The Oregon coast turned out to be much more spectacular than we ever imagined, and some of our photos will back us up. Stunningly rugged coastlines, blue skies, redwood forests and tons of wildlife were the theme, although our initial interest in visiting Oregon was for the craft brewery scene.

All we saw of Washington state was the freeway, and not because we hadn't heard good things. We just decided that we'd have to skip a few things in order to fit the whole country into a three month road trip!

So, our first stop in the USA was Portland in Oregon, which is known to have more microbreweries than any other city in the world! It also has an amazing bookstore which takes up a whole block! Appropriately, we checked into a motel for a couple of nights and toured Powell's Books before setting off on our own self-guided brewery crawl.

At the Rogue tasting bar we tried everything from honey mead to dead guy ale, while making a few friends. Sitting at the bar, Jess had a right-wing photographer from Nebraska fittingly on her right. Despite having some bold views on guns and the Obamacare program, he offered us some good advice on places to visit and staying safe in the cities. Meanwhile, Aidan had two young left-wing guys on his... left. One had recently returned after living in Germany for a few years, and the other had just got out of jail for DUI! Both were really down-to-earth and great to chat with. The one thing we all had in common was that we all appreciated a good, flavourful beer! The later two guys joined us for the rest of the day actually, and we continued to sample delicious locally brewed beers and food from Deschutes, Bridgeport and Rockbottom breweries.

We checked out the Saturday morning market before leaving the city, which had some pretty amazing stuff. The people watching at this festive riverside market was pretty amazing too!

From Portland we headed straight for the coast. The weather was cold, particularly at night, but at least it didn't rain. If it was any warmer it would have been much more difficult to pass through so quickly. For about five days we drove, stopped, took photos of lighthouses, drank, explored sand dunes, cooked, tried to stay warm and laughed at barking sea lions, all the while enjoying spectacular coastal scenery from Tillamook to Port Oford.

One of the highlights was a visit to the Hatfield Marine Science Centre in Newport, which was very interesting, interactive and educational. They even had a bright orange giant octopus, which had been caught accidentally by some local fishermen and was on display for a few months. On the way out we stumbled across the original Rogue (mentioned fondly above) brewery, and couldn't resist lunch with a few more tasters!

We weren't expecting to see so much wildlife along this coast. There were dozens of different sea birds, and one day we unexpectedly pulled up to the sound of hundreds of barking sea lions. We peered over the lookout to a nearby island, and there was a scene straight out of a David Attenborough documentary! Californian Sea lions, Stellar Sea Lions and Harbour Seals were all fighting for space on the crowded rocky beaches. We could have watched them for hours, and eventually Jess had to drag Aidan away from the spectacle.

To finish off our Oregon experience, for our last night we bought some fish and chips to help enjoy a beautiful beach sunset (a definite advantage of west coast living). We were just about to hop in the car and drive back to our campsite when a police car pulled up. Apparently some paranoid and clearly troubled individual that was parked in the same car park had suspected us of smoking weed on the beach. We were innocent, and put it down to the steam coming off our dinner. Nonetheless, it was pretty insulting and even more so because pot is basically legal in the state anyway.

So now we're driving across the border and into California, and the smell of 'medicinal' pot farms is as strong as ever, not that we intend to partake! We are way more excited about the warmer weather and the idea of sleeping in our van without five layers of clothes on!