Manzanita

Back when I used to nanny the family I worked for (for the longest and to whom I was the closest) had a couple beach houses on the Oregon coast. In the Summers I would spend weekends or even entire weeks laying in the sun with a light breeze touching the backs of my legs or walking down to the water with tiny little hands in mine then shrieking and running from the incoming tide. When it got cooler we would bundle up and play for as far into the year as possible. When it got too cold for playing on the beach we would go down for weekends in the Winter and snuggle up in the house with cocoa and movies and just be away for a bit. Some of my favorite memories are from times spent on the coast.

One of the places we stayed often was Manzanita, OR, the perfect beach town. There's a section of the West side of our state that is most frequented by Portlanders looking to escape the city and within that part of the coast most of the weather is pretty similar on any given day. The thing about finding the perfect beach in Oregon has everything to do with the land surrounding the beach. In Manzanita everything aligns perfectly to keep it warm but breezy. It's also one of the few coastal towns I've seen with locals that don't make me feel like I'm in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. There are some cute restaurants, a great ice cream parlor with a garden to eat your sweets in, a game store called Overboard, and the requisite super crowded grocery store. And! You can have bonfires on the beach! This past weekend I loaded up on cough syrup, decongestant, nasal spray, and cough drops and decided to show Trista, Johnathan, and Craig the close to my heart Manzanita...check out Tiger helping bring kindling to the fire pit.

Seaside

Even though I was feeling like an old broken lady this past weekend I had promised Craig months ago I would pick him up in Seaside after he ran Hood to Coast (it's this miserable endeavor involving running from Mt. Hood to the Oregon coast with a team in legs of a race). So Tiger and I headed out for the beach. We went to Gearhart and laid in the sun for a bit before heading over to Seaside to meet up with Craig and a couple other people. You guys, my dog loves the beach like nobody's business. It's insane.

Life's a Beach

So, a couple weekends ago I went to the coast since I can do that now in my new car that I am not scared will fall apart along the way and leave me stranded in some tiny wooded town consisting of a gas station and a store owned by a woman with no real knowledge of woodworking who sells her own handmade birdhouses.

I very much wanted to go to the gorgeous Manzanita beach where it's perfectly breezy and sunny and there are very few people, most of them flying kites. Instead my friends tricked me into going to this place called Oswald's West. It's a surfer/family beach, is pretty crowded and hot. Parking is pretty terrible and for a good hour I had to listen to this guy begin every sentence with "Dude!" and end it with a surfing conditions forecast.

Anyways, this beach has it's faults but I'll admit it's pretty. At one point I was laying in the sun (with my SPF 100+ on) and I thought "This beach looks like the one in Twilight." Before I remembered that Twilight actually was filmed in part on the Oregon coast.

It's my stay home sick movie. Give me a break.

Here are some photos.

Fun in the Absolutely No Sun

So...I'm pretty scared of skin cancer. My dad had it when I was younger and had to get a skin graft. It was on his face. They took the skin from behind his ear and grafted it to where his nose met his cheek. It looked like someone put a piece of silly putty on his face for about a year before it healed and started to look normal. Every one of my grandparents have died of some sort of cancer. I'm not like a "don't use the microwave or cell phone" kind of scared of cancer person but when it comes to the sun I'm definitely the one of my friends lecturing everyone about sunscreen and shaking my head at their tans. I'll admit, I was accused of being dramatic when recently I went berry picking and got a slight burn on my chest that I was convinced meant I had contracted cancer right then. Clearly my friends do not know what they are talking about.

Anyways, I am going to the beach this weekend. In my new car. Because I trust it to drive to the beach unlike my old car. Now for some people the beach may mean scorching hot temperatures, bathing suits, and swimming. For Oregonians it means something a little different. Mostly wearing all your clothes and napping on the sand in moderate breezy weather. The most your body will be in the water is up to your ankles, and even then you'll likely shriek and jump back the first time your skin touches the water because it's that cold.

There's still sun though, and with sun comes skin cancer, which means that since I hadn't been to the beach in at least a year I needed an update on my beach wardrobe. Some people wear jeans and tees with a fleece or sweatshirt for when it gets chilly. I wear maxi dresses. They're impractical for really anything other than the beach. I guess if you're model tall or a hippie you can get away with them but I'm neither so for me they are beach wear.

It may sound silly but they're long enough to keep your skin hidden from the sun but loose and lightweight enough to not be too heavy in the sun. Plus there's the added bonus of it being likely the one time you can look like you're in a catalog shoot without looking like...well, an idiot.

These are the dresses I am trying to decide between.


Zulu Dress by Free People in 'Bark'


Sidewinder Slip Dress by Free People


Stargazer Dress by Free People in 'Black'

Here's some detail of the beading.



All will be worn sans footwear. Now all I need is a giant floppy straw hat...