We’ve been going to the Oregon Coast on President’s Day Weekend for several years, specifically to Manzanita and the area around it. Emee’s son’s birthday is around this holiday weekend, so he brings a gaggle of friends to “the beach house” and we act as chaperones. This annual tradition is why I’ve been to this part of the coast a few times around this time of year, whether 2019, 2020, not 2021 due to pandemic, 2022, and last year.
There were a few changes this year, all of them good: Her son and friends would be driving themselves, so Emee and I could travel solo. We left mid-day Friday and got to the house before the kids did. And even though technically Monday is a holiday, the kids had to be in school that day due to the extreme number of days already lost this year due to the teacher’s strike and the week-long ice storm. So they left Sunday afternoon but Emee and I had the place to ourselves for a full day. This is the first time we had the beach house to ourselves!
As I’ve mentioned ad nauseum here, February’s weather on the coast is a bit of a crapshoot. We hope for good and plan for bad. Thankfully the weather wasn’t too bad this time. It rained a bit on Saturday and early Sunday, then cleared up for a good 24 hours until later on Monday. We got sunny skies and a sunset over the Pacific, watched from inside the beach house. How perfect!
Here’s a blow by blow of what we did:
- Saturday 17 February: We mostly hung out in the house during the day, taking a quick walk on the beach during a rainless window (it was cold and windy, though). We then went into the town of Manzanita for dinner and a nightcap. Things in this eepy seaside village close early during the off-season, so we were back at the house by 8:30.
- Sunday 18 February: We headed up to Cannon Beach, about 15 miles to the north. Cannon Beach is the stereotypical “nice” beach town of the North Coast,1 a place that Portlanders gravitate towards.2 We don’t usually go here as it’s pretty busy in the summer, but it wasn’t too bad today (though still a bit busy). We took a nice walk on Tolovana Beach (right as the sun came out!) and had a good lunch at Public Coast Brewing. We also stopped at Hug Point on the way back to check out its waterfall.
- Monday 19 February: This was the day we headed home. I like to head to Manzanita via US 26/101 as it’s more direct, but take my time heading back, first traveling south on US 101 to Tillamook, then OR 6 east to the metro area. We paused in Rockaway Beach at the Pronto Pup corndog stand (which has vegetarian options, yay! And the dogs are large.) We then did a quick hike just south of the stand to see the Big Cedar Tree, a little preserve I did not know about. And then we stopped at Garibaldi to take photos of the old trains at the Oregon Coast Scenic Railroad depot.
It was a fun weekend that went by quick, despite the extra time we took out there. And because it’s a car trip, I brought out a bit too much stuff, like a laptop that I didn’t crack open once. I did read/finish three of the four books I took with me. And I managed to use all four cameras I brought, including my Ricohflex Dia TLR, a camera I hadn’t shot since summer.
I love going to the coast and hope to get back soon!
- The “tacky” beach town of the North Coast is Seaside. ↩︎
- It doesn’t hurt that it’s one of the closest. I feel that every major Willamette Valley city has their “beach town”, which is whatever is the closest: Salem has Lincoln City (ugh!), Albany/Corvallis has Newport (yay!), and Eugene has Florence (yeh). ↩︎
Urban Adventure League 