our drive through the forest. Most of the main highways were shutdown making us take a longer route than we would normally take but well worth it to be on the safe side. The first few days we woke up to fog, but we preferred the fog over the smoke we were waking up to. Oregon needed rain and we were looking forward to moody days on the beach!
It definitely has been a weird year for travel. With COVID-19 to wildfire season and everything else in between, it hasn't been the easiest to travel out and about. (Let's face it, it's been a weird year period.) Most hikes we had on our "to-do" list for the coast were closed due to COVID and wildfires at the time. It is always smart to check first to make sure a trail is opened before going to, especially during times like these! For us, having the parks closed just meant we could kick back our feet a little more; which we ended up doing a lot of at our next stay not far up the road in the quiet, quaint town of Oceanside near Tillamook, Oregon.
My oh my, what a beautiful place this was waking up to in the mornings. We were so very lucky to snag this cute, pet friendly Oceanside beachfront bungalow for a few nights! (Peep video tour above!) It made it a little bit sweeter that this home has been in the owner's family for 40 years. Our host + current owner was the most friendly and even let us check in a bit early. This home had everything we needed + more to enjoy the rest of G's birthday weekend. We watched the storms roll in, the tides come and go, star gazed, ate lots of cake, fell asleep listening to the waves, woke up to the waves, walked the beach with our pups, and just explored.
Both of these little beach towns were so nice to get away to, especially to celebrate G! We did some exploring but more relaxing this trip and we were not mad about doing so! We accomplished one hike at Cape Kiwanda State Park, which was right on the beach in Pacific City and luckily one of the only ones semi open still at the time of our stay. The hike we did is known as the Great Dune; a massive hill made of mudstone and sandstone. A massive hill it is!! This viewpoint is famous for the views, especially looking north to Cape Lookout across the Tierra del Mar. When Garitt and I hiked up the Great Dune, our viewpoint was fog. Lots and lots of fog! Ha! That's just our luck. 😂 You could still hear the waves crashing upon the haystacks and the Dory boats beaching their boats so it was quite peaceful still. To be honest though, we really hiked up the dune just so we could run back down it because it looked like a lot of fun..........and it was. Here's a video for your entertainment. *fair warning: lots of laughter and heavy breathing to be heard in this video...also I did really stretch for the record lol. *
Enough with the words, here are more pictures + video clips from our trip! (Click to enlarge the picture) We watched Dory boats, seagulls grab dinner that fought back, explored sea caves, watched the sunset and most of all, just relaxed. We cannot wait to go back to the coast to explore all that we missed as there is still so much beauty to be seen. Thanks for reading along! Where will the Pak go next?!
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Stay wild!
Peace + Love
xx,
The Pak
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