Blog Challenge Day 27

Your favorite place.

Oh I have been waiting for this one.

If you know me at all, even if you have only known me for a week, a day, heck maybe even a couple of minutes, you will probably know what is coming next.

My favorite place is Cannon Beach.  And joining this blog will be all sorts of pictures that I have taken for your viewing pleasure.

My family and I have been vacationing at Cannon Beach for about 23 years.  We go about twice a year, once in the spring and once in the summer.  We always book our room at Surfsand Resort a year in advance and get the same room every time.  It's like having your own time-share and it's like going home whenever we're there.  Often we won't book the spring trip thinking we won't need to go next spring, but after an Eastern Washington winter there is no better way to start the spring than a trip to the beach.  Let me tell you why Cannon Beach is so special to me.

I love the shops and the people we see when we are there.  Coastal Yarns and the lovely ladies we always see, and now who even know us when we come in and are so happy to see we're back.  Bruce's Candy Kitchen with arguably THE best taffy on the Oregon Coast along with a whole shop of the best chocolates, sweets and candy corn ever.  Geppetto's toy shop and looking at all the toys I was once desperate to buy for myself and now look at them and think about the kids I may be buying them for later.  The galleries and the art and wandering through them thinking about the beauty some people can create with brushes and imagination.  Osburn's Ice Creamery and eating a dripping ice cream cone on the porch on a hot summer day.  The yummy places to eat and now that I am older, drink!  Bill's Tavern with their wonderful Blackberry Beauty beer and exceptional home-brewed rootbeer.  The Cannon Beach bakery and the boxes of donuts we always get and of course a loaf of haystack bread.  Morris' Fireside restaurant and what I consider THE best clam chowder ever, as well as the people there who remember us coming there year after year and have asked about where everyone has gone to now that it's just Mom and I going.

I love walking the beach with my dogs and talking about all sorts of things with Mom.  Collecting shells whether they're broken or not.  Walking down to the tidal pools and looking at all the creatures that live there and peeking through telescopes that the Haystack Rock Awareness Program has put up to see the birds that live on the rock.  I love the unpredictable ocean and the power it possesses.  I love sitting in the room on a rainy day with the fire on and a good movie playing and doing whatever you want to do not what you need to do.

The best part about Cannon Beach is how it is so much a part of my childhood memories.  When I and my girl cousins were young my Mom and Gram took us all.  That's six people in a van loaded to the gills and four of them being children headed to the beach.  We were allowed to take one bag of things to do and for a long time it was a Caboodle box.  Melinda, Erin, Katey and I would plan out what we could fit in our boxes, Barbies, comic books, drawing pads, pencils, etc.  Mom would pack our duffel bags in the back and worry about the weight and how low the back of the van was riding to the ground.  It would often scrape the pavement as we pulled into Mariner's Market to get groceries.  Back then Surfsand had kitchenettes in each of their rooms and we cut down on food costs by eating dinner and breakfast in the room and only lunch out.  When we would all go we would get the Presidential Suite, room 209, and it had a full galley kitchen and big dining table and everything.  It had a double wide deck out the front and we would sun our wet clothes and beach towels on it.  It was awesome, a full house at the beach.

Oh the memories.  There was the year that we discovered Smartfood white cheddar popcorn and each got a bag that we finished off individually.  Or the year Katey collected sticky rubbery hands out of toy machines and called them squishies.  The year it was really warm (at least to a kid) and we spent hours in the waves with water up above our knees jumping the waves as they came in.  Or the year we used an inflatable pool toy and would let the rip tide float us down the beach.  The time we walked in the ocean up to our waists down to Haystack and saw the huge crabs in the ocean.  The year there was a log stuck in the sand and we all tried to stay on it as the waves would hit us.  Or the time we tried it again with a log that wasn't stuck and Melinda got her toe squished.  Hug Point and climbing up above the waterfall and into the caves and around the point.  Erin making "music" with her feet by sliding them through the dry sand.  The year we drove down to Newport to see Keiko the Orca whale and driving back so late that everyone was falling asleep including Mom, so I started reading aloud from the book I had brought.  Grammy being upset with half the things we did.  Throwing bread over the railing at the seagulls, and possibly the cabana boy.  Me drawing up the outfits we were going to wear while we were there.  Riding horses on the beach in the morning.  Eating at the big table at Morris' and laughing at the "salad" they brought out which looked like they went out back and picked it off the bushes.  Katey eating french toast all the time.  Melinda being sour about something at least once in the trip.  Erin collecting cow related items.  Us diving into the pool with a "No Diving" sign being posted the next year.  Us playing Marco Polo in the pool until everyone else left.  Sitting in the hot tub and then jumping in the pool and it being freezing cold.  Walking to the video store to get a movie.  Always wanting to go to the Seaside Aquarium to feed the seals.  Eating at Pig 'n Pancake and then shopping in the Christmas store in the back.  Driving to the beach and cheering when we drove past the "Welcome to Oregon" sign on the bridge and then chanting "ocean, ocean, ocean, OCEAN!" screaming when you saw a glimpse of it out the window driving through town.  Hearing people in the room next to us and using a glass to try and hear through the wall.  Going to Peter Iredale and eating bologna sandwiches, grapes and chips out of the back of the van.  Katey finding a ring in the changing rooms there and then promptly losing it.  The icky sand crabs on the beach.  The time we went after Gram passed away and it was just me and Mom and it felt empty.

Cannon Beach is the one place that I am most relaxed and happy.  I thought about moving me and Mom down there after she retires, but we looked into it and the cost of houses down there is not comparable to where we live.  If we sold our huge house on 5 acres we'd be able to buy a cottage on a 100 x 100 foot lot in town.  And it rains so much that we'd probably be terribly depressed.  And it doesn't get hot enough for me to grow tomatoes...  But maybe someday I'll be able to buy a timeshare or something.  If not I just plan on going back and back to the place that is home when we are there.  And hopefully there will be new memories made, with my family, with my cousins, and with all the people that will someday fill our lives.

I'm sure there are times I've not mentioned.  Add your favorite Cannon Beach memory if you want. :)

Blog Challenge Day 26

Your fears.


I wouldn't say that I have any serious fears of heights or spiders or anything.  I can go up in high buildings without being paralyzed by fear, I can kill a spider with a shoe after a small scream, it just all depends on the situation and how old I am.


When I was really young I was really scared of ghosts and things you couldn't see.  My mom used to watch Unsolved Mysteries and I spent most of the time with my hands over my eyes.  Even the theme song to this day gives me chills.  The biggest thing that scared me when I was little was the upstairs of our house.  Now our house isn't that old, it was built in 1976, and it was owned by only one other family than us that lived here for maybe 3 years.  When I was very small it wasn't as big as it is now and we slept in the upstairs bedrooms.  But when I was in second grade we added on and started sleeping in bedrooms downstairs because my Grammy's knee got bad and she couldn't go up the stairs so often.  After we moved out of upstairs it took on an attic-like quality.  There was lots of stuff up there, including a play room for me, but it just started to feel creepy.  I wouldn't go up there at night by myself and even when someone went with me I would literally run back down the stairs.  You could just feel something was watching you or about to grab you.  In high school my friend Nicole was skeptical about all this, so her and I went up there and just stood quiet for about a minute, and then we both ran down the stairs.  There was just a goose-bumpy feeling that came over you.  In high school I'd have these Christmas parties and the Ouija board never worked better than upstairs in the loft room.  After my Grammy passed away the upstairs didn't have such a creepy feeling anymore.  If there were ghosts living up there we'd like to think that Gram kicked them out.  Probably standing like she did at the cabin with her hands on her hips telling them that this was her property. :)


Now as an adult the thing that I am most afraid of is losing people and the thought of being alone.  It was a hard time when we lost my Gram and my immediate family seems to be getting smaller and smaller.  People move away and move on and those of us that don't move away from home get that left behind feeling.  I wouldn't say it's regret or envy of those who've moved on, just loneliness at all the people you used to see and things you used to do that have ended.  That's why we have to be brave and face the biggest fear in life, the fear of the unknown.  It's not something I deal with very well, but if I can swallow that fear and take the big steps then the rewards will be worth it.

Blog Challenge Day 25

A first.


I have been thinking about this for probably a week and a half.  A first.  I can't come up with anything, and I think that is my first.  I've been able to babble on and on about a lot of these, and this time...nothing.


The biggest problem is I can't remember a lot of my firsts.  My first birthday? Nope.  My first date? Never truly been on one, unless you count a gay man taking me to dinner and dancing being on a date.  My first house?  Ummm, still live in the house I grew up in and now partially own it.  My first car?  That I can do!


Of course my first car is preceded by the time I first drove a car, and that's a pretty good tale.


I didn't have my permit yet, but I was going to have to get it soon and had read all the literature to take the test.  Mom thought I should start off slow, so she drove her van to the end of the lane, got the paper and the mail, turned it around and had me drive back.  I put the van in drive and gradually took my foot off the break. It started to move forward and I had the wheel in a white-knuckled death grip.  The van continued to move down the driveway at an idling pace.  If it was a movie you would've seen a snail on the side of the drive moving more quickly than I was.  Mom said that I could put my foot on the accelerator and go a bit faster.  I told her that this was fast enough.  Bless her that she didn't laugh out loud.  We made it back to the garage and instead of turning it around and parking it facing out like Mom usually does, I just pulled into the spot.  Not in the garage of course.


So my first car.  Fast forward to the Christmas after I had turned 16.  I had only gotten my license in November because I was more than happy to be a passenger my whole life.  My mom had said that there was no way I was getting a car of my own.  I, after 16 years, knew how to propose things I wanted to her and that was with logic.  I was in cheerleading and there were some late night away games that she would be driving in at 11 PM to pick me up from.  Since she got up at 5 in the morning I thought that was a good selling point.  The other was that I didn't want a brand new car, just something with wheels.  She hadn't thought of that.  I had scoured the used car ads in the newspaper and found a decent car for $800.  (This was ridiculously cheap considering the computer I bought for college cost $2,000.)  She was game.  So my cousin David found a decent car in blue, cause I think that was my only request, and drove it down for Christmas.  


What a car.  It was a 1986 Dodge 600, making it only 4 years younger than me.  It had sanded off places in the paint, for what reason I have no idea.  The back windows would periodically inch their way down from going over the speed bumps in the school parking lot and I'd have to get in the back and roll them up.  It. Was. Awesome.


I learned a lot of lessons in that car that I would have never had in a new one.  Like the fact that the gauge on the dash with the thermometer on it does NOT tell you how warm it is inside the car.  It actually tells you the temperature of the radiator and when it reaches H that is not good.  Or the fact that when your car stalls out in the middle of an intersection it will not start when the gear shift is in drive.  But if there are enough cars around you honking that you put the car in park and throw your head against the steering wheel and have a short cry and try again, it will start.  There's also the fact if you open the back door after it has ice rained all night and don't shut it tightly enough it will fly open as you go around a corner and with adrenaline pumping through you as you open your driver's door and smack it closed with your hand you can effectively make it impossible to open again when you get to school.  My favorite lesson was the one where I found out why anti-lock breaks are awesome.  On another icy, snowy morning I was driving very slowly down the small hill before you get to the main road that takes you into town.  As I pushed the break down slowly the car started to slide to the side.  When I took my foot off the break the car righted itself again. I tried this a couple more times before I remembered Gram always talking about pumping the breaks.  So I pumped them as quickly as I could and I did manage to stop before I ended up in the middle of the road at the bottom.


Eventually I did get a new car.  It's been a very good car without any problems until recently. Granted it is 11 years old now.  But all the things that were broken or wrong with my old car that made it endearing are just irritating and frustrating now.  I hate buying cars so I would be happy if the next one lasted me as long as possible.  And I eventually I plan on having kids, so something safe is required. But not a van...I'm just not a van type of person. I'd like something reliable in the snow because we have plenty of that in the winter.  I first saw the car I really want on Top Gear.  They featured this car in the snow and it performed pretty well. The car that I am smitten over is the Volvo XC90.  I have it bad for that car.  I've tried to look at Toyota Highlanders and Chevy Traverses, but I keep going back to that Volvo.








And I'd be buying this all by myself, which would be my next first.

Blog Challenge Day 24

Okay guys, I know these are getting old by now, but we only have 5 more after this.  Never give up, never surrender!


Something that makes you cry.


Well, since I am a girl there are a lot of things that make me cry.  I cry at movies, I cry when I am really angry, I cry when I hear a sappy song, I cry at weddings, I cry at funerals...the list goes on.


There are some movies that I refuse to watch because they make me cry so much.  The number one offender would be "P.S. I Love You."  Mom and I watched that in my bedroom when my cousins Patrick and Jonathan were up at our house and they must have thought we were mental.  We practically went through a whole box of Kleenex.  I also haven't bought the last Pixar movie "Up" because I literally cried 3 times in the theater when I saw it.  It's kind of embarrassing to bawl in a movie theater watching a cartoon.  So yeah, movies make me cry.


When I am super angry and I have so much emotion bottled up inside me I'll cry.  There are times that I almost can't stop the crying when anger is flowing out of me in buckets.  This is usually hormonally induced, so don't worry I won't lash out irrationally unless you piss me off in a perfect alignment of hormones and aggravation.


There are some songs that'll make me cry.  The ones that take you back to certain moments that were sad in your life are hard to break.  There was a song that we sung at my Grammy's funeral that we sing from time to time in church and for quite a while I wasn't able to sing it.  I'd just stand there and let the tears flow down my cheeks.  It's gotten better with time, but there's always a point where you wonder if you are going to make it through this one.


Weddings and funerals are good candidates for crying.  I don't often cry too much at weddings, except a few happy tears when emotions are high.  Funerals on the other hand are terrible.  Mom and I say that we could be professional mourners.  There hasn't been a single funeral or memorial service that I have been to when I haven't cried.


With all this talk you'd think I'd be able to make myself cry at the drop of a hat, but it doesn't work that way.  I'm not one of those people that'd be a great actor because they can tear up on demand.  Truthfully most of the time I am a happy, positive person and I don't have a lot of reasons to break down regularly.  But to keep your sanity I think everybody needs a good cry every now and then.

Blog Challenge Day 23

Something that makes you feel better.


There are lots of things that make me feel better, it just depends on the situation for what will work.


If I'm sick, or have been sick, then my bed is what makes me feel better.  I have a water-bed that doesn't look like the old 80's style water-bed.  It has a head-board and foot-board and looks close to the same as a regular bed until you sit on it.  It is warm and soft and always make me feel better when I'm sick...or even really tired for that matter.  At the end of the day I'm always more than happy to crawl in it.


If I am really stressed out, like say after a hard day at work, then playing some relaxing music and knitting makes me feel better.  I have a couple of favorite CD mixes that I put in the stereo in the hall that fills up the house with great music.  A couple of those would be any Josh Groban CD/ Sarah Brightman CD/ Andrea Bocelli CD.  The current ones in there are Closer (Josh Groban), Symphony (Sarah Brightman) and Incanto (Andrea Bocelli).  If it is summer, or I really want to feel like I'm in Hawaii, then the CD's are usually a mix of Israel "IZ" Kamakawiwo'ole (usually Facing Future), Keali'i Reichel (always Ke'Alaokamaile), and Leokane Pryor (always Home Malanai).  It's a great mix to feel that island spirit and relaxation after a stressful day.


Speaking of Hawaii, that always makes me feel better.  I love going whenever I can, though it's been a while since Mom and I had enough money to go.  To make up for that I enjoy going to the Duke Kahanamoku Statue web-cam, which is very close to where Mom and I always go swimming in Waikiki.  I could sit there for hours watching the trees sway in the breeze.  The other new thing Kiersten recently showed me is the Google Maps street-view guy.  I just type in Waikiki and drop the little orange guy wherever I want to go.  You can make the street-view cover almost the whole screen and just use the arrows on the computer to go walking wherever you want.  I'm usually walking down Kalakaua Ave right along the beach.  I walk the route we take from our hotel to the big banyan tree in Kuhio Beach park where we swim.  It's about as good as I can get to going.