September 21st: Cannon Beach

After having a good laugh over my new bike, Mark and I got cleaned up, packed up our stuff, and hopped back in the car. One of Sue's friends rents out a really nice condo in Seaside, OR, so we were all going to spend the night there. It only took about an hour to get there, and after we unpacked both the cars and got all settled we still had some time to explore.

And since Seaside is only about 15 minutes north of Cannon Beach, we knew where we wanted to go first!

Wayne drove us all to Ecola State Park. It had a great view down the beach; bands of rain were just starting to move in as we got there.

The big rock in the back is Haystack Rock; it's 235 feet tall! (Side note: yes, this is the rock from The Goonies. Anytime I told someone we went to Cannon Beach that was the first thing they said! Slacker that I am, I still haven't seen the movie...)

After a few minutes it started to rain where we were, too. Wayne, Mark, and I decided to take a quick walk around a side path before heading back to the car.

I definitely made sure to sidestep the banana slug. This thing was HUGE. It had to be at least 7 or 8 inches long.

It turned out that part of the path was closed, but we were still able to get a view of Tillamook Rock Lighthouse. It was clear out near the lighthouse, but absolutely pouring on us when I took this picture! (Trivia: the Wikipedia entry for this lighthouse is really interesting. I'd include some of the info but there's just too much! Check it out here.) By the time I took this picture we'd had enough of the rain and headed back to the car to drive a bit further down the coast.

By the time we made it down to the beach itself, all the rain had moved away and it was gorgeous!

Mark and I walked a bit down toward Haystack Rock. You don't realize until you start getting closer just how big it is.

I took this looking away from Haystack Rock. I liked how the beach was getting a little misty.   :)

Of course. It wouldn't be a trip without a picture of me jumping in front of something!

We made our way back up to the car to meet up with Granny, Sue, and Wayne. I caught Sue taking this picture of Granny in front of the tree, which I thought was hilarious considering the beautiful beach just off to the side. (Granny actually wanted a picture of herself in front of a tree, and since the original largest [honestly, I forget which type of tree!] tree had died recently, she still wanted a tree picture.)

We drove a bit further south, pulling off the road every once in a while to check out the view. It was purty.   :)

After driving around for a bit we made our way back to the condo. I did something I rarely do: RELAX. There were some books on a shelf so I geeked out over a volcano book for a little while. We all just hung out and read or played cards and drank wine while Sue made dinner. It was really nice to just sit still for a little while, especially after the past few days.

Of course, there were games after dinner (as well as cookies and ice cream and more wine). I had never played Balderdash before but it was pretty funny. Wayne looks so serious in this picture! After some games we watched a movie for a little while, then eventually went to bed.