May 21: Perfect day

Here’s one thing I love about living where we do: the ocean is less than two hours away. So are mountains, rivers, desert, rain forest, city, country—we’ve got it all ‘round these parts—but my favorite quick-trip destination is almost always the Oregon Coast. Being at the beach is one of the few times I can honestly call the outdoors “great.” Otherwise it’s “the ‘meh’ outdoors.” True story.

Victor checked the forecast on Friday afternoon and quietly suggested going to the beach the next day; I agreed that it would be fun and since we had no other plans, why not? Stuff happens, though, and by morning we weren’t sure we wanted to make the drive. We’ve got the dogs to deal with, traffic, kids with opinions, things to get done around the house… and sleeping late on weekend mornings is a luxury we hate to sacrifice. I call us “adorably lazy.”

But what’s cool? I’ll tell ya. On Saturday, it was nice north Oregon coast weather and the fact that the sun doesn’t set until after 8:30 or so. Even though some of us slept until 9am, we still had pa-lenty of time to get to the beach. 

We left the little dog at home, packed up the big dog and (suddenly) eager kids and headed northwest. Even with quick stops at Old Navy (for flip-flops) and Walgreens (to replace the sunglasses I lost, which I found ten minutes after I put on the new ones, DAMMIT), we still had our toes in the sand by 1pm. It was warm and there was almost no wind—both very rare things at the Oregon Coast. Cannon Beach is beautiful no matter what the weather, but when there’s blue sky peeking through the clouds and you don’t need a jacket, it’s as close to heaven as you can get.

Lucy was crazy on the beach. She couldn’t stop digging in the sand or drinking the sea water. She was fascinated by the surf. We even let her off the leash for a little bit and she behaved like a big girl. We’ve never had a water-loving dog, so it was all quite fun for us, too, and also OMG, how wet is she going to get??? (Answer: very.)

We had lunch in Seaside... Katie got her ears re-pierced... I got new books… we made a few other stops, and then headed back to Portland. It was a gorgeous day and we spent it in “moving slow” mode—the very best mode of all. Still, we were exhausted when we got home. I think it was watching The Frolicking Giant Yellow Lab that wore us out. It certainly wasn’t anything else we did.

It was a perfect day, and we were glad we finally got moving Saturday to get out and enjoy it.

For my fellow US 26 travelers: does Cooterville City Hall ever not make you laugh for two miles past it? We can’t possibly be the only ones.