Cannon Beach and Seaside, Oregon and Seattle, Washington

November 16-27, 2025

Brandy returned from the work trip that caused her to miss the November Blue October show on November 8.

Five days later, we were on the road again, driving across the country.

Well, Ash and I did, anyway…

Even prior to her trip to northern California, Brandy knew she was going to have to be back in southern California at one of her properties in Palm Desert for a required resident meeting on November 15. With a planned trip to Cannon Beach at that same time, there were some logistics that needed to be worked out.

So, here’s what we wound up doing. The evening of November 13, after work, the three of us left. We stopped in Des Moines at the Days Inn & Suites that we normally stay at when we need to, whether before an early flight out, or after a late arrival in. Brandy checked in for her early flight out on the 14th while Ash and I continued on.

We stopped in one of our frequent haunts, the Motel 6 in Kearney, Nebraska. I had just gotten a new BiPAP the day before and was going to take it on its inaugural run but, lo and behold, I somehow managed to pack everything EXCEPT the mask. I had the machine and the hose, but there was nothing to strap to my head.

Ruh-roh.

With little left to do, I powered through with no mask, waking up entirely too frequently, and finally getting up and moving on way too early. We continued on our next day of driving, stopping off at a Motel 6 in Rock Springs, WY. This one was a little more dilapidated than the ones we frequent, but it got by, and again, with no machine to assist me in breathing, it was another pre-dawn departure for us.

We made our next stop in Nampa and visited with my parents for a few hours where I was able to procure a temporary replacement mask from my dad who uses a similar, but not quite identical setup as I have. It was a mask, that’s all I cared about. I accepted it graciously and we chatted, ate, and played some Mexican Train before we left and checked in to the Holiday Inn Express for a GREAT night’s sleep.

Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, we headed out the next morning, now on the 16th, toward our, well, kind of final destination.

Ash and I made the gorgeous drive through the Columbia River Gorge in a misty rain and pulled in to the Portland airport cell phone lot a mere minutes before Brandy landed on her return from southern California. We grabbed her and made the last of our drive in to Cannon Beach, then after a solo trip to the Safeway in Seaside for supplies for the week (and an anniversary card for Brandy), I returned to finally settle as a family for a single night.

Seattle

Since we were in the area, I offered to go on-site and visit the hospital where the users I support work. The idea was roundly approved and encouraged so early on the morning of the 17th, I made the 4 hour drive, leaving, again, pre-dawn, through some of the darkest landscape I have ever encountered in my life. I was also half-conscious and driving through unfamiliar roads that twisted and turned along the banks of rivers and seashores. I was certain I was going to wreck on numerous occasions, but thankfully, I made it in one piece.

I headed to my hotel, a funky little place called Staypineapple. Deep in the University district, it was pretty close to the hospital I would be visiting. After circling the hotel searching for a parking spot either in a garage tall enough for Clyde to fit into, or an open-air spot, I finally found an open lot right across the street from the hotel. It was entirely too early for me to check in, but by the time I got there, I had to pee so bad. I was struggling, trying to gather my things so I could run into the hotel and go to the bathroom, but quickly realized I wasn’t going to make it. I tried to unzip my pants to pee in the parking lot but didn’t get it done in time and wound up fully pissing my pants.

Yup, I pissed my pants in the parking lot across from the hotel I would be staying at, in the only pair of office pants I’d brought with me. Luckily I brought a pair of jeans, “just in case”, now “just in case” was here, so, again, in the parking lot, an open-air parking lot, with apartment buildings peering out on to me, I changed into the jeans I’d brought as a backup.

Finally making my way into the hotel, I used their restroom to get as cleaned up as I was able to under the circumstances, then, with my backpack in tow, went to the lobby to hail an Uber.

There was a woman there who was also waiting for an Uber to take her to the hospital so she generously offered to let me ride along with her. Upon reflection, I just think she wanted company because she talked my ear off the entire 20 minute drive to the hospital. I learned more about her during that drive than I ever knew about myself. It was OK though, I nodded when appropriate, gasped at the right times and murmured in approval when needed.

We finally arrived at the hospital and was thankful she was going in the opposite direction than I.

My time in Seattle was largely uneventful, my primary end-user effectively acting as my chauffer the whole time, me Door Dashing dinners both evenings then, I departed the hospital for the final time at about 1:00 pm on November 19 to make the return drive back to Cannon Beach.

The one other thing I will mention about my time in Seattle is about the Staypineapple hotel. What a cute and quirky place this was! They offered a stuffed Husky on the bed to take and a $25 donation to a University-led foundation would be charged to the room. They offered a reusable metal bottle of water with a refilling station in the lobby and each guest was offered a paper coaster that was redeemable for a beverage out of a fridge in the lobby, everything from more water, sodas, and even beers were available.

The spare toilet paper roll was dressed like a pineapple for crying out loud!

Don’t judge me in my not-pissed in jeans, pineapple toilet paper!

Cannon Beach

I returned to Cannon Beach on November 19, which happened to be our 4th wedding anniversary. On my way in to town, I stopped at the Safeway in Seaside and, among other things, picked up a bouquet of flowers for Brandy then headed back to her.

There is only a double bed in the one bedroom in the cabin where we stayed, the same cabin we stayed in on our initial visit to Cannon Beach the previous June.

With such tight quarters and a BiPAP mask that wasn’t sealing properly, Brandy slept in that bed while I slept on the futon in the living room.

I continued the rest of that week, and the first half of the following week, working from that living room, Brandy working from either the bedroom or the office of the property she manages.

Friday, I stepped out onto the deck to find half a dozen elk grazing on some bushes in front of the store right across the way from our cabin.

After they’d had their fill, they made their way up a long hill that acts as a driveway to a private residence on the property.

Later that day, the group came back down the hill, seemingly having picked up more in their group along the way. I figure there were about 10 deer in this group. Soon after what I thought was the last of them sauntered by, the king daddy came down, pulling up the rear of his herd.

Over the weekend, we did take a little shop stroll through downtown Cannon Beach, including an anniversary/birthday dinner for me at Driftwood Restaurant.

Portland’s Outlet Mall and Seaside

Saturday, the 22nd, we headed out to the Woodburn Premium Outlet Mall and did some more shopping there. Previous trips to outlet malls taught me a valuable lesson and I took our collapsible wagon with us. Sure enough, we filled it up with all of our purchases.

The next day, we made the short drive up the coast to Seaside to visit the Seaside Carousel Mall, a regular-degular mall that is built around a full-sized, functioning carousel. Now, I’ve seen malls with carousels in them before, like the Cottonwood Mall in Albuquerque has a carousel in it, but this one was… different. There was a definite “sleepy seaside town mall” boardwalk-y, promenade-y vibe about this place.

We strolled around a bit, made a few minor purchases then headed down the street to the beach, a short two blocks away. We took some pictures, then headed back toward the truck, stopping at a few more shops along the way.

We made it back to the mall, back to Clyde then before you knew it we were back in Cannon Beach for our last half-week there.

Thanksgiving Departure and Another Pivot

We said our good-byes to Cannon Beach on Thanksgiving morning and made the 8-ish hour drive back to Nampa and had a light Thanksgiving dinner with my parents before retiring at the My Place Hotel. I suppose it’s worth mentioning, we did stop at Multnomah Falls as Brandy did not have a chance to visit when I did last summer.

After another stop in Rock Springs, WY, and another in North Platte, NE, we made our way back toward Iowa stopping in Des Moines to drop Brandy back at the same Quality Inn & Suites we’d dropped her at on our way out of town. And I will tell you why.

The Blue October Debacle

So, here’s what happened.

As a reminder, Brandy missed the Blue October concert on November 2 because she inadvertently booked a flight out of town on the 1st.

I found a “replacement” show in Peoria, IL, which is only about 3 hours from home, on December 4. It was apparently a make-up date for a show they had to cancel earlier on in the tour so there were still some good seats available. As soon as we realized Brandy was going to miss the Nov 2 show, I picked up some third row tickets for this replacement show, knowing we’d be back from Cannon Beach in plenty of time to make that show…

Welllll…

During the last days of our stay in Cannon Beach, Brandy got the call that their head accountant, who gatekeeped… gatekept? Who siloed a TON of information, was leaving in short order and Brandy and her colleagues would have to fly to San Diego to extract said information from him, and this trip was now scheduled for December 1-3.

It would make no sense to pass the airport to go home, then turn around and drive her right back to the airport for an early flight out the very next morning, so we once more dropped her in Des Moines and Ash and I continued on home without her.

Conclusion

What a whirlwind of a trip. I hardly saw Brandy during it, I spent some time in Seattle, it rained the entire time we were there, we did LOTS of shopping, saw my parents twice, including on Thanksgiving, and had to completely re-work our follow-up adventure (which, in and of itself came with its own set of challenges) but it was a nice getaway.

The few pictures I took on this trip are… ah, well, you know where they are.

Stay tuned for the final post from 2025 coming up shortly. It’s another that shan’t be missed.

See you there!

-Phil