The Coast: Manzanita Beach, Cannon Beach, and Astoria

The Coast is less than an hour and a half from where we live and beautiful enough to make anyone want to move there forever. Our weekend did not begin very well. We had planned for a fun three-day weekend in Seattle but, of course, work ended up taking precedence over our plans. Neither Charlie nor I were thrilled at this turn of events, but sometimes work takes priority over fun. While the first two days of our weekend resulted in the need to be cooped up at home (one of us working and the other watching the rain), we wanted to make the most of Monday. And we did! The Coast is relatively close and , while we've been there before, this was our first visit to the renowned Cannon Beach! Before we even had the chance to see Haystack Rock, we came across Pelican Brewery and stopped in for an afternoon pint. You really can't start a trip at the beach much better than that. I also realized how popular doggy raincoats seem to be, given that we saw more than one well-dressed puppy patter by during the time it took us to just have one drink.... Moving on, we started the afternoon by taking the requisite photo in front of Haystack Rock. The weather was somewhat dreary, but made for a relaxing driving day.

Continuing along the coast, we stopped to get a few good views of Charlie---I mean, the Coast.

Being the good boyfriend he is, Charlie indulged me by letting us drive around the quaint ocean-side neighborhoods. I am just slowly realizing how, after spending more time together, we're becoming very "couple-y." And, I know that would be expected of us at this point but, by "couple-y", I mean that our fun weekends involve furniture shopping and neighborhood cruising. And I mean that seriously. While boys don't seem to admit to liking either of these activities, I think they secretly do. Shhh don't tell Charlie that I've figured out how much he secretly enjoys furniture shopping or he might pretend he doesn't and we wouldn't want that to happen.... But so I digress. Look at this view:

Let's just all move to the Coast, OK? After visiting Cannon Beach and driving around the little town of Manzanita, we headed North to Astoria for some seafood. I found a great little fish market with excellent reviews on Yelp (NW Wild Products) and we made it our mission to fill up on some hearty seafood chowder before heading home. Note to self: Next time, spend a night at the Cannery Pier Hotel, the red building in the distance.

The entrance of NW Wild Products was unassuming...

..and the interior was not particularly fancy, as it is part restaurant, part store, BUT the food was great! The "restaurant" portion consisted of one long, communal table. As soon as we sat down, a fellow diner gave a glowing review of the freshly cooked crab. She lauded the salad and chowder that came with the crab meal and I was sold! I am getting hungry just thinking about this dinner. With a cold root beer and the sound of rain hitting the deck outside, we couldn't been cozier. Look how happy this boy is (I mean Charlie, not the crab. Unfortunately, the crab was probably not too happy about this):

Mmmm- what a tasty way to wrap up the day. With a beautiful drive along the coast and a delicious seafood meal, we couldn't have had a better spontaneous day trip. Oh, Oregon Coast, we will see you again soon!!