Seaside OR, Jeff's Graduation Trip

Since we give our kids big vacations for their HS graduations, we can't afford to do fancy trips for College as well. But, in my books, College graduation is a much bigger deal than HS, so we had to do something for Jeff. We decided to get a house in Seaside, OR for a week and hang out. It was great! We super missed the Hamblin's not being able to be there as originally planned, and the weather wasn't the best, but we still had fun just being together.

We got a really cute house built in the early 1900's. It definitely had character. Jess was funny though, because the house kind of creeped her out. She said it was the perfect setting for a haunted house movie. Silly girl!

Shower on the left, bathroom on the right.

Very tiny kitchen, but we made some great meals in it

Our bedroom and small bathroom

This was one of the reasons the house freaked Jess out. There are so many little cubby holes everywhere, and closet doors that just lead to nothing, like this door on the left. It just is a really small "storage" space. I wouldn't know what else to call it. It was cool though that all of the dressers were built into the walls.

the boys room

Jess's room.

She got a lot of beds all to herself, but ironically she slept downstairs on the couch after the first two nights. She has such a huge imagination! If you look at the next picture, this is why.

Ever seen "The Orphanage"? There is a scene in that movie where the main character finds some dolls in a bench storage under a window in a bedroom. Of course the dolls correlated with the ghosts in the movie. Well, Jess had one of those bench storage units, under the window of her room, right next to her bed. She also had about 5 of those closet doors leading to nothing in her room. I think she reads too many books about ghosts, witches and vampires.

This house also had an amazing back yard. We didn't spend too much time in it though, because when we were outside we were at the beach. It would have been perfect though, if you had a bunch of kids with you. The even had a dog kennel back there.

The best part, it was only two blocks from the beach, two blocks from the main drag in Seaside and about 1/2 mile to Safeway. We walked everywhere.

Saturday, The First Day

The first day at Seaside, we didn't get their until afternoon, so we just hung out and got familiar with the house. The boys went straight to hooking up the video games, and Jess and I played a couple of card games at the table.

Someone had left this long board at the house at some point, so the boys also had fun riding this up and down the street.

Of course we spent the evening down at the beach.

It's the most perfect place to have a swing! I love to swing, and it is amazing to do so while looking at the ocean. Jess and I had a bunch of fun.

We got super lucky this first night. As we were walking around we found an abandon fire. We couldn't let that go to waste! So we spent the rest of the night sitting around it, until it burned out. A great way to spend the first night of vacation.

Sunday

Damon had never been to Canon Beach before, so we had to take him there and show him the famous "Goonies" Rock. The tide was out while we were there too, making it a perfect time to look in the tide pools.

This sea lion was up on the rocks by Haystack rock. We talked to the biologists, who always "man" this area, and they said he had been there for about a week. They were monitoring him, but not intervening. You can just see his nose and flipper sticking up in the middle of the picture.

Aaron, Jess and I spent a big chunk of the day flying kites. We didn't get fancy trick kites, just cheap Toys"R"Us Kites, so we had to find ways to make them fun. Jess was actually pretty good at getting hers to do flips just by playing with the slack in the string. Her and I also were having a contest to see who could get their kite to touch ground and then back into the air the fastest. It was actually really fun! (I won most of the time :o)

What a freakin' poser!

Monday

Not a super sunny day on this day when we woke up, so we figured it was a good day to take a little drive to Tillamook and then down to Cape Kawanda. Of course, you can't go to Tillamook without going to the Cheese Factory to get cheese samples and then Ice Cream! Yum!

We grabbed some Subway after our Ice Cream treat and headed to the Cape to eat our lunch on the beach. By the time we got there, it was super sunny. We had finally driven out of the clouds. Good choice.

One of the funnest things to do at Cape Kawanda is play in the huge sand dune that is there. It's definitely a workout getting to the top! But, it is such an amazing view once you get up there, and it's super fun running back down.

This shows how steep this dune really is.
That's Jess and I just to the left, halfway up.

one of the views from the top

We kept hearing this sea lion, but couldn't figure out where he was. Finally Aaron looked out on the buoy, and there he was. You can kind of make him out in this pictures.

A beautiful place to play football!

Jeff found a little friend on the beach

Tuesday

A fairly decent day took us to our favorite beach, Hug Point. We love this beach. It's beautiful, almost always the sunniest spot, and the way it curves up into the rocks you can totally get out of the wind.

This was also the only day we were brave enough to actually get into the water. It is always so fun to play in the ocean waves! Lots of exercise too, always a bonus.

We made our own fire this night. One of the best things to do at the ocean in the evening is sit around a fire, enjoying the sound of the ocean and just talking. We talked for a long time and played the memory game together. Good times.

Wednesday

The kids decided today that they didn't want to go anywhere. Just hang out at the house, but dang it, I was at the beach, so the beach I went. I think Aaron and I walked up and down that beach 100 times, but we got a lot of exercise and just enjoyed being together. Good enough for me!

A Street sign in town covered with ABC gum. Gross!

We did go out to eat once on this trip. Since we spent the day not going anywhere, we thought it would be the perfect day to do it. Gotta go to Pig-n-Pancake at least once while you are in Oregon.

Thursday

We had a small sunny patch today, so back to Hug Point we went while it was out. Hug Point is our most favorite beach, and we really could spend all our time here if weather would permit.

(Jess looking like her father :o)

Damon wanted to find a necklace for his girlfriend, Holly, before we went home. So, on the way back from Hug Point, we spend some time in Cannon Beach. We got some yummy pizza for lunch, Jess got some ice cream, and Damon made a necklace. A good day!