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. :)