Cannon Beach — some saltwater

I was looking at my work schedule a few weeks ago and realized I had a random Wednesday off. This Wednesday, in particular, was a more proper start to my summer seeing as one of my rigorous summer classes was ending on that Tuesday. And me being me, I was not going to let this opportunity getaway, so I recruited Hunter and Sharon to take a day trip down to Cannon Beach in Oregon.

It sounds kind of dumb to drive three and a half hours, but you have to make the most of what you have. Plus, the beach is ALWAYS a good idea.

Well after staying up to 2 a.m. to finish up an assignment for this class, Sharon picked us up and we were on our way south, weaving our way through traffic. The plan was to drive through Astoria, Oregon, a place my dad always talks about, head down the Oregon Coast, spend the afternoon at the beach, venture into Portland, and journey back to Seattle.

Everything worked out so well! The weather was gorgeous; sunny and in the 60's to 70's. I couldn't have asked for a more perfect day. The drive itself was perfect too. We drove through lush Washington and Oregon and over the coolest bridges in the country. For whatever reason, the Pacific Northwest has great bridges.

We decided to make it into a true road trip, always stopping at viewpoints and keeping an eye out for fun roadside activities and attractions. We almost stopped for a helicopter tour, but didn't want to drop that much money. At this point, we had reached Astoria, one of the first settlements west of the Rocky Mountains, and toured the quaint town.

Atop the hill was the Astoria Column with 360 degrees views. We trekked way too many spiral staircases to count, but were treated to extraordinary views. Minus the annoying people ignorant of the fact other people were up there too, it was a great experience. You could see the oceans and the mountains.

There were children throwing off toy airplanes and watching them glide down to the ground.

Around midday, we finally arrived at our end destination, Cannon Beach, and drove around the beach town, which was oddly busy for random Wednesday. Anyway, there were the perfect beach town vibes with driftwood storefronts and saltwater air. After circling for a bit, we found a parking spot and hopped out for lunch. Lunch consisted of seaside sandwiches, but we were eager to get to the beach.

I don't know what it was, maybe I've been held up in Seattle too long, but it felt SO GOOD to go to the beach. The sand was warm between my toes, there was gentle sea breeze, the water was relatively calm, and it all was amazing. It was just what I needed.

We trekked across the beach, watching beachgoers fly kites and splash in the waves. This was my lowest point of the day, where I knee deep in water and just wet for the rest of the afternoon.

The three of us took a bunch a pictures on the beach and just enjoyed ourselves. We slowly made our way to Haystack Rock while admiring the ocean. We finished up our time in Cannon Beach with some ice cream and then headed east into Portland.

Our timing was a little off and we approached Portland right around 5:30 pm, the height of rush hour. Eh, we made the most of it with some road trip music and decided to go to the International Rose Test Garden (a place Soleil had wanted to take me when we went to Portland back in January!)

The gardens were so lovely and in complete bloom. We wandered the grounds for a while, noting all of the different kinds and weird names of each flower.

Stretching our legs was great, but we had to head back to Seattle to make it home in a timely manner. We ended up getting back around 11 pm, so it was a full day trip, but it was a FUN DAY. I had a great time and I'm so happy we were able to make it happen. Now I'm looking forward to more random road trips with these pals!