Tom and I have been together 9 years as of last weekend. Now that we have our wedding anniversary to look forward to, Tom says this one must now be called the “old anniversary”. I still think we should celebrate it, we’ll just do it with less fan fare than the wedding anniversary. So this year we dropped off Mississippi for a doggy slumber party at Roxy’s and headed to the coast for the night.
We thought it would feel like a relief to have a getaway without Mississippi but we found ourselves missing her. We talked about dogs pretty much non-stop and couldn’t keep ourselves away from this cute pooch that looked a lot like her. She’s getting closer and closer every day to being able to handle walking by people without wanting to jump on them. Soon she’ll be able to come with us to the beach. Still, it was pretty nice to do whatever we wanted and not have to worry about Mississippi getting in trouble or getting bored.
We drove to the coast by way of Astoria, our friend Bob said the traffic on 26 would be bad. I’m not sure I believe him but it was still nice to see a little more of the coast than we would have otherwise. We stopped by Seaside and went to the aquarium. I got to feed the seals. They each have a special trick they use to bride food from you. One of the seals splashes the hell out of everyone for his trick. I’d say it wasn’t working out for him very well but he’s a fatty so he must be doing ok. I came up with a theory that he is trying to stop people from feeding his buddies because they all need to go on a diet. So a he’s splashing people, he’s probably saying “Stop enabling my buddies, can’t you see they are overeating themselves into heart attacksville? Go feed your own fat faces and leave us in peace.” The aquarium is a little depressing. The Octopus and eels don’t have proper living quarters. There are no caves or crevaces in their tanks so they are forced to be out in the open all the time. One of the octopus was in an open touch, looked like it used to be used as a touch tank and there’s just a sign over it saying “Don’t touch the octopus”. That seemed a little nuts. If I was that octopus, I’d bite off every finger that came near me. You know people can’t resists temptation like that. The seals didn’t seem to have enough space either.
Seaside was incredibly foggy. Pea soup fog. From the boardwalk, the sand was only clue you had that there was any ocean out there. In both Seaside and Cannon Beach, the sand shelf stretches out so far, the ocean seems miles away. We walked out into the fog and stuck our feat in the cold water. I wanted to do the bumper cars before we left but they make you go in one direction only, so no head-on whiplash injuries, which takes all the fun and adventure out of it. Plus there were only three people in there. How exciting could that be? Me and Tom chasing each other around at 2MPH. We can run faster than those cars go. Better to just tackle him when he’s not expecting it.
Cannon Beach is a lovely town and our motel was great. We were across the street from the beach and had a nice view from our balcony. We stayed at the Waves Motel. Our room had a full kitchen, a real coffee maker, and a gas fireplace. We walked down the beach, looked for somewhere to have dinner, and got a cappuccino and a caramel apple from the Picnic Basket, and took a nap with the ocean breeze flowing through the windows and door. So nice to fall asleep to the sound of ocean again. Such a perfect weekend.
We were hoping for a romantic and delicious dinner but Cannon Beach is not exactly overflowing with nice restaurants. Most places have steak and burgers and fried fish. We settled on Bistro. It was cute and the food was ok but it was nothing to write home about. We did have an excellent bottle of pinot noir from Four Graces in Dundee Oregon. Next time we’ll just go there more prepared for a beer and burger kind of weekend.
After Dinner we had too many beers at Bill’s Tavern and we closed the place. Not a hard thing to do in Cannon Beach as I think everything closes by 10pm. We talked about the future and laughed and drank beer.
The next day we had breakfast at the Pig’n Pancake in Cannon Beach, and took a nap on the beach where Tom turned his legs nice and lobster red. Then we drove down the coast a bit before heading back to Portland. The Oregon coast is absolutely spectacular. Between the lush forests and golden beaches there are few places on earth as lovely. We still definitely feel like tourists, but we’re excited to think this is our home now.
We’ve been here just under three months, and have had Mississippi for just under two months. We love Oregon and are so excited about our future here. So here’s to nine more years together in Oregon. I sure am a lucky duck. I have the world’s best husband, the soon-to-be world’s best dog, and I’m living in one of the nicest places on earth.