Monday, August 24, 2009

Takin’ the long way home (via Oregon beaches)

When I begged we decided on Friday morning to go away to the coast for the weekend, there were two  places I really wanted to see – the Olympic Rainforest and the North Oregon Coastline.  We drove northward to the Quinault Rainforest yesterday and today we headed southward, to the north Oregon beach communities of Seaside and Cannon Beach.

Seaside was the first Oregon beach community we visited, and we loved it! 

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As we strolled the promenade by the beach in Seaside, we pondered the idea of a family vacation here next August.  The weather was perfect, the town was charming, and it seemed like a great place to get away from it all.

Then we headed a few miles further south to Cannon Beach, and within two seconds the idea of a family vacation at Cannon Beach took center stage!  In fact, within two minutes, the idea of retiring here was being discussed!  We both fell for the place – hard and fast!  It has phenomenal natural beauty all around AND it has a quaint town with an obvious sense of community.  Seems like the absolute perfect place to retire to meeeee… but then, today was an gloriously perfect summer day, which makes everything seem rosier, I’m sure.

But really – see for yourself! What do you think?

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After falling in love with Cannon Beach (it’s a quaint community with adorable beach houses… not sure I didn’t take more photos of the town!), we headed to Portland on beautiful, forested Highway 26 – a straight shot of only about an hour!  (Man, Portlanders have it good!)  By that time we were in the mood for seafood, so we stopped at the closest seafood restaurant (according to our GPS), Newport Bay Seafood Broiler in Hillsboro -- hello Julie Anne and Jonathan! – and had a delicious meal of halibut, parmesan garlic mashed potatoes and asparagus.  It was incredibly yummy!

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It’s another late night (because remember, my work week begins on Sunday night, so no sooner did we walk in the door than I got to work!), but I’m now fully rejuvenated and ready now to tackle another insane week!  We definitely need to do this more often!

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Thanks for putting up with my endless photos, my lack of decent writing, and my babbling enthusiasm.  Tomorrow it’ll be back to same ‘ol, same ol’ around Northwest Ladybug Land, but wasn’t it good to take a little break with me?  :-)

Addendum: We were greeted by a bit of excitement when we came home! 

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Boo had caught a bunny, but thanks to Aleks’ fast thinking and feline Heimlich Maneuver expertise (?!) and Kat’s subsequent nurturing of the poor creature, he’s been released back into our back forest and he quickly scampered off to find his mommy!IMG_0435

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4 comments:

Margaret said...

Well, when you first started talking about going down to the Oregon beaches and were raving about Seaside, I THOUGHT I was going to have to tell you how much I prefer Cannon Beach. We've been in that area several times and I absolutely adore that place--the beaches and the town. I agree that it would be a wonderful retirement place! Although I'm on Teacher Retirement Plan 3 "Teach Until You Die." I loved the photos of your trip!!

Goofball said...

wow ,yes you're damn right to move to that magnificent place. It looks so amazing. wow wow.

the first 2 pictures however could have been taken at a Dutch beach crossing a sand dune from the parking lot.

Snooker said...

Awwww... Seaside. I lived there for a summer in the 80's and I have to tell you that the town and the people are amazing. What a fantastic place! But shhhhh, don't tell TOOO many people.

I never did go to Cannon Beach even though I'd heard a lot of good things about it. Really I was having such a good time at Seaside, I just stayed where I was. Retirement in that part of the world... yes, I would do it in a heartbeat.

azure said...

We spent a great few days in Cannon Beach during February a few years ago. I thought it was a great place. There's a lot of houses you can rent.

I'm guessing 2003 because we knew Susanna was going to go to U Oregon and we stopped there next.

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