Day 2 | Cali Coast Adventure!

Day 2 was a whole lot of driving, but even more beautiful scenery! We drove from Lincoln City, Oregon to Crescent City, California. Just a heads up, if you ever go to a beach in Oregon or Northern Cali, dress like you are going to Antarctica. It's cold and VERY windy! 

 Devil's Punch Bowl (above) was right next to our hotel. It was our first stop on an almost 6 hour drive of many, many stops. It usually is filled with water, but we came at low tide, as per our usual luck, so it looked more like a Devil's Pottery Creation than a punch bowl. But thats ok. It was still amazing!

 I didn't get a picture of the hotel from the night before while we were there, but if you look closely behind me, you can see all the little buildings of The Inn at Otter Creek on the hill.

 Almost even better than the Devil's Punch Bowl itself was the scenery around it. I still can't get over how beautiful mountains meeting the sea are. And I do love a good sentimental moment with the sea, hence the blog name!

 Hands down, best part of the Devil's Punch Bowl area were these little dudes running around everywhere! They weren't scared of us at all! 

 Excuse me while I have other sentimental moment staring at the sea. 

 We saw these surfers and stopped to watch them, hoping to see some cool moves we would never get to see at home. Turns out they were very much beginners. It was a bit disappointing, but I guess we all have to start somewhere!

 For some reason, this reminded me of the Twilight movies and the beach that Jacob liked to hang out on. Don't judge me. Ok, moving on. 

 We stopped for lunch in Newport, Oregon. As soon as we got out of the car, we heard barking. I don't think you even understand how excited I was to see these majestic creatures. Just look at them. Big blubbery, but sleek, creatures filled with grace and awkward. They were kind of mean to each other though.. 

 We ate at Port Dock One, with a lovely view of the Yaquina Bay Bridge, and the ambient sounds of incessant barking. I ordered clam strips in an attempt to be adventurous. They weren't bad, but just saying the words "clam strips" puts me off a bit. 

 Our next stop was at Devil's Churn near Yachats, OR. We had lots of devilish stops that day. For some reason, I have no pictures of the actual Devil's Churn. Possibly because, again, it was low tide and it was a bit underwhelming. So enjoy this picture of a beach!

 At Devil's Churn, we had to hike a bit to get to what we thought was a much cooler view of it. Turn out it was just a more dangerous way to see it. But we survived and lived to see the rest of the trail, including this tree. I really like trees. 

 The beach at Devil's Churn was unbelievably gorgeous. I vote we put up a human fence around all the pretty things so they will all look like this and the humans can't ruin them. 

 We made it to California! It was Mother's Day, so what better way to celebrate than to take a picture by a California sign? Right? Maybe?

 Me and my cousin Hannah are best friends, and we had been dying to go on this trip. Finally making it to California (for the first time for Hannah) was a huge milestone! We stayed at Curly Redwood Lodge in Crescent City, the same hotel my grandparents had stayed in over a decade before! We were hoping to see more sea lions, but instead, we saw a man with his cat on a leash. That was almost as good!
Stay tuned for the rest of our trip!