Events: We Took a Mini-Vacation to Cannon Beach

Since we moved to Seattle, Craig has been working at a bank and I've been working at a secondhand clothing store. While my hours are pretty sporadic and flexible, Craig's are consistent and non-negotiable. Banks have to be open, and bank employees need to be there when they are. "You want some time off? Great! But it will have to be when none of your co-workers are taking their well-deserved vacations."

Ergo, our vacation time for the Christmas season actually took place from December 5th-8th. It was sort of an early anniversary gift to ourselves (our three-year anniversary is on December 27th). We had Brian and Natalie (brother- and sister-in-law) babysit the kitty while we headed to Cannon Beach, Oregon.

Cannon Beach is this amazing coastal town in northern Oregon, just off the Pacific Coast Highway and about an hour and a half away from Portland. I took a day trip there in 2007 while I was attending Portland State University, and with some killer off-season deals for lodging, we decided it might be a nice place to relax.

Oh, it was.

That enormous rock you see in almost every picture is Haystack Rock. You may recognize it from The Goonies. It's tremendous.

We stayed at Blue Gull Inn, which is managed by a company that has quite a few properties on the coast. They were fantastic, and the prices in the off-season are seriously cheeeeeap. We'll definitely be back.

My favorite memory from the trip took place on our last morning. We woke up as early as we could make ourselves, grabbed some beach chairs and books, and headed down to the water. Craig had this thing the whole time we were there about "tempting the ocean," getting as close as possible to the waterline without actually getting wet. We placed our chairs strategically so that the higher tides would go right past us, forcing us to lift up our feet while the legs of our chairs sunk lower and lower into the watery sand. We stayed there for an hour or so, reading and laughing and sinking and taking pictures. Whenever we were on the beach, at any point during our trip, I got a sense of earthly majesty. It was pretty overwhelming, but in a good way, in a wonderful way.