Weekend Getaway to Cannon Beach, OR

I’ve officially celebrated my last birthday in my twenties! I would say I don’t know where the time has gone, but I do. My twenties have been very busy, full of fun and friends, a lot of learning, and building our little family. Sometimes I forget that I’m not 24 anymore, but I’ve loved every minute of this decade. Even the not-so-good parts of it have had positive outcomes, so I can’t complain. For my birthday, my husband surprised me with a weekend getaway to Cannon Beach, OR. It’s about a 4 hour drive from Seattle, but the beach was absolutely beautiful, and the town was adorable. We went to Ruby Beach a few weeks ago (you can read about that trip here), and that was also beautiful, but this beach was definitely better.

Our first day there was pretty windy and cold, which was a big change in weather from the past few weeks. But we bundled up and walked through the cute little town to all the shops and restaurants. I knew Cannon Beach as the place where the rock from The Goonies is, but I didn’t realize it’s a really cute little beach town. We had dinner at Pelican Brewing Co., where I had the Tri-Tip Sandwich, which was delish, and a glass of wine. I know, wine at a brewery…what?? But, I don’t like beer and I do love wine. So, that’s that. The weather made for a bad sunset that night, but it cleared up the next day for a gorgeous sunset the following night.

When it’s low tide, you can walk up closer to Haystack Rock, and there’s little tide pools everywhere with sea life, like starfish and anemones. There’s a lot of signage up reminding people to stay on the sand and not walk through the tide pools, but still there were plenty of kids, and adults, walking right through to get where they wanted to go. *eye roll*

Tillamook Creamery

The next day, we drove about 40-ish minutes away, down the beautiful Highway 101 to Tillamook, OR. You may recognize this name if you’re a fan of the Tillamook cheese and dairy products. They make the best shredded cheese, in my opinion, which I buy the giant double bags of every time I go to Costco because we use it all the time. I didn’t realize that it was made up here in the Pacific Northwest until recently. They’re factory is in Tillamook, OR (obviously) and it’s open daily all year (except Thanksgiving and Christmas). It’s free to visit, and you can watch from above as the machines and workers create and package the yummy cheese. You also get to try samples at the end, my favorite is the hard cheddar.

There’s also a large gift shop and dining hall on the main floor. They have a variety of food options, most with cheese, of course. And an ice cream section to get some of their ice cream. The ice cream tasted better there than it does from the carton we buy at the store, I assume it’s fresher. Lol. We tried the cheese fries and mac n cheese, and of course K got an ice cream cone. I wasn’t impressed with the cheese fries, the cheese sauce wasn’t very flavorful. But the mac n cheese was good, and the pizza looked (and smelled) really good. It got pretty busy by the end of our visit, so I would recommend going early if you’re ever planning a visit on the weekend.

Hallmark Resort & Spa

We spent the weekend staying at the Hallmark Resort & Spa, located on the beach right in front of Haystack Rock. It was a nice little hotel, with amazing views. It is pet-friendly (a lot of guests brought their dogs) and kid-friendly! Both are positives in my book. At check-in, they gave us a little bucket and shovel for the beach, and a beach ball. K loved making sand castles and brought the bucket and shovel every time we went down to the beach. They’re in the middle of some room updates before summer rolls around, and I’d definitely like to go back again once they’re done and check out the spa next time too. They have a spa on the property that we didn’t get to check out this trip, and two indoor pools and a sauna, which looked pretty busy.

I got my workout in this weekend with all the stairs and hills on the property. I’m not sure if there’s another way to get down to the beach, but there were a lot of stairs to climb down to get there. Definitely worth it, but I was out of breath each time from carrying the kids the whole way up and down. (I also forgot my baby carrier, that I use ALL the time, so that made it a little more difficult to get around). And there is a steep hill to get down to the main street where all the shops and restaurants are. For all the non-stroller-weilding parents, there’s some easy platform steps down to the street. But if you’re pushing a stroller (or a double, like ours) you’ll definitely get a workout in. Lol.

We all had a great time in Cannon Beach, and can’t wait to go back. On our way back home, we stopped in Astoria to see the house from the Goonies, but it had a big no trespassing sign and camera at the end of the private driveway up the hill it’s on. It was still cool to see from afar though.

xx,

Kirsten