We set off under gray and cloudy skies, but we weren't worried - the forecast had been for a week of great weather. Our route took us south on the I-5 through Seattle to Olympia, where we travelled west towards the coast. My fear of the 4.1 mile Astoria Bridge was unfounded - it was a piece of cake! We soon found ourselves at Seaside, Oregon and Tim proved once again he had incredible foresight by booking a room ahead of time. Little did we know this was the weekend of the great Sand Sculpting Contest, and available motel rooms were few and far between. We shared our lunch with the resident gull population at Ecola State Park, high above the Pacific Ocean, and then we meandered south down the coast, ogling the bluffs and crashing waves and the immense Haystack Rock at Cannon Beach. After dinner, we headed to the beach to watch the sand sculptors begin work on their masterpieces and to see the sun go down. It was a wonderful ending to a lovely day.

On September 20th, we continued our drive south on the Pacific Coast Highway. It's a beautiful road, full of twists and turns with marvellous vistas. Sometimes the waves thunder into the shore and crash against the bluffs and sometimes they ripple into the quiet coves. On the advice of a colleague of Tim's, we made a stop at Hug Point and were rewarded with the sight of huge caves, and large flocks of seabirds darting along the ocean's edge in the early morning light. We were intrigued enough with the sign for Sand Lake to follow it and sure enough, there was a lake of sand, a haven for those with ATVs. As we followed the coastline, we made our way across causeways and bridges and then back up to the top of the cliffs. Eventually we realized that in six hours we had progressed a mere 120 miles, so somewhat reluctantly at Newport we headed inland to the I-5 and Roseburg where we spent the night.