Farewell to the Beach Condo

Eddy's work has stopped offering the beach condo to employees!  I know.  I know.  It's all very sad, but the actual owners of the condo have moved back the Portland and it's almost like they want their own condo back.  Some people, right?  We had tons of great memories there, even in the short time that we lived here, and we got to spend a whole week saying a fond farewell.

We kicked off the trip by capturing what will probably be our only selfie ever with Norman, who stood still and looked at the camera only because that orange thing in my hand is a stick with a tennis ball at the end.

First, let's just be clear. Norman had an amazing beach vacation.

Never before or since has a dog had such fun at the beach.

Cross my heart.

That dog enjoyed many a snuggled up nap after his beach adventures.

For the record, we also enjoyed the beach.

Just maybe not as much as Norman did.

Incidentally, this is Norman helping us dig up some wet sand to build sand castles with.

Because we are 5 years old.

We found this weird horse while digging. Looking back, I'm really sad that neither of us incorporated the horse into our sand castles. But I had a weird only natural materials thing, going and Eddy had this whole romantic sand keep plus tower back story, so I guess it's not surprising.

Seriously, though, we got really into building sand castles this time.

Norman got so bored that he took a nap. He also got so cold that I had to cover him with my coat.

We were pretty proud of our creations.

One day it rained, so we played games and did puzzles and stared longingly at the beach through the windows.

We also enjoyed some of our favorite Rockaway Beach area haunts.

The last day, perhaps to combat our sadness at leaving behind the beach condo forever, we decided to take a little road trip up to Astoria on the way home. But like, not on the way because it's the opposite direction from our house.

We kicked things off in Rockaway Beach because THE PRONTO PUP WAS FINALLY OPEN ON A DAY WE WERE IN TOWN!

You guys, that's a real leather saddle. No joke.

We ate some corn dogs.

But, like, so many.

Next we went to see the wreck of the Peter Iredale, which I have always, always, always wanted to see.

We also went to the Astoria Column, where Eddy promptly fell in love with the relief map because that guy freaking loves relief maps.

Then we, you know, drank some beers,

saw some Goonie house,

and ate some custard.

I think the Astoria trip reminded us that even though we'll be sad to say goodbye to the beach condo, we now have the perfect excuse to say hello to the rest of Oregon. Road trip anyone?