Tolovana Park

What was due to be the last day of vacation before racing 1,139 miles back home became a whole new adventure with one slightly longer than usual hug...

Back to the actual start, we started our trip from San Diego to Santa Clarita on Wednesday, where we stayed with Jason's parents before starting off our caravan to Oregon early Thursday morning. That's right, just about 700 miles in one day with an almost 4 month old. We overestimated our abilities. Wesley did get to see and be in his first snowfall at Mount Shasta, so that was pretty neat!

After a hotel room pizza dinner and a seemingly eye blink of sleep, we hit the road again. On the way, we stopped at the Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm to stretch our legs and see some flowers. They were only at a 10% bloom, so we mostly saw dirt and leaves, but we were able to see Aunt Shari, Uncle Al, and Kari before meeting at the beach for the weekend. A bit of browsing, some delicious bratwursts, and we were off again. We navigated Portland's Friday rush hour before the road cleared up heading into the Oregon forest and finally to our weekend destination, Cannon Beach (or more accurately, Tolovana Park). Stephanie and Patrick arrived almost exactly when we arrived with mom and dad, so after settling in to our ocean view hotel rooms, we went to dinner together. After that, Wesley informed us that it was bed time and we happily obliged.

Saturday started off with us filling a small bistro for breakfast, saying our formal hellos, and passing Wesley around his extended family. Grandma Nancy's 80th birthday celebration weekend came together with her surrounded by six of her kids (including spouses), 10 of her grandkids (including spouses and Cruiser), and 5 great grandkids (including April and William's pups)! Through the day, we hung around the beach, connected with sorely missed family and awesome additions, walked to Haystack Rock, Jason almost peed himself, and went did some wine sampling at the cool little market across the street. The whole group got together for a pizza dinner in a fashion that would have made the Fire Marshal cringe, then headed back to the beach for a fire and to watch grandma drop innumerable marshmallows into said fire. With the fire smothered, some of the cousins went out to soak up the little time we had together.

After a hearty breakfast and some group photos, Sunday morning meant goodbye to most of the group and some much needed R&R for the rest of us. Which leads us to the hug that changed the scope of our week... Once Wesley was down for a nap, we gave each other a hug and held on in expectation of the impending drive home. We knew that repeating our previous drive wasn't in our collective best interest, so we decided to take our time and trade in the 5 for the PCH on our way home. In typical Jason and Danielle fashion, we loosely planned our next 2 days, booked on Airbnb, and flipped the script on an otherwise daunting trip south.

With our spirits renewed, we were able to enjoy an afternoon of visiting, walking around Seaside, seeing the jaw-dropping views from Ecola State Park, and making the obvious food poisoning related jokes. We had dinner with the remaining group at a hardware store. That's correct, a hardware store that serves food and drinks alongside u-bolts and claw hammers. Wesley informed us that it was, once again, time for bed, while some of the group went to the beach for s'mores.Read more