Pacific NW vacation pt.1: Seaside
Oct. 11th, 2004 | 06:41 pm
Got back from vacation in the Pacific NW yesterday. It was a good trip for the most part, but I think I’m still recovering from a lack of sleep on the train down from Seattle (more on that later). Luckily, I didn’t have work today so I’ve gotten to sit at home and relax before going back to work tomorrow. I was considering not writing much, if anything, about the trip. But right now I’m looking for anything to do so I don’t have to go through the gut-wrenching agony of Game 5 of the Astros-Braves series. I’ve prepared myself for another Astros defeat, but to actually watch it happen would be more than I could bear. So here’s part one of a vacation recap:
The first two nights of the trip were spent at the small Oregon coastal town of Seaside. What was Seaside like, you ask? The best I can come up with is a third-rate Santa Cruz or Coney Island. The town itself is pretty much a shithole, but we decided to stay because the hostel there was cheap and it’s a good place from which to explore the Northern part of the Oregon coast. The hostel was only $39 a night for a private room. The room was clean and comfortable and they had a lot of good stuff like kayaks for rent, a washer/dryer, a community kitchen and a big movie library. We didn’t make use of most of these perks, but we did use the kitchen to make some sandwiches and we watched most of Harold & Maude with another hostel guest. Fortunately, it wasn’t the same guest who I met the next morning when we were checking out. She was some kind of nutcase survivalist who gave me a bunch of topographical maps showing me where there were secret meeting spots in the Oregon wilderness. She also gave me a Smokey the Bear button.
In addition to checking out what little Seaside had to offer (the usual beach boardwalk excitement of bumper cars, arcade games, ice cream and corn dogs), we also made a trip down the coast to Cannon Beach, which turned out to be Oregon’s version of Northern California’s Carmel. For those of you that aren’t familiar with Carmel or Cannon Beach, we’re talking cafes, art galleries and boutique shops. In other words, pretty fucking annoying. Admittedly, there were a few cool places, but overall it had that touristy feeling that I kind of hate. The beach down there was cool, though. The most enjoyable part of this excursion was the long walk we took along the Pacific near Haystack Rock.
We’d planned to do more hiking elsewhere on the coast, but![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
decadentscholar came down with a mild case of food poisoning from something she ate in Cannon Beach earlier in the day. That was the definite low point of this part of this part of the trip. Highlights were a walk along the beach late at night (it was pitch black out there except for the occasional beach bonfire which was a little eerie but very cool) and the dinner we had on the first night of the trip at a place called the Pacific Way Café in Gearhart (a tiny town near Seaside that barely makes it on the map). It was the best meal we had the entire trip and we had a lot of good ones.
To come: Astoria, Portland, Seattle and the Amtrak ride home from Seattle.
The first two nights of the trip were spent at the small Oregon coastal town of Seaside. What was Seaside like, you ask? The best I can come up with is a third-rate Santa Cruz or Coney Island. The town itself is pretty much a shithole, but we decided to stay because the hostel there was cheap and it’s a good place from which to explore the Northern part of the Oregon coast. The hostel was only $39 a night for a private room. The room was clean and comfortable and they had a lot of good stuff like kayaks for rent, a washer/dryer, a community kitchen and a big movie library. We didn’t make use of most of these perks, but we did use the kitchen to make some sandwiches and we watched most of Harold & Maude with another hostel guest. Fortunately, it wasn’t the same guest who I met the next morning when we were checking out. She was some kind of nutcase survivalist who gave me a bunch of topographical maps showing me where there were secret meeting spots in the Oregon wilderness. She also gave me a Smokey the Bear button.
In addition to checking out what little Seaside had to offer (the usual beach boardwalk excitement of bumper cars, arcade games, ice cream and corn dogs), we also made a trip down the coast to Cannon Beach, which turned out to be Oregon’s version of Northern California’s Carmel. For those of you that aren’t familiar with Carmel or Cannon Beach, we’re talking cafes, art galleries and boutique shops. In other words, pretty fucking annoying. Admittedly, there were a few cool places, but overall it had that touristy feeling that I kind of hate. The beach down there was cool, though. The most enjoyable part of this excursion was the long walk we took along the Pacific near Haystack Rock.
We’d planned to do more hiking elsewhere on the coast, but
decadentscholar came down with a mild case of food poisoning from something she ate in Cannon Beach earlier in the day. That was the definite low point of this part of this part of the trip. Highlights were a walk along the beach late at night (it was pitch black out there except for the occasional beach bonfire which was a little eerie but very cool) and the dinner we had on the first night of the trip at a place called the Pacific Way Café in Gearhart (a tiny town near Seaside that barely makes it on the map). It was the best meal we had the entire trip and we had a lot of good ones. To come: Astoria, Portland, Seattle and the Amtrak ride home from Seattle.
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Astros win!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oct. 11th, 2004 | 10:26 pm
I'm so goddamn happy right now, you have no idea. After 43 years of futility (24 of which I've suffered through as a fan), the Astros finally got through the first round of the playoffs by beating the living shit out of the Braves 12-3. To see them beat the hated Braves so definitively was gratifying as hell. I was going apeshit over here, especially when Bagwell hit the 2-run shot to make it 8-2. That's when I knew we were gonna win. I don't even care if St. Louis kills us in the NLCS (although I'll probably be singing a different tune come game time Wednesday night). I'm going to savor this moment for awhile.