Garnerbiker's Journey on planet Earth

This blog started as a trip journal for the summer of 2011 Europe trip of 69 days. My wife Katherine, and I decided to use the entire summer break that teachers get, and go crazy. Everything was new to us. I was surprised at the blog's following. It has now become a tradition to travel on our breaks and blog about it. I write mostly as a journal for myself and students, but also give travel ideas to others that might want to travel like us, or go to the places we have seen. Take a look at what's on here. The experiences that I have had through travel are continuously shaping my life. I recommend you get out there and do it!

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Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Cannon Beach, OR

06 Jul 2013               Cannon Beach, OR

            It is GREAT to see old friends.  We strolled into Cannon Beach, OR by 10am on the 4th of July.  Our mission was to meet up with Eric and family at the Morris’ Fireside Restaurant in the middle of town.  Summer’s  parents (Eric’s wife) have owned this restaurant since the 1976, and have been running it strong.  All 6 of us sat around the table and had breakfast talking about the past few years.  We were kindly put up at their awesome house filled with art and antiques, a few short blocks away.


           
            A big “must do” in Cannon Beach is to see the tide pools surrounding Haystack Rock.  This is a life area that is hidden until the tide goes out and exposes the sea creatures that were just recently below the water.  You are bound to see many orange and purple starfish and green and purple sea anemones.  You have to know the tide tables to get out there at the right time to see everything in full glory.  The evening low tide was not very strong, but the morning one was much stronger, and we decided to get up at 5:30 to catch it.  The last full day on the beach, I went out to see the pools with Summer and Eric.  Let me say this, it was well worth the early AM wake up to see the pools.  There were no crowds and the bird watchers were there set up with spotting scopes.  We peered out onto baby seagulls and a puffin nest.  I had never seen anything like that before. This was my first sighting of a puffin and it was extraordinary!  What a beautiful bird.  I will have to pass on the Viking delicacy of eating puffin heart if the opportunity arises in the future.  Tide pools.  See them!




           
The shenanigans at the Morris household were insane.  We had 2 year old Quin, 4 year old Teagan, 9 year old Keelie, and 12 year old Andrew for extreme entertainment.   The children all played together well and were very polite.  Good work E Man and Summer!  


           
            The wild blackberries are not quite ripe, but there are some salmon berries available, if you are willing to search them out.  We got lucky a few times, but most of the time we came up empty handed. When you find them, they are well worth the search.  I kept telling Eric that the salmon berries make me a faster runner, and his lack of finding salmon berries made him slow. No matter what, he is still slow.

            On our last night in Cannon Beach, it was Summer’s mom’s birthday.  We bought cupcakes and had a plan to surprise her by carrying them around the house to the side deck with a sparkler instead of candles.   Andrew was carrying them with two hands carefully, but the sparkler started shooting out white balls of fire.  One hit his arm and he dropped the entire plate!  Upon farther inspection, we saw that the sparkler did burn his arm, and did it pretty bad.  Katherine was running the camera and caught the whole flop.  We threw them all back on the plate and still went out singing for Summer’s mom.  It was still a success, but Andrew’s arm took one for the team.




            Cannon Beach was a great stop along the coast or Oregon.  It was even better to spend it there with friends that we had not seen in a while.  The whole “Goonies” vibe was running the whole time on this strange section of the coast.  I hope to come back sometime, but probably will not have the nice sunny weather that we were lucky to have. 

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