Newport, OR

Sunday, October 6, 2024

I woke up at 2:30am to the sound of wrappers crumpling inside our snack drawer. I listened, knowing exactly what was in there — a mouse! The entire bottom of our RV is exposed, so it’s not very difficult for mice to find their way inside the RV following the underbelly piping. Though, it’s only happened one other time.

I debated waking Andi up, but there was nothing he could do about the mouse at this hour without waking up the kids. Besides, how would he catch it?

All my jostling around eventually woke him up, and I clued him in on the situation. Tory was awake by this point. (She sleeps so lightly, it doesn’t take much to disturb her) Andi checked inside the snack drawer, but there were no mice and nothing out of place.

Andi went back to sleep, but I couldn’t. I laid there in the dark with my eyes wide open from 2:30-4:00am. I’d just drifted off to sleep when I heard the sound of wrappers crinkling again. This time, I jumped up in bed, and instinctively cluched Andi’s chest — ahhh! A mouse!

Andi was up now, too, after I startled him awake. Oops! He checked the drawer again, and this time there were little pieces of mouse poop inside, but still no mouse.

“We’ll pick up a trap and some mouse poison today, OK? That’s all we can do right now,” he told me.

He went back to sleep, but there was no way I could. Adrenaline was rushing through my body along with the image of a mouse feasting inside a cracker box taking up space in my brain.

Aden was the only one who missed the mouse drama. He woke up around 7:30am without a clue as to what transpired the past five hours. Andi and I readied the camper for departure, and then the four of us made our way to our first destination of the day — Cape Meares Lighthouse.

The Three Capes Scenic Loop is a popular 40-mile drive in northwestern Oregon touring visitors through quaint seaside towns with gorgeous coastal views along the way. We camped near Cape Meares last night, so this was a natural starting spot for our travels this morning.

Lucky for us, the parking lot was empty this early in the day, so we mostly had the walking path to ourselves. Andi, Tory, Aden, and I followed a steep, paved path down to the lighthouse at the tip of the cape. Cape Meares is the smallest lighthouse along the Oregon coast, and a gorgeous one at that. Its “light” is made of colored pieces of glass imported from France.

The cape was once an active lighthouse for the US Coast Guard, but today serves as a living piece of history. Visitors can go inside the lighthouse during certain hours of the day, but our family was content to simply walk around and enjoy its beauty from the outside.

Back in the RV, we continued driving south throught the quaint seaside villages of Oceanside and Netarts. As we drove, Andi, Tory, and I listened to “Talkie Guy” Guide Along audio tour tell us information and stories about the area. In Netarts Bay, Jacobson’s Salt is the first company to harvest salt from the ocean since the 1800’s. Unfortunately, the storefront was closed on this Sunday morning, but Andi said he’s seen their products sold in many shops around the area.

It took us about 30 minutes to reach Cape Lookout State Park, the second stop along our Three Capes scenic drive. This was a great spot to take in the sight of the rugged Oregon coastline and pretty, sandy beaches. We enjoyed watching the mist and clouds roll over the cape, sometimes obstructing part of our view before sunny skies prevailed.

There’s a state park at Cape Lookout offering hiking trails through the old-growth forest and camping, but our main objective today was to roadtrip along the coast. We only stopped for a few minutes to see the view, and then continued onward toward Pacific City.

Andi and I noticed spots of sand mixed in with the trees as we ventured further southbound. The small town of Sandlake is an area mixed with forest and sand dunes; Sandlake Recreation Area is nearby. Interesting to see the coast transform from rocky, jagged cliff to sand.

We pulled into the town of Pacific City and immediately noticed the flurry of people around the small downtown area. Andi pulled into one beach parking lot only to be shoo’d out by a parking lot attendant. We’ve noticed Oregonians to be strict rule-followers and a bit snooty, to be honest; like they’re nearing the end of a busy summer season and are tired of all the tourists. (Can you tell we’ve been yelled at for parking and driving in the wrong places a few too many times this week?)

The reality is, it’s not that easy driving a 24’ RV as our main mode of transportation and people really are inconsiderate when it comes to parking or giving space to an oversized vehicle. We do just fine getting around, but RV travel comes with its challenges.

Anyway, Andi left that beachside parking lot and found a different parking area down the road. The four of us walked a few blocks back to the beach at Cape Kiwanda — the third stop on our scenic capes tour.

Cape Kiwanda is known for its sandstone headland and Haystack Rock (yes, another one!) that touts being the highest rock along Oregon’s coastline. A towering mound of sand on the north side of Pacific City Beach reaches 250 feet high, and we saw plenty of people slogging their way to the top of it. Our family has climbed up a sand dune (or three!) in our worldwide travels, so we skipped out on this fun-filled activity today. Believe me, it’s much harder than it looks.

Pacific City Beach was full of families hanging out together playing in the sand, and surfers in the water catching waves. Pacific City Brewing Company also has a restaurant on the beach, and their patio was packed with customers. This was a popular place to be on a sunny Sunday afternoon.

Andi made a comment about the unique haze surounding Haystack Rock, and then all of a sudden the rock was totally out of view. Wow! Fog rolling along the Oregon Coast seems to come and go throughout the day. It makes it clear why lighthouses were essential for sailors in past years.

The area of Pacific City is specifically known for its use of dory boats which are sturdy, flat-bottom boats that can cut through powerful ocean waves. We saw these boats all over the Cape Kiwanda area, including at the boat landing where we stopped to have lunch.

Neither Andi or I felt like eating in a restaurant, so we decided to park at the boat landing to make lunch inside our RV. Andi grilled burgers in the parking lot, and the four of us ate them with salad and pickles. While we ate, we watched fisherman going in and out of the landing, and also saw several kayakers and paddleboarders on the protected waters of the Nestucca River.

Also — before we left town, Andi ran into the hardware store to buy mousetraps and poison. “Mouse in the camper?” the clerk asked Andi at the check-out. “Oh boy.”

From Pacific City, we continue southbound along Highway 101 toward Newport. Talkie Guy on our audio tour suggested we take the Otter Crest Loop near Depoe Bay — a 4.2 mile one-way road winding west of the highway with several roadside spots to view along the way.

We stopped at Devil’s Punchbowl State Natural Area to see the naturally-carved rock formation resembling a punch bowl. The scenic viewpoint looked right down into the bowl where we saw water churning and splashing against the rock formation.

We re-joined Highway 101 after the viewpoint, making our way to Newport. Andi thought we’d camp somewhere in this area tonight, but first we decided to drive into town to check out the harbor.

In the words of Talkie Guy, “Some harbors are more scenic than others,” and we’d have to say Newport fell short on the list. That’s not to say the view wasn’t charming, but oh my gosh — the smell! We could hear sea lions bellowing and barking a mile away, and we knew for certain they were present in the harbor the closer we walked into town.

A huge group of tourists were gathered around the docks taking pictures of the sea lions sunning themselves on the docks. There was even a restaurant called the Sea Lion Docks where people could sit outside and watch the animals while they ate & drank. I don’t know how you could! The stench in the air was so potent.

Personally, our family wanted nothing to do with this scene after we were kept awake all night long by sea lions barking in Ucluelet, British Columbia last week. As we walked through Newport’s downtown area, the smell was so terrible that Tory was actually gagging.

Then, the four of us noticed something all at the same time, and my immediate thought was uh-oh — Ripley’s Believe It or Not. At the beginning of the trip, Andi asked the kids what was on their bucket list for this trip, and the number one thing Tory said was to visit a Ripley’s Believe It or Not.

“Oh, I don’t think we’ll be traveling to a place with one of those,” Andi told her.

Newport, Oregon. Who on Earth would have guessed they’d have a Ripley’s.

Tory and Aden picked to use their hard-earned garage sale money last fall to go to Ripley’s Believe It or Not in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada. The kids thought the place was fantastic, of course, and we did have fun that one time. Ripley’s is not a place I’d want to go back to again and again.

“Please, Dad, please, please!” the kids begged Andi.

“You said we could go if we saw one,” Tory reminded her dad.

The four of us stood outside while Andi and I hem-hawed around about going inside the attraction. “Ok, Ok,” Andi finally said, “but when I say we're leaving there’s no begging to stay longer.”

“Hooray,” both the kids shouted, jumping for joy.

We spent about an hour inside Ripley’s Believe It or Not exploring all the oddities and amusements. The kids were over-the-moon excited about the interactive displays. I don’t know why they like this place so much, but they do. I’m a sign reader, so I guess I don’t mind reading all the weird and unusual facts on display.

This was a smaller-sized attraction than the one in Niagara Falls, but the one thing we did find new & interesting was the brain teaser puzzles. It was amazing to see the different way Andi and Aden’s brains worked vs. Tory and I’s.

Both Tory and Aden were full of gratitude after we finished our visit at Ripley’s. The four of us walked back to the RV through the horror of smells along the Newport docks. “I had so much fun inside, I forgot all about the terrible smell out here,” Aden said.

Andi drove us to South Beach State Park to camp for the night. We were able to easily secure a place to park for the night among the 200+ campsites. Similar to other Oregon State Parks we’ve stayed at the past few days, this campground offered electric and water hook-ups as well as a sewer dump station.

I felt like we should take advantage of the last hour of daylight and check out the sandy, ocean beach but neither Tory or Aden were interested. Andi and I decided to walk to the beach ourselves, leaving the kids behind in the RV for an hour.

Our walk to the beach was a pretty one through a grove of trees. The sandy beach was flat, perfect for strolling along the water. I think there’s a paved bike path that runs through this state park as well, which I would have loved to check out had we brought our bikes or had more to time to spend here.

The only thing that might pose a problem tonight is the fog horn that kept sounding every 10 seconds or so. At first, I couldn’t figure out what it was, but a quick Google search showed reviews from other campers commenting on the near-constant sound. Some campers called it annoying; others said they liked it because it reminded them of being on the ocean. I guess we’ll be able to give our own opinion after tonight.

We made chicken fajitast for dinner, and concluded our night streaming more episodes of Young Sheldon. I think we’re wrapping up Season 2 now? I don’t know, the episodes just roll one into another.

Tomorrow, we’ll continue making our way south along the Oregon coastline. Neither Andi or I really have a plan as to how far south we’ll drive before making our way inland toward Crater Lake National Park. More adventures to come…