Day One. We drove. We left at 8:00 am, drove through Washington (just stopping at rest stops and for lunch) and then over to the coast to arrive in Seaside, Oregon at 4 pm.

Seaside is totally a tourist trap of a beach town, but there is something kind of cute about it, even though we felt like we were in the Twilight Zone or Wonder Years most of the time. Most hotels are around the beach area, and most of the tourists are on the main hub of the boardwalk (Broadway). I met a nice woman who told me that the tourist parts had really only developed in the past couple years which may be why it still felt weird for a town with a soda fountain in the drugstore to be overrun by visitors.

The part of town we were in was rows and rows of vacation cottages with restaurants, candy stores, novelty stores, and games for the kids. For $2 you could step off the boardwalk and onto bumper cars, a miniature train with a real driver, or a tilt-a-whirl. The river had bumper and paddleboats for water play. The beach was packed with families and kids. In fact, the whole town was young families with tons of kids. Kids with a lot of sugar in them, which happens when you sell 170 different kinds of salt water taffy.

Our hotel - a Best Western - on the promenade a bit down from the main hub. It was pretty laid back with an indoor pool and balconies. We were on the first floor so we could see the beach from the balcony, or hop over the barrier and walk a few feet to the sand. I even went for a run on the seawall and walk on the beach the next morning - very relaxing.

We picked Norma’s for dinner, which was a great choice. We both had steak with seafood and I discovered that my intense hate of clam chowder has disappeared over the years - which was great because there was delicious chowder to be had in every town (being the coast and all). Weirdest thing - this seaside tourist town only had one restaurant with a patio, and the patio only had 20 seats max. Also odd, every restaurant had checkered tablecloths.

We were tuckered after the drive so we got some wine and went back to the hotel so we could have an early start the next morning. I hung out a bit on the beach to people watch. It was pretty laid back - people were walking around the hotel with drinks going between rooms but even with this vacation atmosphere, the town shut down early.

Note: I do have some pretty pics will put up later!