I dare you to find one cloud in these pictures

No matter the weather, the Oregon coast is beautiful, but I have never experienced two more perfect days beside this ocean of ours. Ron and Cathy invited us to join them on their overnight to the coast when they learned that their rental had an extra bedroom. We thought about it for about two seconds, then promptly rearranged our Monday plans and said yes! The purpose of our friends' trip was a deep sea fishing excursion, so we stayed in Garibaldi, a little fishing community on the Tillamook Bay that we drive through to get to Camp Magruder, but in which we had never stopped.

The outfit is run by the family of a Deacon in the UMC, Carol, who I recently met but who didn't happen to be in town while we were there. Her husband, Joe, is the boat captain. You can't see it in this picture, but there is an apartment upstairs from the office on the far side of this building and that's where we slept and cooked and watched Saved By The Bell in the morning. The back windows and deck of this vaguely fishy-smelling place look out over the gorgeous bay and the "front" windows look out over the fish-cleaning table in covered area of the building. Yuck. Thankfully, Eric and I weren't around for that. At first sight, it wouldn't have been the first choice for this vegetarian non-fisherwoman, but I loved being close to the water and it turned out to be a really great place to stay. Very hospitable. We had lots of fun being there with Ron and Cathy and are so thankful that they invited us!

I have always wanted to stop by this place but, alas, it is no longer in business.

The view from our bedroom. Below the window was a giant fish freezer, stacks of crab traps, and some fisherman driving forklifts and using some rather salty language as they shouted at one another above the noise of machinery. It lasted a short enough time to be pretty funny.

There's a passenger train that goes up and down the coast that I'd love to take sometime.

Eric wishing his dad a happy birthday. Happy Birthday, Brody!

The next morning, after bagels and cream cheese and counting the number of hours that Ron and Cathy had probably already been on their boat (it was an early start for them!), Eric and I drove 12 miles up the gorgeous coast to Manzanita to have coffee at a favorite cafe from our last visit. But apparently Tuesdays are not big days in small coastal towns and lots of stuff was closed, including our dreamed-about place, Bread and Ocean [tear]. So we grabbed coffee at another little joint and found and even better place to drink it--the beach!! Did I mention that it was the most perfect weather ever? 80s all day and I did not see a single cloud! Amazing, really.

We did stop at Bread and Ocean afterward to dump the sand out of our shoes. Cute, no?

Next door is the coolest little book store that I could have stayed in for much longer if it hadn't been for that sunshine.

Manzanita is a very cute town, something we didn't really get on our first visit to our friends' Leah and Mat's family cottage there five years ago, when it poured rain without a single pause for two days. Without the hood covering our eyes, it is easy to see how cute it is.

We then continued north, to Cannon Beach, where we just walked and splashed and talked and soaked up the sun on our faces and marveled at how happy the beach makes dogs and children and all other people, really.

Haystack Rock, featured in The Goonies.

What a wonderful day. Once their boat was in and their fish and crabs were clean and ready, we hopped in the car to head home. Ron and Cathy had had a great time, and, thankfully, they didn't smell too fishy. As usual, we stopped at the Tillamook Cheese Factory to eat the most amazing ice cream ever made.

The perfect end to a lovely little trip.