The ladies in my family have enjoyed girls’ weekends going back decades, with three generations of sisters, moms, cousins and aunties gathering to share each others’ company while shopping and enjoying the beach or the mountains. Unfortunately, the pandemic put those large gatherings on the back burner, but a few weekends ago I enjoyed a very much smaller-scale version of those earlier get-togethers with my daughters and granddaughter at the Oregon coast.

We arrived in the charming north coast town of Cannon Beach on a late Friday afternoon and unpacked into our 2-bed, 2-bath spacious condo unit just a couple of blocks from the beach. It was overcast but quite mild and with only a slight breeze, so we decided to walk to nearby Mo’s, a casual seafood place that started in 1946 with one outpost in Newport and now can be found up and down the Oregon coast.

We placed our order online (the chowder and fish and chips are reliably good) and strolled on over. On the way we enjoyed some surprising encounters with the local wildlife. First we spotted part of the local herd of Roosevelt elk making its way down from US 101 toward a grassy expanse near the beach. Since we were on foot and they are quite large and can be aggressive (we watched a few of the bulls get into a head-butting match), we kept our distance. A little further along we came across a number of rabbits grazing and hopping in and out of the bushes — far less intimidating and much more fascinating to young June.

After eating our dinner back at the condo, we made it an early evening, being pretty tired out from all the driving we’d done that day, but we were up and rarin’ to go the next morning, determined to hit our favorite spots along Hemlock Street in downtown Cannon Beach. The town’s main drag and side streets are lined with boutiques, galleries, ice cream shops, bookstores and little shops down flower-lined paths. There are plenty of places to eat and drink, too, and the whole scene is softened and enlivened by lush hydrangea bushes and window boxes and overflowing flower baskets hanging everywhere.

We stopped in at Cannon Beach Bakery for pastries for the next morning’s breakfast and a few gooey goodies for later in the day. I can recall stopping in here when I was just 5 years old; operating for over 80 years, it is a treasure offering great baked goods. We also made the obligatory stop at Bruce’s Candy Kitchen, making salt water taffy since 1963 (along with homemade chocolates and other sugary delights). Its large front windows afford a view of the very old, complex machinery that pulls, cuts and wraps the taffy. That day the storefront was decorated for Halloween, and I added a few seasonal flavors of taffy (oh, yes, there was pumpkin spice!) to my bag.

We poked into several shops; this was a whole new experience for granddaughter June, who was born just a few months before the pandemic hit and hasn’t really been in many stores. She charmed shopkeepers while she wandered around displays that dazzled her senses and kept her hands (mostly) to herself. The one exception was the bookstore where, like her grandma, she had a hard time not wanting to open every book. She also enjoyed people- and dog-watching; it’s a very pet-friendly community, and it seems like every other person on the street is accompanied by at least one pooch.

We stopped at a tried-and-true favorite for lunch, Public Coast Brewing Co., rightly always popular for both its house brews and great fish and chips. Then it was home for a nap (June was not the only one who indulged) before we hit the beach for some sand time. The weather remained gray but calm, dry and warm-ish, and June was not at all shy about getting both wet and sandy and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Cannon Beach offers a long, wide expanse of fine, soft sand, with the added bonus of monolithic and very photogenic Haystack Rock and its tidepools.

Our weekend proved all too short; after a bit of splash time in our complex’s indoor pool the next morning, we packed up and headed for home. We deemed our first girls’ weekend post-pandemic a huge success, and we look forward to many more in the years to come.

— Patty Vanikiotis, associate editor/copy editor