Quilt Retreats, Quilt Shop Tours

The Road to Retreat (Via Cannon Beach)

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Continuing my series of posts about the annual May quilting retreat I attended with my Quilting Sisters in Vancouver, WA May 17 – 20. To read my previous posts about quilting retreats I’ve attended, see my post category – Retreats.

A Different Way to Quilt Retreat

Each year when posting about the annual May quilting retreat I attend, I include a “road to retreat” post on my journey to the retreat at Sew N Go in Vancouver, WA.

Examples of such posts include The Road to the Retreat  on my solo car road trip and The Road to Retreat (Via Bus!) about my first time taking the Central Oregon Breeze bus to the retreat.

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A couple weeks before the retreat I was trying to decide whether to drive to the May quilt retreat or to take the bus again. Terry the Quilting Husband (TTQH) offered to drive me this time to the retreat with Mike the Miniature Schnauzer joining us for the road trip.

Instead of having him drive 4 hours to the retreat and then back, we came up with the idea of driving to Cannon Beach, Oregon the day before the retreat. We would spend a day in Cannon Beach, stay overnight and the TTQH would drive me to the retreat and head back home.

I Love Cannon Beach

We’ve been visiting Cannon Beach for many years – I think we visited the first time in the early 2000s. In my post A Case for Buying Tings You Have No Plans For At The Time, I share my love for Cannon Beach and a special Cannon Beach themed wallhanging I made for my friend at work Nancy.

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Wandering Around Cannon Beach

Let’s begin with images of the beach, the sea, and the iconic Haystack rock at Cannon Beach. We enjoyed talking the coastline with Mike and here are images from Day which was fairly sunny.

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The next day, before heading to retreat, it was overcast but the beach was still wonderful:

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I love Central Oregon but it is far away from the sea. Every so often it is nice to be at the sea, smell the sea, and listen to the sea.

Cannon Beach has a wonderful quilt shop, Center Diamond Fabrics. If you check out my post A Case for Buying Tings You Have No Plans For At The Time, you will see a link to a YouTube video by the Quilt Roadies with a tour of Center Diamond Fabrics.

We’ve had a doggy backpacks for years that we carry our miniature schnauzers around in when traveling (most shops unless they are restaurants will allow a dog in a backpack in the shop) so we do not have to leave them in the car when sightseeing.

TTQH had Mike in his backpack as we wandered around Center Diamond Fabrics and Mike appears to be advising TTQH on fabric selections:

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Mike: “TTQH look at the fabrics over there!”
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Mike: “I am not too sure about those fabrics”
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Mike: “Hold on, slow down, I want to check this rack”
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Mike: “Okay let’s get all of these…”

After the quilt shop, it was off to the yarn shop at Cannon Beach, Coastal Yarns, where Mike also advised from his backpack:

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I was naughty at this shop and bought a skein of this ridiculously expensive variegated silk yarn that I fell hopelessly in love with it:

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We stayed at the inviting and dog-friendly McBee Cottages where they had a welcome basket for Mike and a wonderful collection of handmade bird houses.

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Wished I Lived in Cannon Beach, But Wait…

Every time we visit Cannon Beach, I daydream about moving there.

There are beautiful beach houses everywhere in the wonderful neighborhoods around the coastal area:

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There are beautiful coastal gardens:

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And of course there is this – the beach and the Pacific Ocean:

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But then there is this:

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(If there is a Tsunami, do not stop – RUN this way!!!!!)

We do not worry about Tsunamis in Central Oregon. So I will stick with just visiting Cannon Beach (hopefully never during a Tsunami) for now!

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Yes, this is the Tsunami Evacuation Route WALKING PATH (you better be walking very fast)

Published by tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Quilter, crafter, obsessive tea drinker and lover of all furry creatures (especially dogs and cats) - join me on my tierneycreates blog as I share stories from "A Crafter's Life".

38 thoughts on “The Road to Retreat (Via Cannon Beach)”

  1. What a lovely looking place – the beach – gorgeous – the fabric and yarn shop – scrummy! Love your ‘helper’ in his carrier too. Enjoy your retreat.

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  3. Have they actually ever had a Tsunami or are they just being super cautious? The yarn shop looks amazing. Hopefully someone will have time to save the yarn before it gets washed away 😀

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    1. I do not know of a Tsunami on the Oregon coast but it is always a potential 🙂
      Ha! Yes hopefully all that yarn can be saved (thanks for the huge laugh as I read these comments – awesome!)

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  5. Your pictures are stunning – I’m ashame to say this but I did’nt realize Central Oregon was so beautiful! We’re planning a trip to Washington and California – I may add Oregon on our list!
    Love the quotes from Mike — he’s got a good eye for fabric and yarn!

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    1. Thank you and Cannon Beach is far from Central Oregon (like 250 miles) and a much different landscape/climate. We are the high desert in Central Oregon – more dry/arid at times compare to the coast 🙂
      Mike says thanks and he agrees he has good taste 🙂
      WA and California are great but you should sneak in Oregon too – at least the coast. You can actually easily travel from the WA coast (which you should see also) to the Oregon Coast (at least down to Cannon Beach).

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      1. Thanks for the travel tip — My bestie lives in San Jose- we are planning a vacation to Napa then hubby and I will travel to Seattle. I’m geographically “challenged” hubby will figure out what our best travel plan should be to include Oregon 🙂

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      2. You could start in San Jose and drive up the Northern CA Coast, then the Oregon Coast (stopping at cute towns such as Florence, Newport, Depoe Bay, Cannon Beach, etc) all the way to WA state (to the WA state coast). That would be a very awesome trip (especially if you it say late April to mid October for the best weather)

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  6. Ok, so Cannon Beach is one of our all time favorite places to go! Thanks for these pictures, I am going to share them with RK so we can be jealous together!!!!! One day, we walked this beach and had a picnic (and ate a little sand with our smoked salmon) but it was just so beautiful! Why is Oregon so far from Ohio? Mike is a real trooper and let’s be honest, the only things that even come close to tourist attractions after Cannon Beach are fabric and yarn shops!

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    1. A little sand never hurt anyone – ha! That is so cool you have visited Cannon Beach and I know – how dare Ohio and Oregon be so far apart when they both start with “O”? Why isn’t the country in alphabetical order? 🙂

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  8. I loved the pictures of the beautiful Oregon coast, but have to say Mike stole the show. It is so enjoyable thinking about that cute furry guy riding on TTQH’s back and going on adventures. We visited the Washington/Oregon coast in about 2005 and have great memories of that beauty. Thanks for the reminder.

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    1. Thank you Martha for your comments! Mike is pretty darn cute riding around in the backpack – we always have people coming over and going “ahhhhhh”. We have visited the entire Oregon coast over the years (it takes like three trips to see the whole thing) and Cannon Beach is one of our favorites places 🙂

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  9. The paths are strictly an entertainment factor as No One will get up and walk the 1/2 mile to a small hilltop in the woods in the case of an actual Tsunami , sad but true . It is nice there however .

    Mike the quilt dog .

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  10. Love this post! Love all the pictures. I absolutely LOVE the ocean. Also, like you, I would be terrified of a tsunami! I would love living at the beach UNTIL the first really big storm–it wouldn’t even take a tsunami to terrify me. I’m a big baby and do not like lightning and/or high winds.

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    1. Thanks so much for your comment and thanks for reading! Yes that’s the challenge it seems so awesome to live by the sea but the really bad storms can make it a very scary place at times! 😀

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  11. Tierney, I think you’ve surpassed the allowable WordPress limit on loveliness here. 🙂 Cannon Beach looks beautiful, and even an overcast shoreline is incredibly scenic, as your pictures show. I enjoyed seeing Mike in his textile-shopping advisory role, too – glad to see him making sure that only the best fabric is chosen! That hint of ‘grellow’ on the silk yarn is so yum and vivid! And those adorable beach houses – what happy coastal lives! 🙂

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    1. Thanks so much and who knew when we adopted Mike from rescue that he had the ability to be a “textile adviser”??!!? I think we got a good deal 🙂
      The yarn is amazing, I tried to put it back and not buy it but I was was going to obsess over it if I left it at the shop. I wish I had your knitting skills but I am going to try and make something nice with it and actually use some of the awesome patterns in my collection of neglected knitting books 🙂

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  13. Heehee! Mike looks like a valuable companion to have along on craft shopping trips! Cannon Beach is really beautiful, and I think you did the right thing treating yourselves to a little break there on the way to the retreat. Your photos from the beach are heavenly!

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  17. Okay, my eyes are tearing up. Not sure if its allergies, something in got caught in my eye, or my response to seeing Mike in the backpack. This has to be uniquely you or uniquely west coast. never saw this before. i am learning a lot here.

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