Seaside Beach Trip

Got back from the beach on Monday and this is the kind of weather that we came back to. I love the snow but wish I was back at the beach.

We had a blast at the beach. My wife and I left Centralia on Saturday morning with two of our best friends and headed for the coast. We first stopped in Astoria for a quick break and decided to go to the Maritime Museum. We decided that we didn't have enough time to for a full museum tour but we walked around outside and took pictures of the coast guard boats and one very interesting large propeller.

Then on our way out we decided to also check out the Astoria Tower. The tower appeared to be made of concrete and had a decorative frieze spiraling from top to bottom. Inside was a narrow metal staircase. My wife and one of our friends stayed below while us two guys took up the challenge and climbed inside the tower up to the viewing deck. Once we got to the top we were able to overlook all of Astoria and were able to see for miles of magnificant Oregon and Washington coastlines. On the way back down we both tried to count the number of stairs, I counted 165 and my friend counted 164. At the gift shop I learned that he was right. I think that I counted the ground level as a step. Before we left we took a picture of a replica native american burial canoe. As we left for Seaside I snapped one last picture of the Astoria Bridge as we drove under it in the moving car. I wish we could have stayed longer.

A couple miles down the road we finally pulled into Seaside and checked into our cottage at our favorite spot at the Beach Side Inn . We just hung out for a while before strolling down to the beach to catch a beautiful sunset. Then we all cozied up for the night.

The next day everyone else was sawing logs but I decided to get up early and take the camera to go for a walk on the beach. Overnight the temperatures had dropped below freezing and had blanketed the beach with frost. I was alone for hundreds of yards in all directions and watched as the sun rose above the snowy hills to the east. I was wearing shorts and sandles and decided to walk a little too close to the water...long story short...I had to walk a quarter mile back on frozen sand after my sandle straps broke in the crashing waves. I don't know how I made it back without frostbite.

  

Later that day we drove to Ecola State Park and checked out Indian Beach. Saw great panoramic views of the ocean. The tide was in so we didn't get much beach time but we did hear as the waves crashed the rocky part of the beach and rubbed the thousands of shiny black rocks together to make a kind of natural sympony. We then took a quick drive to cannon beach and stopped off at Bruce's Candy Shop before heading back.

When we got back to Seaside I tried my best to construct a homemade kite out of garbage sacks, fishing lines, ducktape, and wooden dowels. The good news is that I can make a kite that flies. The bad news is that it would only fly if I constantly let out more line. The instant I stopped feeding line the kite became erratic and would violently spiral out of control to the beach and any unfortunate beachcombers. Out of fear of crashing I just let the kite shoot straight into the air and the on shore breeze sent my scrappy kite towards the boardwalk dotted with a handful of unsuspecting people. By this point I panicked as I had already let out over 600 feet of line and had no way to safely call off the maiden flight of my poor man's kite. I quickly decided to stop letting out line and the kite immediately plummented towards the boardwalk where it met an untimely end when it collided with a lightpole above the boardwalk. I later confirmed there is a 500 foot restriction by the FFA. Ooops. Later we headed back to the cottage and settled in for another night.

The last morning of our beach trip we were all relaxing and wishing we could stay longer. While lounging around I was sitting in front of my wife and she surprised me when she found a grey hair in the back of my head. I rushed to the mirror and found a whole patch of grey hair. I'm twenty-six years old and thought I could hold off of the grey hair until my forties. So much for that plan. At any rate this beach trip definitely marks an end to my so called youth. After the confidence boost and quarter life crisis I joined the group and we checked out of our little cottage for the weekend and to visit the beach one last time before hitting the road. On the way back we stopped south of Fort Stevens and took some amazing pictures of the shipwrecked Peter Iredale. We wanted to do some more exploring but we just had to get back to Centralia.

I did snap one last photo of the Liberty Theatre on our drive through Astoria.

 
 

We had a great time at the beach and really enjoyed spending time with our good friends. Can't hardly wait to go back this summer!