Saturday, 9 September 2017
Cannon Beach Cottage and Garden Tour
a benefit for the Cannon Beach History Center and Museum
For the second year, the wording of the cottage tour description included “dream homes”.
I gleaned that there were a couple of reasons for this. In recent years, some larger homes have been featured. It had become more difficult to find historic small cottages, as many have been remodeled and enlarged. (I find that heart rending but I am probably in the minority. I’m an avid watcher of tiny house shows on HGTV and I appreciate the small and humble.) I admire the tour organizers for changing the description to reflect the new reality of the tour, and I appreciate their efforts in finding as many small cottages as possible.
So far today, we been touring in the low lying neighbourhood north of the Ecola Creek estuary.
We were about to go uphill to the ocean view ridge. A docent at the last cottage we had viewed noticed my decrepitude and suggested we drive to the last two homes because of a steep hill. While I have never in the past, no matter how hobbled, resorted to driving on this tour, I am glad we took his advice.
Our route took us up this hill. Walking tour-goers took the stairs.
Mindy’s Cottage
You can read Mindy’s blog here.
I met Mindy’s delightful cat.
I wish I had gone out there and looked back.
Driving around the block took us to the wealthiest homes on the ridge.
ocean view home

From steps down to the dune path, north side, you can see why the house is bigger on the inside than it looks on the outside.
The gate pivots vertically though the outer edges taper outwards. Allan admired that the offset upper hinge is the solution.
Allan went to the lower level:
postscript
We walked half a block to a view point.
I sometimes wish we had put a circular drive in our front garden, so that we would not have to unhook the work trailer at night.

Allan’s photo of another house nearby
Although there be many mansions, the beaches in Oregon are public. You can read the history, here.
We drove back through the flatlands.
We wanted to look at Pam Fleming’s downtown Seaside gardens. Unfortunately for us, the street was blocked off for a car show and we were out of energy to find a parking spot nearby.
Pam’s diligent watering of the Seaside hanging baskets has paid off beautifully. She stands and counts (to one minute, I think) as she waters each one daily.
Thus ends one of the most anticipated events of our summer, and with it comes the end of tourist season. I am already looking forward to next year’s cottage tour.