She Sells Seashells by the Seaside

Took a family vacation to Seaside, Oregon recently. We typically take two vacations each summer, one to Lake Chelan, WA and the other to a destination on the Pacific Ocean - Cannon Beach, Seaside, Pacific Beach (WA), etc.

As always, the kids love digging in the sand, flying kites, beachcombing, and wading in the surf. And when they are not at the beach, they are in the swimming pool. Nights are spent watching movies and perhaps playing a little bit on their Nintendo DS. We had to make the drive to Cannon Beach (a mere 6-8 miles down the road from Seaside) in order to visit Bruce's Candy Kitchen. I stood outside with the family hound while the wife and kids shopped for sugar.

I HATE dealing with traffic clusterfucks, especially in small towns like Cannon Beach. It's one of those times when you have to suck it up and deal with it, because you want the kids to remember how fun it was, and not how many people you cussed out or ran over.

Good memories are what we're shooting for when we take these trips. I totally dig it when the kids are back here in The Shire, and they go on and on about very specific memories taken from any vacation they've ever been on. I still remember feeding raccoons in the Yosemite National Forest when I was a kid. My parents still remember me falling into one of the local creeks/rivers.

One of these days, when the youngest of the three kids is old enough, we'll brave a trip to Disneyland or another similar account-draining funhaus.

On sort of an anti-fun note, school starts in about two weeks. Back to packing lunches, multiple trips to bus stops, homework, PTA meetings, and all that stuff. The kids are still young enough that they are looking forward to heading back to school. Heh. That, I'm told, will change one day.