Seaside Traditions

My brother-in-law brought a shovel and sand toys down to the beach and the guys helped the kids dig a moat around an area the kids could build a sandcastle on.  The kids dug and filled buckets with sand, dumped them out, and started all over again.

They waited patiently for a big wave to come in and fill their moat.

When the big wave finally came, it came in fast! My brother-in-law thought quickly enough to pick up my bag off the sand before it got soaked!

Success! The moat is filled with water.

One of my all-time favorite things about Seaside, and most certainly a tradition, is the Tilt-A-Whirl!!  I LOVE it and so do the girls and most of my family.  We rode it three times and wished we could justify riding it more.  Mark suggested we let Garrett ride.  I didn't think it was a good idea, but he had a blast.  He went twice and cried that he couldn't go again.  I am sincerely surprised it didn't scare him.  Proof that he's my boy!!

Courtney, Melanie, and Dan (Courtney's husband) riding the Tilt-A-Whirl.

Another tradition we have to do while in Seaside is go the Seaside Candyman to spin the prize wheel and get salt water taffy.  You can get ice cream there for 75 cents a scoop too! When you get ice cream there they say to everyone, ". . .and a little extra just for you because you're special." But somehow when they say it to everyone else who gets ice cream, you don't feel so special:) We didn't get ice cream this time, so we didn't get to hear them say it.

How do you choose among all those flavors of taffy??  I need to mention that the song "The Candyman" plays over and over and over in the store and sticks in your head all day.

Mark and Anna outside the Seaside Candy Man.

This isn't exactly a tradition, but quite often we ride the carousel in Seaside.  I could go to Seaside and not have the kids ride the carousel, but I HAVE to ride the Tilt-A-Whirl and go to the Candyman.

When we used to go downtown or to Saturday Market in Portland when I was a kid, we would often get an elephant ear, which is a big, flat piece of fried dough dusted with cinnamon sugar which looks much like an elephant ear.  Mark and the kids had never tried one.