Hmm which holiday weekend are we talking about? Labor day? Just curious if I am missing something this month :P
Well obviously offshore is the best way to go if you can arrange a boat or charter and get the weather to cooperate. For shore dives you are about an hour and a half from both Netarts and Garibaldi.
The Netarts jetty dive is an easy entry shallow dive along the jetty wall. You might not see a ton of the cool big life that you get used to running across in the Sound, but there is some nice macro and encrusting life on the wall if you take you time and look around. I did a write up of my first dive there a few months back here (
http://www.nwdiveclub.com/viewtopic.php ... rts#p92948).
At the Barview Jetty in Garibaldi there is a great density of anemones and filter feeders, but last time I was there they had some construction going on that made getting in at the normal entry spot tricky, you might need to check on the status of that. Dave and I have been talking about diving the Three Graces just south of Garibaldi. I guess there is a deeper wall (60 feet) around the back side of the rocks and you can do it from shore, though there is a bit of a hill to negotiate to get down to the water.
Further south you have the Fingers at the Newport jetty. I saw a GPO there last time I dove, but I don't think it its worth making the longer trip down unless you have a heavy exchange day and want to use the Fingers to help break up the current.
I recently dove Florence and came away pretty unimpressed. They had a ton of crabs if you are looking for dinner, but the rocks are pretty "Dead" compared to the other Oregon sites I've been to. I've been told it is because they don't have off shore reefs like Newport and Garibaldi to seed the life on the Jetty.
Freshwater, there is always Big Cliff like you mentioned, I had fun when I dove there. Only saw one crawdad and one fish, but the rock structure war very cool and drifting one way was a fun change. Of course you always have the standby of Clear Lake as well. Great vis and some interesting things to see with the preserved trees and spring vents.
Drop me a line when and where you guys are going of it you have any questions. I might be able to make it out. Diving on the Oregon coast is always fun for me.
