Vancouver Island - Day 9

Today was a day of eating in parking lots.  We left the hotel in Port Angeles, which didn't have a free breakfast, and drove to a nearby Safeway for supplies, including breakfast supplies.  As Sandra organized all the food in the cooler, the boys ate their breakfast in the van in the parking lot.

Then we drove through the Olympic National Forest in Washington, taking a number of smaller side roads, as the main roads run southeast and we wanted to go southwest.  There aren't many stopping points on the side roads, so for lunch, I noticed a small state park and decided to pull in.  Unfortunately, it was a very, very small state park, with a single uncleaned portable toilet and no picnic tables.  So, we ate in the parking lot.

Then it was across a massively long bridge in Astoria and into Oregon and eventually our destination, Cannon Beach.  This is a small resort town with a massive beach and tons of little inns and rental houses.  We are here partially for the beach and partially for Haystack Rock, a massive rock offshore that is home to puffins and which you can walk out to at low tide.

After checking into our room and going out for supper, we walked along the beach and looked at the rock, even though it was high tide this evening.  The beach and ocean was very nice, but the water was ice cold, which did not deter Bradley at all.  We were walking by the water with some of us wading a bit and we were passed by people in full winter gear.

After a long walk down the beach and back, we retired for the night.  Tomorrow we will stick around until high tide, visit the rock and then head down the highway to our next stop.