Well we knew we wouldn’t get through this whole trip without a lil rain.

Anndddddd it’s here!

Flood warnings, high wind advisory, the rain just won’t quit. We even got flagged down by a park ranger because a tree fell on the road! But stuff like this makes for the best travel stories. We haven’t stopped giggling since the rain started.

So this is one thing I learned when I was really young….When you travel things NEVER go as planned.

My mom worked for the airlines when I was growing up and sometimes we’d go to the airport expecting to get on a plane to go somewhere… like let’s say Chicago then all of a sudden there wouldn’t be any standby seats on the plane and we’d run around the airport trying to catch any plane that had any seats available and out of nowhere we’d end up in New York City! Ha! It was exhilarating, exhausting, and difficult to pack for.

I once got the jet bridge door slammed in my face because there was only one standby seat left on a plane and my mom and I couldn’t decide fast enough who should get on the plane and who should stay stuck in whatever city we were in.

Once we couldn’t find a hotel room in the ENTIRE city of Boston, because of a convention, and we had to rent a car and drive to Salem just to have somewhere to sleep.

Also, I hopped on a plane once to go get my prom dress from the Mall of America but I had stayed up all night, at a graduation party, the night before. So while my mom shopped I slept on the floor of the mall.

Oh and once we even dragged our luggage in circling around the small streets of New Orleans looking for any hotel that could house us for the night…So yeah things don’t go as planned.

BUT I will never forget these trips, these stories, or all the times my friends would ask me to hang out and I’d say sorry my mom’s flying me to Boston tonight for dinner.

So I always travel expecting the least and telling myself to enjoy the entire experience. You can’t control a lot of things like daylight, weather, store opening and closing hours, hotel availability, where Lemon is allowed and where she isn’t..the list goes on and on.

Well back to the rainy weather adventure. This day has probably been my favorite day thus far on the trip there is something about running around in the rain that just makes you feel like a little kid..unless your Lemon, then it just makes you cry!

Ok onto the rainy day step by step guide:

Otter Rock

1st Rainy Day Stop: Devil’s Punchbowl

Lucky for us you need to take about 5 steps out of your car to see this insane and rather violent water churning in a natural carved rock that resembles a bowl.  If it wasn’t raining this is something you could look at for hours and become memorized by. So cool.

2nd Rainy Day Stop: Flying Dutchman Winery

We’ll it was roughly 5 steps to see Devil’s Punchbowl and roughly 5 more to delish wine tasting. Count me in please!

And once again Lemon friendly. Yip Yip Hooray!

The tastings were each a dollar, but if you bought a bottle of wine your tasting fees were waived!

My favorite was the Devil’s Punchbowl Pinot Nior Blush.

After a couple tastings we sad goodbye to darling Otter Rock.
Current Score:
Oregon Coast Explorers  2

Rainy Weather 0

Depot Bay

3rd rainy day stop: Wild waters at Depot Bay

The water was really wild over at Depot Bay we figured this would be a great opportunity to get on outta the car and take a look at the crazy weather doing its thing!

I carried Lemon in the pack to take a look at what was going on in the ocean. Honestly I was petrified she would be sucked into the crashing waves from the ferocious winds swirling around. The winds were out of freakin control. It was rather scary.

The waves were throwing themselves over the wall which divided was obviously built to separate them from us..not currently working! We walked away with our hearts pounding and soaked from head to toe.

Current Score:
Oregon Coast Explorers  3

Rainy Weather 0

Winning!

Tillamook

4th Rainy Day Spot: Tillamook Cheese

So Tillamook is not super close to where we have been staying, which is Newport, but it seemed like a good rough weather place to go since it has the Tillamook Cheese and Creamery, which is inside!!!

We got there only 30 minutes before the place was closing and it was pretty dead since the weather was cray cray! We kinda had the whole place to ourselves.

The best part about the self guided tour is the samples of cheese you can try!

You also get to tour the facilities where they’re actually making the cheese.

Final Score:
Oregon Coast Explorers  4

Rainy Weather 0

Won!!!

We bought some cheese for the road and headed back to the hotel in Newport. It was amazing how much we got done just by having a positive mindset about the rain! Rain can’t hold us down!

Adventure awaits!!