The Beach

My family used to go to Lincoln City quite often growing up. But, over the last two decades those family trips got to be fewer and farther between. We used to frequent Mo's Seafood Restaurant for clam chowder or Pig n' Pancake for a breakfast fit for a pig. My brother and I would scour the beach for sea treasures loading every last stinking' one of them in the back of the car for mom & dad to sniff out later. We seemed to go in the late fall and it was always cold & windy. There's one photo that seems seared into my memory of my brother and I standing up on a rock formation by the ocean. We were both in what looked like moon boots & snow suits. Happy as little clams, or so it seemed, but I couldn't help but wonder why oh why would we go to the Oregon Coast in November?! Come to find out- that year we went for Thanksgiving and we were having one of the biggest snow storms of the year. In fact, the highway was closing down behind us leaving no option of turning back to the east side of the state until the roads cleared. My mom, being the good mom she is, loaded us up in our snow suits and packed for a blizzard- only to arrive and have it be a beautiful and balmy 70 degrees at the beach. So there we are, in our snow suits, leaving the future me looking back thinking we were crazy for having smiles on our faces. Not realizing that the reason we were smiling was because the sun was shining down on us.

This past year my Grandparents have helped us out more times than I can recall. Every time my Grandpa Paul would come help Jared with some project outside he'd ask how we could ever repay him and every time Grandpa would smile and say, "You could buy me dinner." And when Jared would ask where, he'd say, "Mo's". Joke's on us. =) Well, we started thinking... maybe we could get them a gift certificate to Mo's on the coast. But, then that's sort of an expensive gift. Here's dinner, but you have to buy the hotel and gas to get yourself there. So, next best thing, let's give them a trip to the coast. And what could be better than a trip to the beach, but a trip with your whole family!! After some finagling of schedule's and a plethora of beach houses online we finally found the perfect place and time. We had a blast! And we had the best weather 70s and sunny most of the time. We had a few clouds now and then and a little drizzle but we had fun. We took Hunter to the aquarium to see the seals, took the whole family down to the turnaround for some salt water taffy, carousel and bumper car rides. I think now we realize it's time to get back into a family tradition of going to the beach... this time in the middle of summer. No more gambling on the weather in November.