Roadtrip down the West Coast!

This weekend just gone one of my good friends (and fellow au pair) and I went on a roadtrip down the west coast of  Washington to Oregon where we visited stopped at Olympia, Astoria, Cannon Beach, and Portland. We also stopped at Raymond, WA for lunch at a classic American diner. The trip was over 500 miles of driving and took from early in the morning until 2am when we came home. It was a fantastic trip and such great weather which really added to the experience! Here is a map of our journey.

Olympia, Washington

The first place we stopped at along the way in Olympia. Olympia is the state capital of Washington and has some fantastic legislative buildings. The buildings were so grand, they were built in a Greek style and had large steps and big Corinthian columns. It was really special to drive into town and see these classic buildings appear as we drove down the street! Also in Olympia was a fantastic port, there were so many boats to look at, and interesting surrounds. We had a hot chocolate and a snack at a funky little coffee shop at the port in Olympia, it was perfect!

Astoria, Oregon

Astoria is this gorgeous little historic Victorian style town named after the prominent 1800's millionaire fur trader John Jacob Astor, who I know about because his great-grandson John Jacob Astor IV died on the Titanic. Astoria is also the hometown of one of my American friends here and I wanted to visit it to see where she grew up! It is just across the state border into Oregon and to get there we crossed over this incredible 4.1 mile bridge, apparently it is the world's longest continuous truss bridge. It was such a thrill! 

The amazing bridge (view from Astoria)

The bridge as we approached it from the Washington side

 Astoria was the perfect place for me to visit because I love historic houses. I had heard about a huge mansion called Flavel House that was open for visitors. We were lucky to get there before it closed and it was well worth the trip, the house was beautiful and it was sitting pretty in the warm afternoon sun. We had a tricky time to get there because the GPS led us to this disused road that looked like it had been destroyed by earthquake, the trees had really taken over! We parked and decided to walk through the remains of this road. I was so curious to know what had happened to that road so I later asked a shop keeper and she gave me a bit of history. Turns out that Astoria is similar to Seattle - it was built right on the water and then a huge fire razed the whole town to the ground. They rebuilt it up on the hills and filled in the sidewalks the same way they did in Seattle and filled the roads in with sand and dirt. Over time the roads have shifted and tree roots have pushed away at the asphalt, some roads have simply fallen away, like this road that we had discovered. Apparently they still have the underground sidewalks under the shops and you can go up and down them, much like Seattle except on a smaller scale. So interesting!

Disused road all broken up and taken over by trees

At first we wondered what on earth had happened to the road!

Flavel House: The Grand old lady of Astoria!

Playing with Victorian dress ups!

My favourite room in the house

Ready for high tea!

Around town: The old jail!

Picture Theatre

 Cannon Beach, Oregon

 Cannon Beach was recommended to me by my Lonely Planet guide and also my host mother who said it is one of her favourite places. Lonely Planet said to get there around sunset, which we did. It is this quaint little coastal tourist town filled with small boutique shops all built in an old fashioned way with wooden shingles. There were lots of places to eat and little curiosity shops to look at. When we arrived there was still a bit of time before sunset so we drove around a little bit and drove over a little hill which led to another beach and the hub for all the hotels. We were not expecting what we saw: as we came over the hill the landscape opened out and we saw this incredible coastline with these huge rocks jutting high into the sky from the shoreline! It was breathtaking. We both started squealing with delight when we saw them because it was like nothing we had ever seen. We just couldn't stop smiling, we were so happy. It was very cold and windy on the beach so we stayed for as long as we could then we headed back to the main town and had some yummy pizza for dinner.

The incredible vista that took our breath away

We caught the sunset on the beach, but unfortunately it had clouded over a little bit

 We had some ice cream for dessert from one of the town's cute little ice creameries and then headed on in the night towards Portland. We got there just after 10.30pm but by that time it was so cold outside and we were both feeling tired so we just drove around a bit and then headed back home, we will have to come back to Portland another time and see it properly. We had a great drive home, stopping once so I could have a powernap. We got home and crashed, absolutely exhausted but so joyful from the things we had seen and experienced, sun on our faces, salt in our hair, fresh air in out lungs. It was one of the best days ever. :)

Proof we went to Portland!