Man, I’ve been to Cannon Beach a bunch in the last few years. I’m not complaining. I love this place. Our folks were spending a few weeks in a cabin in September when my mom called, wondering when my sister Reagan and I were coming down to visit. This was NOT a thing we’d planned. Both of us are super busy, and we both had spent time independently on Oregon Coast in August. But mom’s heart was in full-on-nostalgia mode (as we’d spend 2 weeks every August at the ocean when we were growing up), so we arranged our schedules with the intention of driving down Fri after work and heading home Sun. Short but sweet. Also, our aunts from California had flown up to stay with the folks for the week, so we’d get to see them Fri night, too (even if that meant we’d have to use the bunkbeds Fri night).
But then, we both got hit with truly awful colds. And didn’t want to infect our parents or aunts. So plans were on hold. My virus cycle started earlier, so I was feeling better, but Reagan was still pretty sick on Weds (although on the mend), so we all decided we probably wouldn’t go. But we’d play it by ear and possibly drive down Sat morning for the quick 24 hr turn around. Then I get a call from dad Fri night, “What time are you girls driving down tomorrow?” “We’re not, because of germs.” “I’m not scared. I’ve had my pneumonia shot. Come on down.” (Putting aside the fact that that’s NOT how the pneumonia vaccine works, I agreed). And Reagan even said she’d be willing to get up stupid-early so we could squeeze in more ocean hours. But that seemed a terrible idea, especially for someone getting over sickness, so we compromised and left around 8:30am (which is still way early for Reagan’s tastes, but not the insane 6am she originally offered). We missed seeing our aunts, which was a bummer, but would’ve been bad to expose them to our germs, too.
It was a lovely drive, for which I was super appreciative (After the 9 hr nightmare of traffic accidents from my August dog trip). We sang along to musical soundtracks, and Reagan’s custom roadtrip playlists. Arrived in town just in time for lunch at the Driftwood Inn (which had seasonal pumpkin decorations. Shasta dog was unimpressed, but the humans thought it was a fun autumnal touch). 
Then back to the cabin, which had an amazing view. We read our books, played with the dogs, and had some fierce Canasta battles! Dad watched TV. Basically all the things we normally do on family trips. I was dominating the first game of Canasta, which led Reagan to abuse her powers as scorekeeper and draw censorious cartoons in the margins.
But check out this view!!!!!!!!!!
We started discussing where to go for dinner (a place that is tasty and dog friendly, although it was chillier weather so the patio needed to have good heat lamps) when dad announced it was an evening Husky football game, so he wanted to stay to watch that. Reagan and I took “to go” orders, loaded up the dog, and went to order food at The Wayfarer. Which has a radically redesigned menu. Instead of a wider variety of mid-range price points, they had a smaller select menu with much more expensive options (although they were willing to still cook up burger for mom, which is only on the lunch menu). While waiting for our food to be cooked, we went to explore the ocean with the dog. (Full disclosure, it was dark, so no photos. Instead, please enjoy this beach photo from earlier in the afternoon, announcing that the ocean is broken)
Then as we’re paying for our dinner, we notice we’re short a box. Turns out they’d forgotten Reagan’s steak. Oh no! But she didn’t want everyone else’s food to get cold while waiting for them to cook her entree (and she hadn’t been super excited about anything on the new menu, anyway). On our drive back to Tolovana, we saw a “Fresh pizza” sign so she was able to get a slice for dinner. Then on to the Husky game.
The next morning, we’re discussing breakfast options, as restaurant breakfast is the best thing ever!!! But again, dad doesn’t want to go anywhere because of the soon-to-start Seahawks game. So he pours himself a bowl of cereal, and Reagan and I head back into town to get delicious restaurant breakfast take out for mom and us. Yay! Some more card games before football on TV. Then we headed for home in the early afternoon. So yes, we did drive for over 10 hours to spend only 24 hours in Cannon Beach). And then we ended up mostly just hanging out with our parents inside their rented cabin, watching TV and playing card games. These are, of course, things we could easily do back home.
But what a view outside the window, with the balcony door open, listening/smelling the ocean. It was lovely, even if it was rushed. And the sun was shining for the entire ride back. And I got to reminisce about our encounters with “Pig” on last year’s drive home and Reagan continuing not to understand how exciting that was. (Details here ) AND we got to eat the amazing fish and chips from BowPicker in Astoria (it’s a food-boat, not a food truck) http://www.bowpicker.com/ They’d been closed when I drove through in August, so that was a wonderful bonus for doing this trip again, so quickly after having just done it in August. And hooray for family time and tradition!! Tradition! Tradition!