I swear that was the heaviest traffic I have seen in years. The weather finally cleared and we headed out to Astoria. Turns out it was not only Dune/Sand Fest for the south coast but Kite fest for the North Coast.
It was insane. We only made it as far as Lincoln City before I called it on account of near deadly traffic encounter number 10. Every stupid person who ever owned a car, from northern Oregon, was at the coast. All driving 80 as though they were on the Interstate instead of the famously curving 101 Coast highway.
You all up north really suck and I harbor no regrets in saying so. You truly truly suck. No respect for anyone, no respect for others' safety.
There was one exception. One of the crew from the production team of ThatOregonLife.com was very politely driving along and I noted that they were like, sane, and then I noticed the company logo. Great stories and local interest stuff from that team. Well worth the view online, look em up.
But, we did have a wonderful time when we were off the road. All the kite fest folks were having a great time and it was very family friendly. Sand fest looked dangerous, as usual, and I pray it didn't turn deadly like most of those events do. The search and rescue helicopter was simply doing laps around and around. That pilot deserves some serious love from all the participants.
We stopped at many beach locations to get out of the insanity and did find a beautiful grassy slope that might very well suffice, given the right camera angles. And several locations worthy of pirate pics and some possible silliness in vid form. It is truly impressive how difficult it is to find a slope and grass similar to the scene with Orlando.
Also of note, we saw several whales, found fool's gold and loads of iron embedded in the beach cliffs (we left it undisturbed) and posed inside the Devil's punchbowl, only to find out several posers had to be rescued from the same location the day before..... It is so difficult being a stupid tourist but we perservered.
These are phone pics so I apologize for the distortion....
This coast is beautiful beyond words but grassy slope, we don't do grassy slope. Trees, brush, rocks and cliffs we do very well.