Simply Margaret

Do you have a place to go where your heart, mind and soul are instantly at peace?

That place for me is Gearhart, Oregon.

Gearhart is a small town on the Oregon Coast that is just north of Seaside and Cannon Beach, and just south of Astoria. The town, according to Wikipedia, was named for Phillip Gearhart, a farmer and settler who came to Oregon from Independence, Missouri. He attained 1,748 acres over the course of 12 years, and settled there on a farm with his family. Through the building of a railroad that traveled from Seaside to Astoria in 1889, more and more people (especially Portlanders who came off the ferry in Astoria) became attracted to Gearhart for picnics and pleasantries, and they eventually built their own homes as well.

My grandparents started renting houses on the coast for vacations until the later 1960s, until they settled on this one.

This house, formally called “Lark Hill”, is a treasured Gearhart Landmark, meaning that it has been around longer than most of the houses in this town of 1,450 occupants. The house sits on a small hill on the edge of town that is just high enough for a spectacular view of the Pacific. The edge of those front steps is one of the best seats in the house, as the vision is breathtaking, especially for those majestic Gearhart sunsets.

Since this house has been in my family for over 50 years, I have been lucky enough to have spent quite a bit of time here. Every summer until I was 16, my family would spend 3 consecutive weeks at Lark Hill. I don’t ever remember being bored while staying here, as we didn’t need to depend on what was going on in the “Real World” until we got home. My two sisters and I would spend countless hours at the beach building sandcastles, riding bikes to the local grocery store (we only knew it as the “candy store”), swinging in the hanging basket chair, and playing numerous card and board games. There were no TVs and no smartphones, so it forced us to focus on each other and find other ways of entertaining ourselves together as a family.

Now that I’m an adult, the house has incurred a few changes here and there. There are more modern furnishings inside, and a flatscreen TV now stands where the hanging basket chair swung its final swing. Pictures of favorite past memories line the hall upstairs, and the rest stay in a small basket on the coffee table downstairs for those who feel so inclined to reminisce. The kitchen has been updated from its original form, and there are now showers in both bathrooms.

However, with all the changes that have happened, the floor still creaks every time you take a step, and the boards of the walls that separate each room still might as well be made of paper. The rusty old bikes with the child’s seats in the back stay parked by the dining room table, and the view of the ocean from the twin bedroom upstairs will always be the best view in the house. And greatest of all, the path for a two-minute walk to the beach is still the same one my family has used for decades.

Most importantly, what hasn’t changed is the feeling of calm, serenity, and relaxation I get when thinking of and being in this wonderful home away from home. In this age of busyness, stress and always needing to depend on connection to the outside world, we need to take a step back every now and then to remind ourselves of simpler times where all we needed to inspire and entertain ourselves was our five senses and a little creativity. Smelling and almost tasting the salty sea air, feeling the sand squish between our toes, hearing the ocean’s roar and looking out at a sunrise or sunset that artists could only dream of emulating is my idea of bliss. The people will come and go, but the feeling upon returning is similar.

Gearhart is my favorite place in the world. It is my heart’s home.

Do you have a favorite place to visit? Tell me about it in the comments below!