When I told my friend Andy we wanted to see the Oregon Coast two years ago, he convinced me to stick with the mountains of Montana and Wyoming and the Utah and AZ desert. This time around, when I told him we were doing the coast he said: Why do you want to go there? Isn't the Oregon coast always gray and rainy? Of course not, I replied, a bit too quickly...

Needless to say, I have been replaying this conversation in my head more than a few times in the last 3 weeks, as it rains almost non-stop...

On the bright side, the forest is green and lush, our hair is beautiful and curly, our skin, moist.

But our shoes smell like dead fish and there is sand everywhere (but especially in my bed).