Oregon Wrap-Up

I am still feeling almost hung-over from last week, but have come home to full-blown SUMMER, so yay!

I was lucky enough to get out to Cannon Beach while in Oregon - I skipped the book signing event, which I knew would be busy and I am not one for crowds, and I'm usually too tongue-tied when I meet people I admire to do anything other than blush and babble - not pretty - so instead I headed to the coast, about 1.5 hours from Portland.

There were mountains, spectacularly tall pine trees, there was drizzle and sun and cloud, and then there was the best beach I have ever seen... ever

I fell very seriously in love with the gigantic rock formations in the water, the largest of which was covered with screeching seagulls. I love the size of this beach - it goes on for miles, and is the widest I've ever seen - vast expanses of flat, solid, excellent walking sand. Even in crappy weather, it was amazing.

The trees in front of the houses have obviously seen a lot of weather - they actually grow like this!

Fabulous place - there were surfers, and jellyfish, and mountains topped with clouds, and even a motorized para-sail thingy - there were dogs all over the place just having a ball, and no signs anywhere suggesting they shouldn't be there (here in Burlington, our little beach is laden with anti-dog signs, which people largely ignore).

So I dipped my feet in - it was FREEZING!!! - which I think brings my ocean total to 4? Atlantic (Hilton Head), Pacific (here), Caribbean (Mexico) and Mediterranean (Greece) - I know, I know, only 2 are actually oceans... indulge me...

The trip home on Sunday took a little longer than expected - found out in Vancouver that the flight to Toronto had been delayed by 2 hours, which was annoying but out of my control, so I plugged in my ipod, took out my knitting and passed the time quite contentedly. I saw some more mountains at the airport, and realized when I got on the plane that I'd made quite a bit of progress on my Vesper sock, which had been my mindless knitting since leaving for Portland.

I believe we landed around 3:30AM, and learned from the shuttle driver on the way to my van that the power was out all over because of a humungous lightning storm - which explained the flight delay - so trying to make my way out of the parking lot with no lights, and paying a girl who was working cash with a flashlight made it all even more surreal than it normally would have been at 4:15AM.

All well worth the experience, though, I'd do it again in a shot...

Can you say Sock Summit the Second???