We woke up to more sea smoke 🤨. Not as thick as yesterday but also not sunny blue skies. What to do… do we get up and start driving the central coast or do we wait so the sea smoke has a chance to burn off. Turns out we did a little of both. The coffee shop our server told us about didn’t open until 9:00 so we headed to Yachats Beach. At least we could see the ocean and the waves which was more than we could see at times yesterday. We walked the shore a bit, watched the waves and lost track of time. It was past time for the Beach Street Cafe to open! We ordered some lattes and breakfast burritos and hit the road.
Our first stop was Cape Perpetua. Since the skies were starting to clear we headed up to the second highest point along the Oregon coast. A short hike to the summit and we found our perfect breakfast spot. The view, coffee and burritos were perfect- but what isn’t with a little ocean air!?
Jon really wanted to see and photograph Thor’s well. It’s a formation along the rocky coast that creates a waterfall at high tide. It’s a little dangerous – you can only see it at high tide and you have to be close to it to take pictures – yikes! We hiked down to the rocky shore and guess what… the tide was coming in. All the photos are again just the ones from my iPhone. The photos Jon took are spectacular. He took some time exposure shots with a neutral density filter = stunning.
Besides the many pullouts for the scenic vistas, our next stop was Heceta Head Lighthouse. Lighthouses generally aren’t easy to get to – there’s a reason they build them where they do. This one required an uphill hike. Normally not bad, but we misjudged the weather and were dressed in jeans and long sleeves shirts. It was warm enough for the people at the beach to be “swimming” in the ocean or laying in the sun without the sweatshirts we’ve grown used to seeing. Nonetheless we made it to the top and the views were spectacular. No more sea smoke, instead bright blues skies.
The white on the rock is all bird poop. Yuck! 
We continued on down the coast to Florence. We needed gas and Florence was big enough to have some. And since they had B&J’s ice cream we had some of that too. No, it wasn’t Ben and Jerry’s but my coconut toffee crunch was better than any flavor I’ve had from Ben and Jerry’s.
Since the day turned out to be beautiful we decided to head back to Yachats to enjoy the coast right outside our hotel. To spend a little time relaxing and staring out to sea. I’m not sure I understand the weather patterns here… as we were driving back, in the middle of the afternoon, the sea smoke started rolling in. What had been beautiful blue skies at the lighthouse not even 2 hours before was now so foggy we could barely see the lighthouse. And it got thicker the close we got to Yachats.
We are nothing if not flexible… so we decided to go back to Yachats Brewing to enjoy the beer and food. It’s a farm to table type of menu – my favorite kind so I was not disappointed!
Tomorrow we head to the southern coast…
Halfway Round the Planet, Part 2 