Memorial weekend

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

The official kickoff for Summer is coming soon, Memorial weekend.  Not surprisingly, the weather is not cooperating with plans for outdoor barbeques and beach bonfires. We are expecting rain along the Oregon Coast, but don't let the rain stop you from having a good time. There are plenty of things to do inside. Here is a list of suggestions:

• Museums  - From the Astoria Film Museum to the Tillamook Air Museum, almost every town on the coast has a museum with interesting and educational displays.
• Movies - Visit one of the many movie theatres along the coast or rent one from the local video store.
• Plays - There are several great playhouses that produce top notch entertainment. Check out the Coaster Theatre in Cannon Beach, or Theatre West in Lincoln City. Both theatres have shows running Memorial weekend.
• Aquariums - Newport has a world class Aquarium with activities to keep the kids busy. Seaside has a quaint little aquarium with a family of seals who like to be fed.
• Shopping - There are 2 outlet malls on the coast, one in Lincoln City and one in Seaside. The downtown areas in coastal towns all have charming shops where you can pick up unique items. There are some great antique stores on the coast as well.  In Seaside, the carousel mall has an indoor carousel. Seaside also has lots of video arcades and indoor bumper cars to keep kids young and old busy for hours.

Check out our Facebook page to find out more about what is happening for Memorial weekend.

Beach Baby

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

This is our new puppy. He’ll be arriving soon and we are busy making sure the house is puppy-proofed. We’re a bit concerned about how one of our cats will adjust (or not adjust, as the case may be) but the other cat likes dogs…she and the new puppy will be buddies.

The Oregon Coast is doggie heaven. There are so many options for you and your furry friend to enjoy time together. Here are a few guidelines to follow so that you and your dog will enjoy a safe, fun and relaxing getaway.

1)      Use a leash. Most cities and towns along the Coast have leash laws. Ere on the side of caution and put Fido on a leash. This will help prevent injury to your dog and perhaps keep it from getting lost and possibly even prevent a citation.

2)      Do not throw toys into the ocean for your dog to retrieve. No dog can match the pull of a rip tide. Don’t set your best friend or yourself up for tragedy.

3)      Make sure your dog has updated vaccines. This both helps prevent illness for your dog (and a vet bill) but also protects other visiting pooches from illness your dog may carry.

4)      Make sure that your dog has an ID chip and a dog tag with your name and phone number. This is the best thing you can do to protect your friend and make sure that your family doesn’t go through the agony of worry.

5)      Make sure that the home you rent is pet friendly. Don’t try to sneak your dog into a non-pet friendly home. Many visitors to the Oregon Coast specifically look for non-pet friendly homes because they are allergic to dogs. If you bring your dog into a non-pet friendly home, you can endanger the health of visitors that come after you. And possibly pay a stiff fine to the property manager.

Make your vacation a happy one for your dog (and yourself) by following the above guidelines. Your dog is a member of your family. Give your whole family a memorable vacation at the Oregon Coast.  

Tourist vs. Wild

Sunday, December 9, 2012

We’ve yet to see Bear Grylls struggling to stay dry in a Coastal rainforest while sheltering in the hollow of an ancient spruce tree. But it’s important to be safe when you visit the Oregon Coast. We appreciate our visitors and want you to return home in one piece.

Obey traffic laws. I recently saw a car with California plates driving down Highway 101 in Lincoln City. Both girls in the front were on their cell phones. In Oregon, it’s against the law to talk on your cell phone while driving unless you have a hands-free set. Hang up and drive.

If the sign says 45 mph, then drive 45 mph. This area is rural….low population without the amenities that urban areas have. Out here, night time is dark with few street lights. That’s great for stargazing but not so great for driving. Twilight and night time are active periods for many animals, so drive carefully. Be alert for elk, deer, bear, cougar, raccoon…maybe even Bigfoot. Hitting any one of these can do serious damage to you and your car.

Let the weather dictate how you drive. Just because the sign says 55 mph doesn’t mean it’s a good idea, especially if the wind is blowing the rain sideways or it’s foggy.

Your vacation starts the moment you get into your vehicle. Part of the fun of coming to the Coast is the drive over here, so relax and drive carefully. Many rural fire departments will send you a bill if they have to roll out to come help you; if you don’t pay property taxes in the area where you’ve had an accident, you’ll probably have to pay for your own rescue. So slow down.

If you bring your dog to the beach, don’t throw anything into the ocean for it to fetch. Just a couple weeks ago a family in Eureka, California tried to rescue their dog that was struggling in the surf. Not a Disney ending. Don’t put yourself or your dog at risk. http://articles.latimes.com/2012/nov/27/local/la-me-1127-family-drowns-20121127

If you do get caught in the ocean and feel yourself going under, begin to swim parallel to the beach rather than with or against the waves….this is the only way to resist the pull of the water. Even Michael Phelps can’t pull himself out of a powerful rip tide unless he swims parallel to the beach.

Don’t trust your Navigator or GPS here. There are too many hills and mountains for reliable accuracy. Stick with old fashioned maps or ask locals how to find your destination. Stay on the beaten path, have basic supplies with you and travel in daylight rather than at night.

http://blog.oregonlive.com/oregonianextra/2007/11/kimfamily.html

The Oregon Coast is a beautiful, wild place. The vast majority of our guests go home with incredible memories. Every vacation destination has its own inherent risks; if you visit Phoenix, you could get heat stroke. If you visit Los Angeles, you could deal with traffic jams.  If you visit San Francisco you will have to walk or take public transportation everywhere.

When you visit the Oregon Coast, remember that you’re in a rural area. Night time is dark here. The rain, wind and fog make driving trickier, as does the abundance of wildlife. Our rural cops will pull you over for driving while using a cell phone or texting. Keep your pet out of the ocean. Know the tides…there is a tide table in each Oregon Beach Vacations home. We want you to come back year after year to make happy memories and we wish you a safe and relaxing vacation.

O Little Town of Neskowin

Thursday, November 29, 2012

About 15 minutes north of Lincoln City is a little town called Neskowin. And I do mean little town. It’s a great place to play golf, relax, stroll on the beach and unplug from the electronic shackles that keep us overloaded with irrelevant input.

It’s a funky community with a laid back soul. Make sure to drive slowly through the narrows streets…not only do you want to avoid potholes but there are plenty of people walking their dogs, cats strolling across the way to visit the neighbors and little kids playing. Lots of hand painted signs dot the community reminding residents and visitors alike to drive slowly and be alert for fat dogs, old duffers and leisurely residents.

                                                        

Proposal Rock stands on the beach at Neskowin and is a great place to visit. In the late 1800’s or early 1900’s, a young man took his beloved to this near-sea monolith where they climbed to the top to catch the amazing view. He proposed to her. From that day on, hundreds, if not thousands, of couples have ascended the Rock as single and descended as engaged.

There is a Proposal Rock Trail that runs south of Proposal Rock and ends at Cascade Head. It’s just over nine miles and is a great hike. Neskowin is a great home base for outdoor adventure, whether hunting the elk, fishing, hiking, kayaking in nearby Nestucca Bay, photography, golfing or painting.

North of town is a scenic view turn-out, where the photo for this post was taken. It’s a great view and sweet spot to relax. 

Neskowin is a classic Oregon coastal town. Relaxed, beautiful and rugged. There’s a mercantile instead of a grocery store. The Hawk Creek Gallery houses excellent works of art. The golf course is under water for half of the year due to rain. And the beach shifts with the tides, keeping the agate hunting and beach walks new and different each time you go.

Unplug, unwind and understand the rhythm of the waves in Neskowin.

Check out these links for more information on Neskowin.

http://www.trails.com/tcatalog_trail.aspx?trailid=HGW325-031

http://hawkcreekgallery.com/

Holidays and hearts

Thursday, November 22, 2012

It’s the time of year when most people begin thinking about holiday gift lists and shopping and decorating. Someone has to host the whole family or host the big party, along with the cleaning, decorating and provision of food and drink.

If you feel that your holiday gatherings are a burden instead of a joy, plan this years’ gathering at the beach. The house you rent will be clean when you arrive…have everyone bring something to contribute to the fare and bring your own decorations….or even make your own decorations here from sea shells, agates or driftwood.

It’s nice to get away and bring everyone with you. It adds the element of adventure to your time together. It prevents those feelings of territory and turf that can make hosts feel bossy and guests feel afraid to relax. And it creates a new memory for all of you.

Valentines’ Day is the same way. Opt for something adventurous and new rather than the same restaurants and flowers you’ve been relying on for so long. The photo accompanying this post was taken last February during out Little Summer...that balmy time of year that pretends to be spring and makes Valentines' Day that much more special.

The holiday season is stressful anyway. This year we have a death in our family and now we have to awkwardly try to fill the gap created by absence and loss. Our plan was to gather here in Lincoln City for Christmas to create a bit of adventure rather than look at the familiar place without that familiar face. We’ll still miss him, but we’ll also enjoy the view, walking on the beach in the rain and sampling the local wines and beers.

The colder winter months bring a sense of wistfulness, of a need to gather with those we love. The normal hustle and hurry doesn’t drive us as insistently and we look forward to the reassuring presence of those who love us, or at least those who put up with us. Spend some of your holidays at the beach. Make a way for adventure, for healing, for relaxation. Make your way to the beach this winter.

Log on to www.oregoncoast.org and www.seasideor.com for events, gatherings and fun stuff to see and do while you are at the beach.

Captured in the rain

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

This is what I came home to. This lovely little wetland is about five blocks from my house. The last month or so of my life has been so dry…driving through hundreds of miles of our drought-stricken heartland and then to Phoenix for family duty…what a wonderful relief to come home to the green and lovely damp.

It’s green and damp because, well, the Oregon Coast gets a lot of rain. There’s a saying that the Irish recognize 40 shades of green. Here, we have almost as many types of rain: mist, drizzle, heavy fog (just floating misty rain, really), steady, cats & dogs, sheeting, horizontal….you get the idea.

So much water here…sometimes too much. In Lincoln City we have a salmon crossing. When the salmon run, volunteers post themselves where the water overflows one of our roads; wearing hip waders and fishing gloves, they make cars wait so they can slosh in, gently pick up the salmon swimming across the road in several inches of water and rush them to the other side into the creek. Good stuff.

And we do have this amazing water feature just to the west. This time of year, the ocean roils and churns, kicked into foamy fury by the icy winds bearing down from the Gulf of Alaska. In Depoe Bay you can park at the sea wall and the waves can crash into the rocks below so hard that the water will crash ten, twenty, even forty feet into the air and drench your car while you sit in it and watch…coastal drive-in theater.

This place was shaped by water. The land, the beaches, the mountains and sea bluffs; estuaries and wetlands, bays and rivers and creeks and marshes of surpassing complexity; clouds so heavy with rain that they bump into the hills, too fat to float over them. Moss covered trees and rain forests, tree frogs and salmon, beaver dams and  the king fishers, eagles, snowy egrets and herons that fish them…all because of precious, insistent water.

When you visit, please take some time to turn off your cell phone. Shut off your lap top. Take those silly ear buds out and listen to something real, something elemental, something that will stir your soul far deeper than whatever you were listening to. The rushing waves, the trickling creeks, the lapping lakes, the flowing rivers, the plopping rain drops; chirping tree frogs, screeing eagles, beavers slapping mud with their tails, children splashing in mud puddles and laughing. Come expecting to get wet…and come prepared to revel in it.

(Photo by Joy Wilson)

A Place Like No Other

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Over the last month I’ve traveled over 5500 miles. My husband and I went to Massachusetts to bring my mother-in-law back to the Coast. We landed in Boston, packed a 26 foot truck full of a lifetime’s accumulations and drove it across the country to Lincoln City. It was a long, dry trip.

Driving through Massachusetts, we went through the Berkshires in New York, Pennsylvania, and then into the Mid-West, America’s bread basket and corn belt. Our bread basket is burnt by long months of drought. Our corn belt is shriveled by endless solar intensity. Corn that should be 9-12 feet high stands stunted in the fields, ears bereft of corn kernels.

On top of that, I just got back from visiting family in Arizona, a wide open land, dry and hot. Yep…it was a dry heat. It’s a richly textured, brightly colored, lovely land. The buzzy topic of conversation in Phoenix was the scientifically-based theory that Phoenix and Las Vegas are expected to run out of water for its citizens within 25 years.

I haven’t been so distant from home in quite some time and it was wonderful to travel and see new faces and places. However, there was nothing like coming home…the mist that kissed my face when I got home from Phoenix was heavenly. The scent of salty, wet air that cleansed my sinuses of the drought and dust was amazing.

After seeing so much of the rest of the country there is no comparison to this place. How sheltered, lush, protected and blessed this green and shaded haven. All summer long, visitors from the de-fruited plains and desert heat fled to the cool and refreshing Oregon Coast. They came from Nevada, Arizona, Indiana, Iowa, Texas, Ohio, Kansas, Nebraska, various states in Mexico, even rain-starved areas of Russia.

Some day in the near future, perhaps the world will be clamoring for water that the Oregon Coast can provide. Maybe they will come to see rain because they’ve never seen it at home. Maybe water catching systems and water bottling plants will be the new big industry on the Oregon Coast as water becomes more scarce and precious. But for now, it’s home. I love the rest of the country and I’m naïve enough to believe it’s the most beautiful country on the planet. But there’s nothing like coming home to green.

 

 

(Photo by Joy Wilson)