Traditionally Mia and I have almost always gone away for her birthday weekend.  This year was no exception.  Though this one was a bit last minute.  We had not really planned on going away until about 2 weeks ago when Mia wondered if there was anything available to rent at the coast.  We would normally default to Cannon Beach, but there was no way we were going to spend $400+ a night to rent a house there (that was all that was left).

Instead I found this little gem in Waldport, OR via Vacasa.com.  I’d only been to the Waldport area once back in our first year out here for the Oregon Coast Gravel Epic. So, most of the area was fairly unknown to us.

We do a couple trips like this a year and renting a house has turned out to be a much better alternative to a hotel now that we have a dog.  For not much more than a good hotel we got a full house, yard, hot tub, firepit, kitchen, and tons of privacy.  Since we don’t have to go out to eat (the kitchen…duh!) I don’t mind spending the extra cash compared to a hotel.

We were not directly on the beach, instead we were on the east side of route 101 set back about 200 yards.  It was a short 5 minute walk to the beach, but the privacy afforded by the location was totally worth it.  We were the last house on a dead end street, so wicked quiet.

Nice kitchen

quick walk to the beach

down some stairs

Super Crowded beach!

We spent most of Saturday walking on the beach with Codi and hanging out at the house.  Nothing overly taxing or difficult really.  Perhaps the best thing we did all day though was hit up the Pacific Sourdough Company just off downtown Waldport.  They are only open to the public 2 days  a week on Thursday and Saturday.  We were warned to go early, so we got there 15 minutes after they opened and still stood in line for 20 minutes.  Totally worth it though.

On Sunday we explored south down 101.  At this point everything was new to us.  Neither of us had been this far south down the coast yet and there were a bunch of cool things to see.  We only made it as far south as Florence, but it was still a full day of exploring and seeing new things.

Devil’s Churn

Getting up close

Heceta Head lighthouse

rolling in the sand

Codi got to play in the water and roll in the sand (A LOT!) and we got to enjoy the awesome weather.  It was a pretty sweet day.

I even had a chance to get out and do a little fat bike ride on the beach after we got back to the house.  The almost 5″ tires were great on the beach sand.

It was a great weekend!  I’m wishing it could have lasted longer.

a bunch of photos here (warning, very dog heavy)

Thanks for reading,

-Pete