Beach, Coast, Ocean, Shore...

We just spent a very enjoyable long weekend traveling around parts of Oregon with our neighbors.  And not just one set of neighbors; two sets!  We are incredibly fortunate to live in a place where you can actually get to know your neighbors.  Believe me, I know that doesn't happen everywhere.  And in this case, I really have to give credit to my DH.  The man doesn't know a stranger, and every place we've ever lived throughout our married life, we've collected neighbor-friends.  Right now, we happen to be very fortunate to have fun neighbors.  Neighbors with similar interests, good taste in beer, and a beach house.

We set out on Friday, and following a stop for lunch at P.F. Chang's in Tigard (lettuce wraps...yum), we did a mini-tour of McMenamin's properties west of Portland: Rock Creek Tavern, Cornelius Pass Roadhouse & Imbrie Hall.

Burl mushrooms at the Rock Creek Tavern.  Tried the seasonal Copper Moon here.

The grounds at Cornelius Pass Roadhouse are worth wandering. 
Enjoyed my favorite McMenamin's brew (Hammerhead) here.

From there, it was an overnight stay at McMenamin's Grand Lodge.

 

The view from our room at the Grand Lodge.  I love hydrangeas!  Can you tell?
If you don't try the Terminator Brownie Sundae here, you're nuts.

Saturday morning, we took off for McMinnville and the Evergreen Air and Space Museum.  The drive through some of Oregon's Wine Country between Forest Grove and McMinnville is just beautiful, by the way. I suddenly found myself planning another trip:  definitely need to check out the Sip 47 Wine Route.

The Museum is home to the Spruce Goose, a very fine B-17 (my uncle flew on these during WWII), and the SR-71, among many, many others.  If you have even the slightest interest in flight, this museum shouldn't be missed.  I won't go into all the details, but you can certainly find them here.  The IMAX "Legends" movie is worth every penny, also.

It's ridiculous to even try to capture the entire Spruce Goose in one pic without a decent wide-angle lens.

Absolutely nothing to do with flight, but the rose hips in the museum parking lot are the biggest I've ever seen.  Seriously.  Like big cherry tomatoes.  Or small apples.

And then, we were off to the beach! From these photos, you might think we had three days of clouds.  Not so!  It was gorgeous and sunny most of the time.  But on Sunday morning when we hiked out to Cape Kiwanda, the clouds were a little slow to burn off.  And by evening, they were back just long enough to enhance the sunset.

Clockwise from top left:  View of Pacific City and beach from Cape Kiwanda; a view of the "other" Haystack rock on the Oregon Coast; bonfires at sunset on the beach; the beautiful, rugged point at Cape Kiwanda.

All during my growing-up years in Very Northern California, we would take trips to "the coast".  Some of my friends called it going to "the ocean".  After living in Central Oregon for the past few years, I've noticed many people here call it going to "the beach".  I've heard some of my east coast acquaintances call it going to "the shore", but I've never heard it called that out west.  So, now I'm curious.  What do you call it?