Heading to Seaside

We decided to spend the 40^th anniversary of our First Date at the Pacific.  We selected the Gilbert Inn in Seaside OR, and drove there on Saturday, 7/23.  It was very windy through the gorge, but things calmed down as we reached Troutdale.  We had lunch there, then proceeded through Portland on I-84.  The terrain became more forest-like with tall firs.  Portland is a big city, with messy traffic forced higgledy-piggledy by the Willamette River (no ‘i’).  West of Portland are flatlands with lots of farming.  We were on US-26 (the Sunset Highway), headed northwest from Portland.  One passes through the state forest and then into the coastal mountain range, topping out at 1300 ft elevation.  US-26 ends at US-101 and we took that into seaside.

Seaside is somewhat commercialized for beach goers, but nowhere near as bad as Myrtle Beach.  The beach is wide and sandy, reminiscent of France, particularly Étretat.  Mr. Gilbert (of the Gilbert Inn and the founder of Seaside) was originally from France and thought the similarity close.  An interesting thing about Oregon is that there is free access to every beach, enshrined in law.  No one can prevent access and no one can own the beach.

We ate an acceptable dinner at Norma’s;  oysters on half-shell, calamari and chowder.  Deb bought yarn at the local shop.  We walked the Prom (the Promenade).  The town feels a bit like New England, with cedar shakes on the building roofs and sides.  Our room in the Gilbert was upstairs on the Pacific side, spacious and certainly fine for a century-old building.  There’s no AC in the building, because the weather is most always cool and misty.  Of course, we had sun two out of three days, so we opened the windows to keep the room cool.  We didn’t bring shorts with us, thinking that temps in the 60s would favor long pants, and the weather was certainly warm enough for shorts!

After dinner, we walked around town.  At Phillips Candies, Deb bought raspberry gelato and I saltwater taffy.  After collecting supplies from the local safeway, I took a nap while Deb knitted.  About 2030 we walked back to the Prom to watch the sunset.  There were lots of groups building fires on the beach.  Very chilly, windy and beautiful.  After the sun set in a low bank of clouds (no green flash), we went back to the warm Inn.