"Oh man! That twas one heck of a long drive!"

On the way home from Julie's graduation, we decided to stay a night on the Oregon coast, in a nice little town called Seaside.  We had been there before some years past, but had an inner desire to see the ocean again and to smell the humid coastal air.  Tammy told me that she had never been to Seaside, so I told her I would post some pics on this blog.

The beach itself is quite large.  Keep in mind that the tide was out as I took these pics.  

You have probably heard that the Oregon coast line is quite scenic.  "Oh yeah!  It really is!"  The above pic was taken by me, facing south.  The pic below is of the hotels of Seaside to the north of where I was standing.  Along the hotel front is a concrete promenade that is about 2 miles long, I would say.  You can't see it here, but it is used by bikers, walkers, and strollers.  It even has streetlights spaced evenly along it's length.  "Very impressive!"

I did make my way down to the water.  If you know me at all, you have to realize that I cannot visit the coast without touching the Pacific Ocean.  Well, my hand went in and out real quick, then I took the below pic, and was glad the strollers had there backs turned away from me.  This saves me having to make an explanation, ha ha.

Several years ago, we made the trip to Seaside with some friends.  A storm was in full force, and it was dark outside.  The water was almost up to the promenade, and the wind was so strong, my umbrella kept folding inside-out, but I still made my way to the large waves pounding the beach, and quickly touched the water, but I had to be really quick and careful.

Seaside has a quaint main street running parallel to the beach front.  It has lots of nice places to eat, and some good shops for every type of shopper.  We were there in the late afternoon, and not many people were on the main drag, but tourists of all ages were beginning to make their way from the beachfront hotels.

One interesting place on main street was the Seaside Carousel Mall.  This place drew us to it like a magnet, ha ha.  In the center of this little mall was a large carousel, but the cheap shops that surrounded the big turning wheel are what we liked. "If only that hoodie had been the right shade of blue, I would have bought it!  As it turned out, we both left without buying anything.

We made our way down the street to Mckeown's restaurant, where we had a great dinner.  I had the pork chop, and I must say that this was probably the best one I have ever had.  The meat was perfectly cooked, and had the right amount of garnish on it.  Yum!  Walking back up the street, we were disappointed that the carousel mall was closed.  It was only 6 PM, but I guess they fold up shop early here.  I was really going to take a second look at the hoodie.

The sun was beginning to draw close to the horizon, so we drove just 6 miles south to the next little community called Cannon Beach.  This town is a little more - Woops! - A lot more uppity, than Seaside.  This is really a resort town, sort of like Carmel, California.  But the beach is fantastically scenic, as you can see by the pics below.

Grandma Zucc used to buy wonderful bread, called Haystack Bread, from a store on main street, when she was in her youth.  We wanted to bring some of it back to share with family, but sadly found out that the little bakery had  gone out of business.  In it's place is a tourist shop that sells candy, ice cream, and trinkets, so not to be totally denied, Grandma Zucc bought some candy.


                                      

We drove back to Seaside to stay the night.  I told Grandma Zucc that the next time we come to Seaside, we need to pay the price and spend the night in one of the beachfront hotels.  I think I could actually talk her into it, but who know when we will return?

The next day, we drove to Portland, where Grandma Zucc spent her childhood days.  I took a pic of the old house located in Westmorland, where she was raised.  I love the green in Portland, and luckily the sun was out, so we could really enjoy the beauty.

Not to far from Bev's old home, is the home of her Grandma Smith.  The Smiths are long gone from this life, but we still use Grandma Smith's recipe for buttermilk pancakes, especially for family gatherings.  They were delicious 100 years ago and are still so today!

Llewellyn Elementary School is Grandma Zucc's old stomping ground.  I thought it was interesting that right next to the school is a crematorium.  I guess this is where they send naughty kids to get rid of them!  Ha!

Just a block away from the school, was a five and dime store.  Now it is a colorful Mexican restaurant.  An old, 'beater' pickup truck was parked in front, proof positive that this restaurant is the real thing.  Someday we will eat lunch there, but on this particular day we made our way over to Bob's Red Barn to have one of their healthy but delicious sandwiches. 

Grandma Zucc told me that so many kids went to the five and dime store, to buy candy that the school officials had to put it OFF LIMITS.  I wonder if Grandma ever got in trouble?  You will have to ask her!


Do you believe in UFO'S?  As we drove up the Gorge, we saw a couple of them, and we even got a picture of them in the daylight.  You may say that you think these strange looking objects are just freak clouds, but I would guess the clouds are just smoky camouflage surrounding actually physical spacecraft!

The wind blew so hard in the gorge, that we got almost 37 miles per gallon.  There must have been hundreds of windmills, especially on the Washington side of the gorge, but this one suddenly appeared, almost mysteriously on the Oregon side, then all of a sudden they were all over the place.

Yes, finally back into Utah, between Snowville and Rattlesnake pass, a wildfire was happening.  No firefighters were there, so we just drove by, at 75 MPH.  I put my camera on the sports setting, for fast moving action shots, and was able to capture the actual flames.  I think the pics are pretty cool, but hope someone came to put this thing out.

We thought the new Brigham City Temple was really cool, and plan to come back someday for not only a session, but an 'overnighter,' and a good meal of old-folks food at Maddox.

You can always tell when you are in Utah, as Mormon churches are more plentiful than McDonald's restaurants.  We stopped to change drivers, and I caught a great pic of a spire!

"Oh man! That twas one heck of a long drive!"