Cannon Beach

I drove out to the coast again today. I went to Cannon Beach this time. If you saw The Goonies, then I'm sure that you'll remember Haystack Rock from the movie. They had to line the rock up in the skeleton to figure out part of the treasure map. Anyway, Haystack Rock is at Cannon Beach, and since it's only a little over an hour from Portland, I decided to head out there.

The town of Cannon Beach is a pretty quant little tourist stop that probably would have held Leah's attention for hours had she been here. Since she was not, I was able to focus on my mission: see and photograph Haystack Rock. I figured out a place to park and headed out to the beach. Once I got to the beach, I could see the huge rock. It seemed much closer than it actually was. I probably walked about 1.5 miles to get close enough to the rock to start taking pics.

Walking on the beach was different than other beaches that I've been to. The sand didn't seem as deep and it was loose only very far away from the surf. The closer you got to the water the more packed it became, and mostly it was like walking on asphalt. I didn't even hardly leave footprints. The sand was also really shiny as you'll see in the pics. It almost looked like water, but it's really not.

Also, the wind was really cold. I was bundled up in my coat and wishing that I had more warm clothes with me. Anyway, I spent a while watching the sunset and taking pics before I headed back to Portland. It was really a pretty cool beach. A beach with character. Enjoy the pics.

Thursday, October 5, 2006

Back in Portland

Today was fairly uneventful. I spent the day with Aunt Sis hanging out around Springfield. We've watched more movies this weekend than most people watch in a month. I brought Lucky Number Slevin and Doom with me, so we watched both of those. You can pretty much pass on Doom unless you really enjoyed the game; and for those of you that did, you'll appreciate the nod to John Carmack in the movie. Lucky Number Slevin was really good, though, and I do recommend it to anyone that likes a quick and witty movie. Today we also saw Fearless and Zathura. Fearless was really good; I'll probably end up buying it; Zathura was pretty much Jumanji part 2, and worked for passing the time until I had to drive to Portland.

When we went to see Fearless I realized one more thing that makes Springfield different than Dallas. Well, two more things. First, the mall has so few visitors that they actually have a large section of the parking lot roped off as a used car lot. Now, we have some pretty big malls in Dallas, but this is the first one that I've ever been to where I could buy books, clothes, video games, eat, watch a movie, get my hair done, and drive home in a new car. Second, it's the first mall that I've been to with two different movie theaters. Interestingly, the only two movie theaters in Springfield. One is a dollar movie and the other is for new released. They're both Cinemark theaters, which makes cuts down on competition, and I suppose it makes it easy for staffing. You can just send people across the hall to man the concession stand at the other theater.

Anyway, the drive up to Portland was pretty easy. I think it's probably the longest stretch of straight road in the whole state, so we were able to drive about 70mph. A nice Texas size speed. Later in the week, I'll probably try to meet Aunt Sis somewhere for one last meal before I head back to Dallas. Right now, I'm getting ready for bed so I can get to class in the morning.