Oregon Coast 2018: Seaside, Cannon Beach, and Our Engagement

I am finally sitting down to write about our trip to Oregon AND OUR ENGAGEMENT (video at the end of this post!) that happened at the end of October. The Oregon coast is breathtaking and so different from the Washington coast where we live. I honestly never knew that driving 4 hours south could bring that big of a change in scenery, but we were met with the most gorgeous views. We started in Seattle and drove south to Seaside, Oregon on Day 1 of our trip where we stayed for the whole weekend.

Places to See on the Oregon Coast:

Astoria, OR

On our way to the condo where we stayed in Seaside, we stopped in Astoria, Oregon. Astoria is a gorgeous port city on the Oregon Coast and the first place you hit when crossing into Oregon from Washington. To get to Astoria, you cross the Astoria-Megler Bridge (above) which is the longest truss bridge in the country (fun fact from an architecture gal 🙂 ) Crossing the bridge is actually a pretty cool experience. You are seemingly crossing the water forever, and you drive up and up and up in elevation until you get to the other side of the water and can finally see the end of the bridge.

Where to eat:

Fort George Brewery

Buoy Beer Co.

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Sights:

Most people know Astoria from the Goonies film! We tried to go see the house from the movie, but when we got to the street the house lives on, there was a sign that read something along the lines of – Private property, do not enter to take photos of the Goonies House (haha!) So unfortunately we weren’t able to see the iconic house, but there are lots of other sights from the movie that you can see in the town!

Seaside, OR (Where we stayed)

“I wonder why they call it Seaside?” – Zack’s smart remark as we pulled into this gorgeous town

While we didn’t do much exploring in Seaside, this is where we stayed for the weekend. The condo we called home for a few days was right on the water and provided the perfect setting for our Oregon Coast getaway. We woke up each morning, brewed some coffee, and sat on the patio while listening to the waves. It was pretty foggy on our last day (when the photos were taken) but the first half of the weekend was crystal clear and blue.

We honestly can’t wait to head back to the Oregon Coast – we want to make this an annual tradition!

Cannon Beach, OR

Where to eat:

Driftwood: This was our favorite place to eat in Cannon Beach. There is outdoor seating with a fire place and lots of dogs 🙂

Cannon Beach Cafe: The cutest Parisian style cafe

Bill’s Tavern and Brew House: We stopped here on our last night for some celebratory carrot cake 🙂 Keep scrolling for our engagement story!

Sights:

The town: The town of Cannon Beach is just that – a beach town! It is filled with the cutest restaurants and shops that can pretty much take up a whole afternoon while you explore!

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Haystack Rock: Another famous setting from the Goonies – I highly recommend stopping at this beach. While it is packed with people most of the time, the beach is so expansive that it isn’t overwhelming. The rock is so much larger than I had ever imagined and truly is amazing. We didn’t go to the base as there were larger amounts of people right around the rock, but we did look at the formations from across the beach and watched the sunset near the rocks. It was so gorgeous! Definitely a must see if you find yourself on the Oregon coast.

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Shop this look: Gal Meets Glam Georgia Dress // Target Booties

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Arcadia Beach: If you’re looking for a beach to get away from the masses that are found at Cannon Beach, I highly recommend Arcadia! This beach is just south of Cannon Beach and has way less people. We stopped here twice and we were just about the only ones on the beach!

Shop this look: Caslon Sweater (similar here) // Graham and Spencer Skirt (similar here and here) // Vionic Boots (similar here)

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Our Engagement!

We visited Arcadia early in the day, then stopped back around sunset. Zack was acting pretty stressed all day as we were driving down the Oregon Coast. The plan for the day was that we would drive further south than Cannon Beach to a remote beach where Zack wanted fly the drone around. Once we got there though, it was so foggy that we couldn’t see more than 20′ in front of us. At this point, we were an hour and a half south of the Cannon Beach / Arcadia Beach and it was 4:30pm with a sunset time of 6pm for the night.

He told me that we needed to rush back to Arcadia because he really wanted to get some drone shots of the beach at sunset and this was our last night. I knew something was up! Zack is the definition of calm; even in stressful situations he is never really exudes any sort of unease. SO to see him all frazzled tipped me off that something was going on.

We raced the sun back up North trying to make it back to the beach where HOPEFULLY the fog had cleared and the sun hadn’t yet fully set. On the way, I had realized I hadn’t eaten since lunch and I was absolutely starving. Zack kept insisting that we could eat later, but I figured if we weren’t eating until after he took his drone footage that it would be at least a couple hours until I was able to eat so I pleaded for him to pull over at the next fast food place.

Visibly stressed, we pulled into a Burger King where we were greeted with the longest line you’ve ever seen at a drive-thru (of course!) So I ran inside and honestly it probably would have been faster to just deal with the drive-thru line – it took quite a while! I ran outside and got in the car and I swear before I could even close the door Zack was already driving.

We were once again racing to the beach. We were thrilled to see that the fog had cleared and the beach was in full sunset mode. We pulled into the parking lot and as I was gathering my things, Zack throws his drone on his back and grabs my hand and pulls me out of the car in a hurry. We start running to the beach (in my heeled boots so I wasn’t very fast) and once we got there he quickly put the drone up in the air and set up his phone on the tripod to take video – this was something he was doing all weekend for my blog so it wasn’t out of the ordinary.

I was standing around waiting for him to get set up so we could walk around with the drone when he set the controller on the ground and joined me in front of the camera. In that instant, while I had been wondering all day if this is what he was SO stressed about, I knew this was the moment I had been waiting for for years! My best friend proposed to me in the most gorgeous place and somehow the few people on the beach that had been there when we arrived had disappeared and we had this little part of the coast to ourselves. He really made this trip to the Oregon Coast something to remember forever <3

This was the best day of my life thus far – until Sept. 14, 2019! 🙂

Here is our engagement video that my talented future husband put together: