There's No Place Like Camp 18

We love Camp 18. It is one of our most favorite places to go out here in the northwest. About 80% of our travels to/from the coast include a stop at this incredible restaurant. We have so many wonderful memories there as we always try to take family and friends who visit for a meal.

One of the most memorable was when we stopped there after our awesome family reunion at Tolovana on the way back to Portland. We filled up the whole table made to seat somewhere around 30-40 people. (The top of the table is made of a huge and I mean HUGE slab from a ginormous tree trunk.) Then there are other fun memories with our parents, the time we went with Andy and we laughed our heads off at his gigantic hamburger - the bun was the size of a loaf of round bread. (Everything there is big) I remember going there when I was pregnant with either Natalie or Angela, feeling sick, but the French toast there hit the spot and made me feel better. (They have the best French toast ever.) Camp 18 is a happy place for us filled with years of good family memories. My family is hooked and always asks to go there when they come out.
This particular night was January 10th. We stopped on the way home from an afternoon at Cannon Beach. I took some engagement pictures while my nice family tagged along and tried to keep warm as they played on the beach. We were all pretty cold and nothing sounded better than a cup of hot chocolate at Camp 18.

We hadn't been there for a while, but the lady that hosts there remembered us. We have kind of a funny history with her. I think her name is Laura. She managed a bakery in Cannon Beach a couple years ago. One afternoon, we walked into her bakery and bought a peanut butter cookie. We split the cookie amongst ourselves and continued walking along the main street. But the cookie was so good, we turned back around to get another one to share. This time we sat outside the bakery and enjoyed the cookie together. We just needed one more. So I went back in again. Laura thought we were funny and I'm pretty sure was flattered that we enjoyed her cookies so much. She loved the girls and talked to us for a while.

We brought Kip's* parents the following week to have one of her yummy cookies. The next time we went there, a few months later, it was a deli and not a bakery anymore. Laura was gone. Maybe a year later, we walked into Camp 18 with my family and I couldn't figure out how I knew the hostess. She remembered first - the peanut butter cookie addicts. Now every time we go there she asks when we're moving to the coast. She is always so sweet to the girls and this time she took them over to the fireplace and let them each pick one of the giant pine cones they were playing with to take home.

Camp 18 is a HUGE restaurant/museum dedicated to the history of the logging industry here in the northwest. The building is built of huge logs (imagine a gigantic log cabin). The log that spans the ceiling must be 70 feet or more across and at least a dozen feet in diameter. There is a huge fireplace that is lit in the winter and all kinds of old time pictures, logging tools, animal horns, stuffed mountain lion, etc. The outside of the restaurant has several bigger than life size carvings out of logs of animals, people, bigfoot, etc. And all around the building and in the parking lot are old gigantic logging equipment/tools, train cars and signs. It is a very cool place. We also enjoy perusing the little gift shop and finding fun little trinkets and souvenirs.