Bayocean

We have been getting stir-crazy quarantining inside the house for these past couple months.  But we don't want to go out in public and we certainly don't want to end up somewhere only to be lectured about visiting a "closed" location.  So I spent a good bit of time looking for a place on the coast where we either could go and hide (i.e. not many people) or could go legally (i.e. an open beach).  The Oregon Coast is tough since most of it is in state park status and most state sites are closed.

But I found a beach near Tillamook that looked both remote and was also open since it was actually county property.  It was a longer drive by about an hour, but it was worth it!  We only saw a few other people and had the beach to ourselves - not surprising considering it was at the end of a gravel road AND we had to hike about a half-mile across the dunes just to get to the beach.  Actually, the location was the former site of the resort community of Bayocean.  Around the turn of the century the place was constructed as a place for Portlanders to vacation, but it was too difficult to get to and was basically built right on the ocean.  In fact the ocean reclaimed the entire community eventually and today there is nothing left.

Anyway, when we got to the beach we found a dead grey whale which was neat.  The kids hadn't seen a whale close-up before let alone a dead one.  The beach was nice, the kids played in the ocean, and Dohnele and I took turns napping in the sunshine.