Cannon Beach (again)

How many times have I been to Cannon Beach? Not sure off the top of my head, but pretty much every time I go, I feel like I take the same pictures. I just have to! Of course each time will be a little bit different, too. We were back at Cannon Beach a couple weekends ago for a women's retreat with our church. The weather on Friday, the day we got there was just gorgeous--sunny and warm. The next day it poured. But I got in some nice beach pictures on Friday evening!

I wondered if I should crop out the dog in this first picture, but then, I guess dogs on the beach are a pretty quintessential part of Cannon Beach, too. :-)

This picture is actually a new view for me. Christina and I left the beach in order to get back to the conference center faster, and we ended up on this back road in between the houses and the beach. It's not nearly as wild a spot as it looks in this picture, but I loved the look of the sand dunes in front of Haystack Rock.

Labor Day at Cannon Beach

On Labor Day, Christina and I headed down to Cannon Beach to hang out for the day. We had a great time! It was good to get away for a while, even if it was just part of the day. We ate lunch on the beach, walked on the beach, looked at various little shops, walked the beach some more, and had dinner before leaving town. It was raining as we drove over the Coast Range on our way, but the weather actually proved to be pretty good. It was hazy at times, but by the end the clouds had lifted off and it was quite sunny!

I've taken pictures at Cannon Beach numerous times and I wanted to travel light this time, so I brought one lens, my little 50 mm. Throughout the rest of this post I'm afraid you will see lots of Haystack Rock. There's something about it--it's just so hard not to include it in beach shots. I think it's partly because it provides a frame of reference. I was fascinated by how the pictures turned out differently, depending on the lighting and the tide at the particular time I took the picture. 

Horses! This looked like so much fun.

This looked like fun, too!

 One girl (that's Christina) against a big ocean.

Windswept.

Sandy beach feet.

When we got to the base of Haystack Rock, the tide was out, so the base was exposed. There were all these signs around the perimeter warning visitors not to trespass. We could still get close enough to see some tide pool creatures, though.

Sea anemone

 Star fish

Trip to the Beach

Saturday we took a quick day trip to the beach. It was really fun! The ocean, the beach, the trees (not to mention a chance to take pictures)... it all makes me happy!

We had a delicious lunch at Mo's in Cannon Beach. When we came out, Dad noticed all these seagulls perched on the roof of a neighboring hotel. 

Why are they all facing the same direction? Doesn't it just make you wonder?

After that, we headed up to Ecola State Park, just to the north of Cannon Beach. It was super windy at the Ecola Viewpoint. We were glad we brought windbreakers and gloves. The wind was strong enough to kind of push us down the trail.

Looking south to Cannon Beach and Haystack Rock.

Early spring at the Coast!

The view from Indian Beach.

We decided to start down the beginning section of a short hiking trail, the Clatsop Loop, but ended up doing the whole thing. It wasn't really that long, but it was more than we had been planning on. It turned out to be really muddy on the return trail. There were some good views, though! There was also a really neat hikers' camp at the summit of the trail. It had several rustic cabins with bunks inside. 

Tillamook Head Lighthouse. 

Looking South to Indian Beach.

I'm not sure the name of this rock formation, but I thought it was pretty cool that there was an arch in it.

Friday on the Coast

In the 2 1/2 weeks that I've been home we've had visits from both sides of the family.  When your grandma lives in the Midwest and all of your aunts and uncles live on the East Coast, that's a really big deal.  First my Grandma (Dad's side) came to visit.  This was her third year coming to visit us in June and we enjoyed having her here with us for a few days.  She was able to see Christina play at her flute recital, which was really nice. 

After Grandma left, my Uncle Dan's family (Mom's side) arrived to spend a few days with us.  This was the first time our cousins had been out  to the West Coast, so they wanted to see some of the sights.  On Friday we took them to the Coast.  Our first stop was Cannon Beach.  It was a cool and cloudy morning on the Coast, but I think it's always pretty there, even when the weather isn't the best.  We walked down the beach to Haystack Rock, talking and playing Frisbee as we went.     

I will probably be taking pictures of Haystack Rock for the rest of my life.  I don't think it would matter if I finally got one amazing shot of it that outdid every other one I had ever taken of it--I would still have to take a picture of it whenever I saw it again.

 Our family--photo credit to Uncle Dan.

Left to right--Janelle, Jeannine, Joanna, Julia, Aunt Rita, Uncle Dan, Jason, and Jessica.

We snagged someone passing by on the beach to take a group picture of all twelve of us.

Jason photographs the big rock.

I love the beach cottages on the Coast.  This one looks so picturesque.

After spending some time at Cannon Beach we drove south to the Tillamook Factory, which Uncle Dan particularly requested to visit.  It was a good way to wrap up the day.  They were having an advertising campaign outside the factory, with a Tillamook employee passing out little metal pins next to this cute little van.