Drove to the beach yesterday.
For those of you who aren’t in Portland, it’s a minimum hour and twenty minutes to drive to the Pacific coast. That puts you in Seaside or Cannon Beach, depending on which way you turn once you’ve reached hit Pacific Highway 101–north or south.
Seaside is more cheesy, old-school touristy. There’s an arcade with bumper cars and skee-ball games. They sell Pronto Pups. There’s a boardwalk.
Cannon Beach is touristy in a different way. There are many art galleries, and brew pubs, and beds-and-breakfastses.
I didn’t go to either of those. I went to Lincoln City, which is over two hours’ drive, south and west from Portland. Lincoln City is a larger town, though still small compared to Portland. There’s a lot more general retail here. There’s small movie theaters and a big multiplex. There’s an Outlet Mall. There’s a Native casino.
I came here because my family has a beach house, one that’s been in the family for many decades. It sits right on a bluff over the beach—
—If you’re not an Oregonian, and maybe even if you are, you might not know that Oregon’s beaches are all open to the public, by state law. No one can buy up all the beachfront property and then close off access to it. Being a native, I’ve never really known anything else, so it’s super weird when I go on vacation somewhere and we have to go to specific parks and beaches and can’t just walk out to the surf where-ever our hearts and
—where I can just walk down and dip my toes in the ocean whenever I want. I haven’t come here as much as I’d like, but it’s always very relaxing. I don’t have to worry about hotel rooms or parking or anything like that. I’ve got a place to stay if I need it.
When I’m down with my family, I’m usually the second one awake. Today I was the first, because Betsy, my sister’s mother-in-law isn’t down this time. For most of yesterday, it was just me: I arrived just after noon and my sister and brother-in-law had gone out for breakfast and shopping. Wait, not just me: Archer, the family dog, was also here. Before long the two of them showed up, and then later some family friends called and asked if they could come down, and then my nephew Max pulled in.
What to do today? I have no particular plans. Want to do some writing. Got some books to read. Want to get my toes wet in the surf. Work on my website (now that I’m using it again, I have lots of ideas about how to tweak it and make it more reflective of my online presence). Who knows? Maybe I’ll just sit on the beach and watch the waves and take in that Big Ocean Energy.
As of now, everybody is stirring from sleep, getting showered and dressed. I made a pot of coffee. Hopefully, someone makes some bacon and eggs or something… It was nice having the main floor to myself to write this post. It was quiet and peaceful.
But now it’s time to join them.