I have pictures from Yachats at ages of bout 1-3. This was before siblings so it's just my parents, about ages 24 and 23 and looking SOO young. I actually have some memories of those trips when it was just the three of us - finding driftwood, playing in the sand, etc. It was a really loving and fun time.
Not growing up in that area, we still made time to get out there every 1-2 years as my own kids were growing up, trying to duplicate some of that. It mostly worked as they both talk happily about those trips. Wish we'd bought a house there in the 70s, when they were still $50,000 or so. But my young parents just didn't have that kind of money. We couldn't even afford television - probably could but that money went to fiddle lessons for me. Priorities.
Dad had a second job with the National Guard, for 25 years! That's how we made ends meet. I didn't even get to to leave the 3-state Pacific Northwest region until age 15. California was right down there, beckoning like a siren. Mom & Dad had honeymooned there, but we never went. For me, the first time was age 18 when a group of friends planned our own senior trip and cycled/camped the entire Oregon coast from the Columbia River at Astoria all the way down to the California border. That was quite an undertaking.
