The Oregon coast

Seaside

After leaving the hustle bustle of graduation activities in Lacey, Grandma and I made our way to Seaside, on the Oregon coast.  We had been to Seaside in past years, but had never stayed there.  

Bev waves from the hotel room.

The Ebb Tide Oceanfront Inn was an older, rustic place like all the other hotels along the Promenade.  

The Promenade.

The Promenade stretches for what seems like miles, separating all the hotels from the sprawling sand dunes that grace the breakers of the Pacific.  

Shops along Broadway Street.

We found great pleasure in going into a lot of interesting stores.  All of the shop keepers were extra friendly to us.  One lady said that we were the 2nd couple from Utah to come into her shop that day.  I mentioned that the ocean sand was maybe the draw.  I also invited her to come to Utah sometime and see our red sand.  We all got a good laugh. 

 Grandma also won a bag of taffy, by spinning a wheel in a candy store.  The clerk made it really fun to play.

Dooger's restaurant.

Dooger's was recommended to us as a great place for salmon, and wow!  It really was.  If you can only imagine salmon tasting better than that served at the Red Lobster?  It was!

Cannon Beach

Who is this guy?

Cannon Beach is just half and hour south of Seaside.  The above wood carving made a good picture, but I don't recall who or what he represents.  Any Ideas?  Let me know. 

This town is more modern than Seaside.  The beauty of the coast line is world renown.  The world's affluent people frequent this place, and rightly so.  After driving around all the tourist spots, we took a couple back roads to see how the locals really live.  Below is an oceanfront gravel road with older quaint homes that we would love to live in, but I'm sure that because of location, they would be well out of our price range.     

Beautiful flowers adorn a modest home.

Even along main street, flowering bushes are so abundant.

A zoom pic of the above bush shows the peak of one of the older homes.

Portland Temple

The sun was not out the day we visited the temple, but still the beauty of this building was beyond expressive words.  Once easily seen from the freeway, it is now surrounded by full grown trees and bushes. The architecture is astounding. The building can be viewed from all angles as you drive around it.  Amazingly, even the service entrance is beautiful.  The creator of this edifice must be very pleased with his work.