Sur la Mer (our 31st Anniversary) Part 5: Cannon Beachfront

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... to close out the day's debouche, just a simple look out over the sand from the end of Second Street, city center Cannon Beach, made special by the sprinkling of birds thereupon.

Sur la Mer (our 31st Anniversary) Part 4: Haystack Rock from Hemlock Street

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Again, Haystack Rock, but a much closer view.

The main street through the middle of Cannon Beach is Hemlock Street. coming south out of city center it ascends a hill and curves about quite a bit. This is your best vantage point from the road, if you can find a spot to pull over.

While the earlier pix from the beachfront at Tolovana Park are romantic and pretty, POV gives you a much better idea of just how hulkingly large Haystack rock is, some blocks back from the beach and up the side of a hill, it's a rather intimidating thing.
 

Sur La Mer (our 31st Anniversary) Part 3: Kites and Sandcastles

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My subtitle elaborates a bit, but it sounds romantic that way. 

But it is a fact that even if Oregon's state bird is the western meadowlark (unless it's the osprey now; I don't know how that debate shook out to be honest), at the beach, the state bird is the kite

Here's one in splendiforous plumage.

And wouldn't you know it, developers have been here too. I mean, probably some condo for upscale crabs, or something.

I mean, here in Portland that'd be $1,600/month, first, last, deposit, 12 month lease, right?

Sur La Mer (Our 31st Anniversary) Part 2: Scenes From Tolovana Park

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Our destination this day, as mentioned, was Cannon Beach: artistic, rustic, adorable Cannon Beach.

Like many towns along the Oregon Coast, it's longer than it is wide; it stretches along about two miles of beach but only goes back maybe about 1,000 feet at its widest. Address-Nerd-wise, this is how a town with only about 2,500 residents can have a 4000 block. 

Anyway. the best place to have a look outside of downtown is the south-side neighborhood called Tolovana Park, which amounts to the half of town south of the knobby hill just south of the downtown area. There one finds the Tolovana Beach State Wayside, which is merely steps from the sand.

It's quite a popular place.

Oregonians at the beach doing what Oregonians at the beach do. In the distance are a group of rocks at a small promontory called Silver Point; the biggest one is called Jockey Cap.

They're gorgeous, but they don't quite compare with the icon you see looking the other way.

It's 230 feet worth of iconic seastack, and they call it, for obvious reasons, Haystack Rock. If there's a rock that can stand in for the entire Oregon Coast, this surely must be a candidate.

The small rocks off to the left of it are collectively known as The Needles. And in front are two more Oregonians doing what Oregonians do at the beach.

Here now a more postcard-y approach that I'm quite proud of:

I took many many pictures of the rock because I have had none up until now and I was atoning for that. 

Another thing I took many pictures of was surf, for surf's sake. They say you can't hear a picture but I know the sound that resonates in the skull when I look at this one: 

Surf is a magical thing, even if you don't ride the waves. 

The glassy sheen of wet beach is its own poetry.