It's About the (RV) Journey....: Cannon Beach..........

Moving northward up the scenic coast of Oregon, our new home for the next couple of weeks is in Cannon Beach. Its a lovely beach-side community, with the iconic Haystack Rock at the beach and lots of interesting shops just a block or two up from the ocean. The campground is in a park-like setting and is located just a few blocks from the ocean, about a 15-20 minute walk for us. Sweet!

We had company!!! Tom's brother Klaus, his wife Judy, and their friends Randy and Linda, were vacationing in the area and made the time to come visit us one night. They had never seen our new "home", so we gave them the tour which took about 30 seconds. Haha. We had planned on a barbecue and a campfire, but of course it was rainy and a little cool. Even though there were 6 of us, we managed to eat inside pretty comfortably. At least we were warm and dry! Anyway, we had a lot of fun. We may go to potlucks and happy hours, but we don't get many visitors. We were very happy that they took the time out from their vacation to come see us.

Klaus and Randy ready for dessert!!

Linda and Judy ready to enjoy the strawberry shortcake

Tom digging out the ice cream :)

so nice to have company!

The beach was a big draw for us....we just love being at the ocean.....Atlantic or Pacific! We walked down to see Haystack Rock, and explore the "marine garden", but it was high tide. Poor planning on our part, but we will be heading to the beach frequently during the next couple of weeks here. My personal goal - to see a puffin! They nest on Haystack from May until August (?), and we thought we'd be able to catch a glimpse of puffins in nature. Well, there were a ton of seabirds, and we looked and looked using our binoculars, but didn't see any puffins. The seabirds are all nesting, and there are a ton of them on the rocks. When a bird of prey flies by, all the birds on the rock go crazy! There's a lot of squawking and lots of activity with the birds flying frantically around. Its kind of sad sometimes watching nature...everyone's gotta eat!

sea captains

there it is...the infamous Haystack Rock

ohhh...its hide tide....no tidepooling now

tons and tons of nesting birds

agitated by a bird of prey flying over the rock

see any puffins Tom??

birds everywhere-I think I even see a perched Pelican!

Farther down the beach and about a mile out to sea is "Terrible Tilly", or better known as the Tillamook Rock Light House. It is no longer an active lighthouse. Its nicknamed "Terrible Tilly" because of the treacherous commute for the lighthouse keepers and the boats that would bring supplies to the lighthouse. The weather conditions were brutal and dangerous out there, and the keepers were there for 6 months at a time. Its history is interesting. For more information, click here.

Terrible Tilly (Tillamook Lighthouse)

The tide was coming in so we enjoyed watching the waves crashing among the rocks for a bit. Of course, we kept our eyes peeled for puffins, and other sea birds as well. Walking the beach is always interesting, it seems!

crash....

is that a cave on the bottom left there?

woah...the water just rushes out of there!

ready for a nice long walk?

the beach is just beautiful

so many rocks out there!

watching the crashing waves

mesmerizing

isn't this just great Susie?

After a nice long walk on the beach, we again stopped at Haystack Rock to see what we could see and guess what? We saw some really interesting nesting birds and ducks. I know....but we just love this stuff!!

just spotted the ducks towards the bottom there

close up .... aren't they pretty?

lots and lots of nesting birds

After a couple of hours, it was time to check out some of the shops in town. Of course, there was one in particular that I was very interested in! Yes...I had another big purchase! I could not resist Blue Moon's Socks That Rock in colorway Haystack Rock (info for my knitting friends), and of course, there is our grandson soon to be born that will need to stay warm. Yikes...the poor kid is going to have a sweater for every day of the week. Haha. We stopped in a few more shops before heading back home.

oh boy...hope I maintain control over myself!

"Haystack Rock" colorway (Donna, Helen and Peggy-no long line here for "Socks that Rock" like we see in Rhinebeck!!!)

Tom's specialty....burgers!

we are having a grandbaby soon.....

Our backyard is pretty nice when the weather is not too wet! I think we'll be spending a lot of time out there in the days to come. The campfire takes the chill off during the cool nights! Nice! Simple pleasures!!