Monday morning is Alton's "Music Together" class, so we planned to leave for the coast after that. But where to go? We have only been out there two other times: once to Tillamook (the cheese factory) and the Cape Meares lighthouse, and once to Cannon Beach (one of the little touristy beach towns). Newport, Ore. boasts a big snazzy aquarium, but was a few hours farther than we wanted to drive for a 24-hr road trip. Our choices seemed to boil down to Astoria and Seaside. Astoria definitely had the Goonies charm going for it, but since "Seaside" is the title of this post, I guess you know we elected to go there. Just an hour from our house, nice paved promenade on the beach for walking, little touristy shops, and apparently the oldest aquarium on the West Coast! Sounds like a winner. We found a dog-friendly hotel online, packed up the car and headed west.
Before visiting the Oregon Coast, I remembered hearing raves about its beauty and wasn't really sure what to expect. I mean, I'm from California; we kind of already "do" beaches there. The Oregon coast isn't beachy in that respect. It's misty and foggy and the air is very damp and moist, and the seacoast is full of these incredible craggy rocks and little mountains covered in evergreens that seem to grow right up to the edge of the water. Yes, there are plenty of places with sand and playgrounds and families building castles and people playing frisbee with their dogs, but the draw lies much more in the sight of those huge trees silhouetted against the grey skies. We actually had fair, sunny weather with only a little bit of marine layer, not much wind, and temps probably mid to high 60s, so Alton wore long pants and sleeves, but we didn't need coats (although of course we had to have Alton wear a hat...here he is with the debut of Mommy's latest knitted creation!).
Alton has only been to the beach one other time in his recollection: this past summer at Avila Beach. The texture of the sand, interesting rocks, and motion of the waves were all fascinating to him!
In the video below, you can see the little guy enjoying the view of the surf, walking backwards (which he does in imitation of Andy, stepping ahead of Alton to take pictures), and doing his awesome crazy run. There are a lot of high knees, flailing arms, and cute little shrieks.
Seaside consists of one main drag off of the beach promenade, which is home to all of the shops and cafes appealing to tourists. There are three or four candy stores, a handful of ice cream shops, a smattering of clothing and crazy beach trinket stores, a few random places selling objets d'art, and of course several toy stores. After our beach exploration we popped into one of the ice cream places to get a couple of waffle cones with Alton-friendly flavors for the three of us to share (Yes, the THREE of us. Minerva got none.) and a spoon to make it easier for Alton to taste his share.
After a short demonstration of how to lick the ice cream cone, Alton caught on to this more fun method of eating the cold stuff and happily poked his tongue into the melting Cookie Dough.
With Daddy taking pictures and Mommy operating the video camera, Alton was only too glad to commandeer the cone for his own personal enjoyment--it was very hard to convince him to share it with us after that!
The beach shops up and down the Main Street all bore evidence to their brisk summer trade. Many places were making repairs or painting in their relaxed off-season, and a few places were even closed, with a sign on the door saying "See you next year!" I looked up and down the street, imagining the throngs of sunburnt tourists that must mill all over the streets and in and out of shops during the summer, and the posted signage definitely painted a picture of what that chaos must look like. The ice cream store where we purchased Alton's melting treat was tiny, but had no fewer than a dozen signs that said "Cash Only" posted about; clearly the place was used to being mobbed by distracted, sunglasses-sporting folks who were way more focused on choosing their flavor than on a discreet cash register notation, so overstating the "no credit card" policy was the way to go. Farther down the street, I marveled at how busy the summer must be for local businesses based on friendly service to be so...well...rude! Another ice cream shop prominently displayed a printed sign in the window saying, "No outside food. If you didn't buy it here, you can't eat it here. You can't bring it in. Even if other people buy ice cream." So the sign could certainly be considered curt by most, but compared to the rest of Oregon, a state whose collective sunny demeanor has been admired by my family since we moved here, this sign is a verbal slap in the face. I'm glad that we didn't have the opportunity to meet this sourpuss owner, since that business was closed for the season.
After the ice cream snack, we retired to our hotel room. We had luckily gotten a suite so that Alton didn't need to sleep in the same room as Andy and me. This is nice for us, since Alton goes to bed at 7pm and it means that we can stay up a little later, but Alton also sleeps better through the night in his own room; if he wakes up and sees us sleeping only inches away from him, he finds it very hard to go back to sleep! So we spread out in the hotel room; put sodas in the small fridge, set up Minerva's water dish, put Alton's bag of toys and books within easy reach. When traveling, I prefer to unpack, get organized, and "settle" as much as I can in my accommodations for a night or two (or more). I have an area for toiletries, one for dirty clothes, and even bring hangers with me to make use of closet space if there isn't a dresser handy. I'm not sure why I have this preference...is it just part of my drive for order in my life? A vestige from a past job when I used to travel a lot and wanted to make hotels feel more "homey"? Not sure. What about you? Do you prefer to unpack when traveling, or just grab things from your suitcase as needed? (Poll at right!)
We opened up the "local guide" binder at the hotel and flipped through the pages looking for a place to go for dinner. Most of the pages were three-hole-punched restaurant menus or reviews that had obviously been printed at home. None as obvious as a place called Dundee's--at least, we would sincerely hope that a professional printing press would have stopped the Dundee's proprietor from placing the words "Kid Friendly" under this picture!
Most of the businesses in Seaside seem to want to really emphasize that they cater to families--which makes sense in a beach vacation town--but this definitely seemed like one business that probably could re-think just how much they want kids to be eating there. We elected to go to a place called Taste of Tuscany, which Andy had spotted when we exited the freeway. What it might have lacked in Italian culinary authenticity (Okay, I know that I'm a harsh critic, but their antipasto platter came with colby cheddar and Keebler crackers!), it made up for in great service, a relaxing atmosphere, and admiration of Alton, how well he ate, and of his general cuteness. Here he is perusing the menu.
We had a leisurely meal before retiring home to put baby to bed, watch a DVD, and catch some Zzzs before Day 2 at the beach!
Well, speaking of knitted creations, here is Alton posing in his "letterman sweater," a sweater I knitted for him this past spring with a blue body and white/blue heathered sleeves, which gives the impression of a high school letterman jacket. He gets compliments every time he wears it, which I accept wholeheartedly!
The next day we woke up and grabbed breakfast at the Pig 'n Pancake (Heh. Yes, that's what it's called.) before taking in some more beach walking. The mountainous coast in the background...
...and the happy family enjoying their trip!
Alton "hanging out" on the promenade.
Peeking at Daddy with the camera.
One of the attractions that we'd planned to take in at Seaside was the aquarium, which at 70 years old claims to be the oldest on the whole west coast. The big draw of the aquarium is the "feed the seals" exhibit, of which you see evidence as soon as you enter the aquarium. A door off the beach promenade is open directly opposite a small ticket booth, where you pay your admission fee and squeeze through the turnstile directly adjacent to the SPLASH ZONE. A small sign reading "Seal Food. $1.00" sits in the booth window, and to your left is a narrow walkway that borders a tank with the seals in it. At least five or six seals in a tank that appeared to be about the size of the baby pool that Alton swims in; I was getting claustrophobic. Many of you might not know that I have a pretty hard time seeing wild animals in captivity--I am not a fan of zoos for this reason and had been deliberately avoiding places like that for a number of years. Lately I have been working to overcome this dislike for Alton's sake; the Portland Zoo is a pretty nice one, and I didn't want his mom's phobia to impact him adversely. I feel pretty comfortable there now for the most part, but the tiny seal tank of smallness at the Seaside Aquarium was another story. We didn't linger at that exhibit in the aquarium, although this was admittedly due in part to me not wanting our drive home to reek of stale fishy water after Alton got splashed by the seals in the tank. Anyway, we moved on into the main section of the aquarium, which was a room about 30 foot square with tanks lining the wall in single file with signs above and below them telling what kind of fish they contained. Kinda looked like a Petco, but without the fluorescent lights. Despite the exorbitant adult entry fee ($15 for the two of us!), the aquarium was perfect for Alton's current age, since gazing at fish swimming back and forth can occupy and entertain for much longer than it would take the rest of us to scan the sign listing the types of fish, glance at them, and move on. The aquarium also had a small touch tank with sea anemones, starfish, and urchins all cringing as far to the edges and under rocks as they could. Even still, Alton was able to pet a couple of anemones and starfish before we availed ourselves of the hand washing station and went back to the main street of Seaside.
Another of Seaside's tourist attractions is the Carousel. It too has some historical significance (which I don't remember), and also has the advantage of being covered, in a small indoor strip mall aptly named "Carousel Mall." There are a couple of hallways' worth of little shops off of the carousel in the center of the mall like spokes on a wheel. We paid Alton's admission to the carnie and mounted the giraffe, which was one of the few animals on the carousel that didn't go up and down. This was the carnie's suggestion, which I was glad to have taken because I didn't realize that this old carousel went really fast! The whirling motion was enough for Alton, and he spent most of the ride with a slightly open mouth gaping at his surroundings as they whisked by. He seemed to enjoy himself--when our ride stopped and I was unbuckling him, he said both "all done" and "more" to me!
We began walking back to the hotel to collect our things and get ready to drive home. Alton appreciated the chance to rest his legs by riding on Daddy's shoulders, and used his extra energy to point out all of the starfish decorations that adorned the lampposts in town: "Tar...tar...tar!"
An hour's drive later and we were home. Despite the fact that Hillsboro is the extreme westernmost city in the Portland metro area and the coast is a solid 50 miles away, there is not much in the way of towns on this drive. A few tiny roads with fruit/veggie stands or gas stations, and a couple of hamlets that you breeze through in less than a minute, but the majority of this drive is just an achingly beautiful view of trees, trees, trees. Thickly forested landscapes grow right up to the edge of the freeway, and miles of evergreens are interspersed with oak and maple (and other tree names that I don't know) that are currently ablaze with fall colors, in every hue of the red spectrum from auburn to crimson to pumpkin to a white-hot, highlighter yellow. The colors are gorgeous, and for many long stretches you can look to either side of the highway and see nothing but bare trunks, where the trees are so tall that the branches don't start on the tree until much higher than the roof of your car. You get the feeling that you are trekking through the mountains, but the roadsigns will inform you that you are at an elevation of only 500 ft! I had plenty of time to admire this natural beauty as I drove while Alton, Minerva, and Andy slept off their sandy seacoast fun. We stopped for lunch and then landed at home, where Alton gathered up his "things" and happily stretched out on Minerva's bed. Looks like she gets to find a new place to sleep.
1 comment:
The picture of you and Altie with the mountain in the background is fantastic. Definitely should be framed! Sounds like a fun trip!
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