I agree, Jane, Cannon Beach is very sweet--just your kind of town. However, the only convenient beach access has a few (concrete) steps. Seaside (just a few miles further north) is little more tourist-y, but it's easier to walk onto the beach--virtually all of the alphabet avenues simply end at the beach. I had never really liked Seaside before I got an all summer gig at a little community theater over there (it sadly only lasted one season). I would drive down on Wednesday night, do Thursday and Friday night shows, a Saturday matinee and Saturday evening, then drive like a bat out of hell back to Portland to be able to get a few hours sleep before my church gig on Sunday. But I really fell in love with Seaside that summer and it's one of the big reasons we ended up buying a Trendwest timeshare there (we can use it all over the world, but it was having a regular place to go to in Seaside that did the deal).
If you want another cool place (although I haven't been there in years), Pacific City is also very quaint, and much, much smaller than either Seaside or Cannon Beach.