On The Beach in November

Our family loves going to the beach. We are lucky to live only about an hour’s drive away. While we all love visiting in the summertime on a gorgeous afternoon, some of my favorite trips to the coast were not during the summer months, rather from trips that we have taken in the fall and winter.

Once, we rented a hotel room in September on the beach, and little did we know there was some sort of a dog competition being held that weekend, where a large pool was actually set up on the sand and dogs did all sorts of tricks. We were pleasantly entertained.

My ultimate favorite beach trip was about five years ago, and my family, best friend, and parents were staying in a timeshare in Long Beach, Washington over Thanksgiving week. A huge storm rolled in that weekend with continued wind gusts of 70 + mph. Normally a bad weather weekend would trump all plans of fun, however this time it elevated the excitement of the holiday. Things like BBQing on the deck were a fun challenge, walks on the beach were intermittent, but man oh man did our family have fun in the outdoor pool and hot tub area. How many people can say they were swimming and playing in an outdoor pool in November, during a storm that was so windy the kids could hardly stand? Not many. I ended up making a photo book of just that vacation and gave to it everyone as a Christmas present that year.

Last weekend, while no comparison to our Long Beach adventure, was still memorable. After a day full of Emma’s basketball games, we zipped down to the beach for a quick overnight ‘glamping’ trip. We stayed in a little cabin and played games. The next afternoon it was pretty rainy, so we went and saw a movie hoping that they weather would clear up so we could enjoy some time on the beach, and we got lucky.

There was about an hour and a half without any rain, the kids built sand castles and Wayne and I walked on the beach. I spotted something out in the water and we realized that is was a sea lion. We kept entertained by trying to watch him and figure out where he was in between each crashing wave.

The beach in the fall and winters in Oregon can be more exciting than the spring and summer because it’s less predictable, and you can wind up having a gorgeous day on the shore with no crowds, or a wild adventure that your family won’t forget.

~Melissa