Cannon Beach is located on the Pacific Northwest Coast of Oregon, 80 miles west of Portland, and is listed as “One of the World’s 100 Most Beautiful Places” by National Geographic.  I would definitely have to agree and the research I had done prior did not prepare me for the true rugged beauty of the entire area.  Wendy and I were almost giddy upon our check in at our hotel, Seasprite on the Estuary.  On top of being right on the beach, our place was absolutely beautiful.  More like small apartments than a hotel, the Seasprite has five units, each with a small kitchen and balcony overlooking the Pacific Ocean and estuary.   There are no hotel type amenities on site such as restaurants or room service but the quaint seaside town of Cannon Beach is within walking distance and has quite a few great places to eat and shop.  But, our reason for being there was not to shop (although we did a bit) – we wanted to spend as much time as possible on the beach, toes in the sand, in search of starfish and sand dollars. And of course you can’t talk about Cannon Beach without mentioning Haystack Rock.  The iconic seastack, jutting 238 feet out of the Pacific, is a sight to behold and is where we had hoped to find those illusive starfish.  The first day, no such luck – we had chosen to drive the Three Capes Coastal Drive and missed low tide.  The next morning we were planning on heading out and figured we probably had missed our opportunity.  But, as luck would have it, as we were heading out of town, we decided to stop and take just one more picture of Haystack Rock. It turned out to be a great decision–As we pulled in and parked, our eyes could not believe the sight of all those tidepools and hundreds of multi-colored starfish clinging to Haystack Rock.  What a wonderful memory and a great way to end our visit to Cannon Beach.