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Hello! I'm Suzannah, a serious DIYer and mom of two little ones. Follow along with my DIY fixer upper house renovations, sewing and crafty projects, real food recipes, and de-stressing goals.
I believe you can love your home just the way it is, AND have the power to design and make big changes to make it better.
I'm also the author of DIY Wardrobe Makeovers!

This is how we do the beach.

It's so hard to slow down and take a break sometimes, but I know it's good for me. So this time of year, when we have things to celebrate and nice weather and sometimes time off from school or work, we love to get away for a minibreak!

This year marks 10 years of dating my husband. We're so used to celebrating June 14 as our "anniversary" that I'm sure we'll never forget it, even though now we also have a wedding anniversary. For most of the past 10 years (9 anniversaries), we've celebrated by getting away for a weekend or night (granted, early anniversary trips when we were 18 or 19 or however old were in comparison not quite as, er, luxurious as they are now!).

Seems like I always have similar sentiments about our anniversary getaways, too. (2013: funny old pics, vacation pics from Bend, Oregon. 2012: funny old pics, vacation pics from Long Beach, Washington.)

This year we said, let's go somewhere new. We always go to Seaside, let's find a new town to go to. (Verified after this trip: you can seriously run out of things to do in Seaside over 2-3 days. Although that can be a good thing on a relaxing, not-much-to-do trip!) But, I found a good hotel deal for Seaside first and figured, take some stress away and just buy this one rather than continuing to shop around. So we stayed at a simple hotel in Seaside and drove up and down the coast a little to explore and try some new food and beaches.

I just love the drive from the Portland area to the northern Oregon coast. It's pretty much a straight shot on a smooth, 2-3 lane highway, but it's just beautiful going through the coast range. We stopped for a mini-hike at this amazing place on our way!
My IG

We did drive to a few other towns on the northern coast, got to visit some beaches we don't always see. It's just incredible how many miles of lovely sandy playgrounds there are on our coast. Like, anywhere you go, it's a great place to hang out!

We were so lucky to have the blue sky, too!

Our hotel was right on the Seaside Promenade, a historic 1.5 mile long pedestrian route and a great place to walk in the mornings and to and from dinner and the beach. (You might recognize it from my post last week--I got a chance to wear a halter dress I recently made!)

I know it's kinda nerdy, but I love bringing our own food and coffee from home when we can. I brought our French press, electric kettle, ground coffee, and some easy-to-prepare breakfast foods so we could enjoy breakfast in our room. There was a kitchenette, so washing a few dishes and keeping food cold was easy. I won't like, the main reason I like to do this is because it's dang expensive to go out to eat for 3 meals/day for a whole trip, but I defend my practice for other reasons, too, aside from my thriftiness. Such as, 1) Can have whatever the heck we want, and don't have to potentially be stuck with foods that don't make me feel my best, 2) Don't have to talk to any other people first thing in the morning, and 3) Can hang out in my pajamas and relax while eating, just like I like to do at home on my favorite quiet weekend mornings.

We ate our simple, quality breakfasts in the morning light of the window overlooking the ocean and watching the waves. Pretty perfect vacation mornings to me!
My IG
On Tuesday afternoon (a Tuesday! When I'm normally hurrying to wrap up my day at work!) we hung out in the partial sun and ate a sweet young coconut on the beach. (Because who cares it wasn't a tropical place? It was fun and delicious.) We goofed around in the sand and did yoga and gymnastics!

Want to see one of the proudest moments of my life? ;)
No, seriously, though, this was amazing. #neverbeenabletodothisbefore #workingonstrength

So nice that it was warm enough for frolicking in the (usually freezing) ocean! Literally, frolicking!


As hard as it is to leave my routine, it always feels so good to spend some time unwinding and enjoy a slower pace in a calm, uncomplicated place. So grateful we had the opportunity last weekend. Even just looking through these pictures has made me extra happy!

22 comments

  1. we love the cannery pier hotel in Astoria if you need another place to explore!

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  2. Looks like a lovely weekend away! It's funny, I totally empathise with you on the inability-to-relax front, I find I've always got something to do, either chores or sewing/knitting/crafting stuff, it's hard to let go sometimes and just enjoy life y'know? Even crafting, which I obviously enjoy, can sometimes become a bit of a chore so it's good to take a proper break once in a while. I'm going to take a leaf out of your book!

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  3. Ooh, thanks!! I'm going to keep working on them!

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  4. Thanks for the rec, will have to look into that place for one of our next trips!!

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  5. Ah, definitely. I totally know what you mean. So hard to set aside the to-dos even of fun stuff. Taking a break does make me come back at least a little refreshed!

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  6. Love it! Every so often I get away to Newport and stay at a condo in Nye Beach rented through vrbo.com. It's a block away from the beach, and within driving distance of many delightful places along that stretch of the coast. I enjoy renting a condo because I can cook rather than eating out all the time. Have also rented in Sisters, in New York City for more than a long weekend, and even in Forest Heights when my home was being remodeled a few years ago. No affiliation with VRBO-- I just like renting a home sometimes when I travel.

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  7. I love the coast—it's seriously my favorite place to be. And I'm a big fan of bringing food on vacation, too! It definitely keeps costs down, and who needs all that grease and fat for the first meal of the day when you eat out for breakfast?

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  8. Love the pics and love the bring your own food idea. Thanks for sharing! You brightened up a sad morning for me :)

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  9. I'm glad other people think like we do and bring your own food, there is nothing worse than as you said "not feeling your best" after dinning out someplace. We live in Idaho and will have to move our anniversary from Oct to June and drive over to the coast and give it a try, because it looked like sooooo much fun, thanks

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  10. I love Oregon's natural beauty! You're very lucky to live there :)

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  11. Love that you both played in the sand! I love having kitchenettes too so that I don't feel wasteful if I can't finish my dinner at a restaurant because portions are so big, and yes it's expensive to dine out all meals! I have to admit though that we don't bring much with us, and never thought of bringing coffee (particularly because we use an espresso maker)- one of the things I adore is by being forced to visit a local coffee shop in the morning for F's caffeine fix it's still quieter at that time and we can get a little feel for the place we're staying, maybe talk to a local, and get a little morning walk in on our coffee quest.

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  12. Congrats on the handstand!


    We love Seaside! The beach is so nice for little kids! We normally don't stay there overnight, though...we usually just do day trips. However, we camped at Cape Lookout, which is like 40 minutes away, last summer and it was great!

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  13. I've rented through them before, too, with a big group! Awesome that they have places just about everywhere you could want to go!

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  14. Mine too, it's like my happy place! =) I do best with high-fat, high-protein breakfasts, but I prefer it to be from high quality local pastured animal sources, not the kind of vegetable fats I would probably find at a restaurant at the coast! ;)

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  15. Yep!
    Weather at the Oregon coast is a total toss-up most of the year, but I've had fantastic warm weather there in August and early September!

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  16. Nice! I'd love to do more camping at the coast, think I need to plan farther ahead, since the camp sites are often full when I've checked!

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  17. Ahh this looks like so much fun! I'm so grateful to live so close to as many beaches as I could possibly wish for so when I'm inspired by things like this, I can just get up and go (once I get my driver's license, that is)!

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  18. Love the pictures! Everything is so beautiful. I can't wait to get into yoga, I love that you can do a handstand and are working on progressing (: Also- what a great idea to take a coffee maker/breakfast foods so you can relax and enjoy the morning in a cost-effective way, to boot!

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  19. Thank you!!
    I like yoga occasionally for mobility work, but I've really made progress through strength training with heavy weights! It's so empowering!

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  20. Hooray for making your own coffee on vacation! My boyfriend and I bring our own most of the tie too.

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