A Glorious Day

I packed for this trip Tuesday night, and did a pretty good job of it too, except for the part where the pants I grabbed were actually shorts, which often aren’t that useful on the Oregon Coast. After writing and posting the blog, I headed to town to see if I could find some pants. And I did! Ter Hars actually had a pair of jeans that fit perfectly, and while I was there I found a great looking outer shirt. Lots of winning! Once I got back to the room it was already time to head to Warren House for lunch. They open at noon, even though their facebook page and signs at the restaurant all say they open at 1 because of staffing shortages – which are an epidemic of their own. Warren House is running a limited menu too. It doesn’t include my favorite thing, the smoker’s salad, but Dave and I shared some steamed clams and a reuben and I must say it was a very satisfying lunch.

After lunch I walked on the beach to the whale, and then down through town (popping in to the yarn
store to say hi to my yarn) to Bruce’s, where I got some salted licorice and some salt water taffy. It was so sunny and warm in town I felt hot in my jeans and turtleneck. I changed into shorts (aha! They did come in handy after all!) and a t-shirt and a light denim shirt and then Dave and I headed down to the beach to do some exploring. Dave wished he’d brought his plastic Birkenstock knock-offs, which he bought as a make-do thing at Freddy’s for going to the Cape and which have turned out to be indispensable. But I digress. We left our shoes at the beginning of the sand and went north. It was pretty much high tide, and as we started across Ecola Creek a wave was rolling in and making the water level higher. It turned out not to be a big deal as its been such a dry summer, and the creek was only about knee height. The water was also not too cold, although there was stiff wind blowing that made me wish I’d put on a warmer overshirt. We ended up walking along the beach all the way up to the rocks at the north end. Up at that end are also a bunch of huge, huge houses. What do they do with all that space? There was a trail that looked like it would cross over the ridge and get you onto the other side, but it was closed for erosion control. Too bad. 

On the way back there was a huge flock of seagulls which I thought it would be fun to try to walk through – I had envisioned waves of seagulls rising in front of my and squawking angrily, but instead what happened is that gulls within about a 5 foot radius around me would scatter and land out of my path, muttering gull curses under their breath. I left a path between them and felt just like Moses.

One really nice feature of Schooner’s Cove(or, as Dave calls it, “The Resort”)  is that they have a lawn between the sea wall and the hotel, with lots of chairs, picnic tables, and even a few barbecue grills scattered around – and a hose for washing off your feet. We washed off our feet and sat down in two of the Adirondack chairs to let our feet dry, and ended up sitting there for a long time. You can put your feet up on the seawall like an ottoman, and unlike every deck or balcony or porch we’ve ever sat on there is no railing right at eye height, so we had a wonderful view of the waves. Also, the 2^nd street entrance to the beach is just around the corner, so there was a constant stream of people to watch. 

Dave went up and got us some fizzy waters and we had a delightful time. Eventually he headed up and I went across the creek and back to see how high it was now that the tide had gone out enough not to be raising the level, and it was exactly the right height to make you think you could cross it without water going over the tops of your boots, except if you tried doing it the water would definitely go over the tops and you’d have to walk back to wherever with squishy wet socks. Fortunately I was barefoot, so it was just fun.

Then I joined Dave upstairs for some relaxing until it was time to get cleaned up for dinner. The drive up to Astoria was uneventful until the very end. Before we got to the bridge that crosses from Warrenton to Astoria there was a sign saying “crash ahead megler bridge closed”, which made me get on google maps right away because I couldn’t remember which bridge was called what. It turns out that’s the big bridge across the Columbia to Washington, and people were stuck on top of it which would be one of my worst nightmares come true. We were hoping most of the people up there were thinking, “oh, cool, I’ve always wanted to be able to take my time and see the sights from up here” and not just repeating the names of various deities and practicing their deep breathing over and over. It took about an hour for things to start moving again and another half hour for traffic towards Washington to clear out. We were only minimally impacted – just before we could make a left turn down onto the dock area we got stopped in the line of traffic. Fortunately there was a parking lot to cut through so we got to dinner in time.

Bridgewater Bistro has been a favorite for a while – we ate on their back deck last year with Josh and Jen. They have put up some clear wind shelters and we had a very good dinner from their reduced menu – the crab cheesecake never fails to disappoint, and I very much enjoyed my fish cakes. They reminded me a lot of codfish cakes from my childhood, which I remember as being lots of filler and not a lot of fish. They also have very nice small desserts, so you can go home full but not stuffed.

It was a glorious clear night and low tide when we got back, so we booted up and went for a walk down the beach, coming up by Surfsand and walking back along the beachfront road. It’s always fun to do that since most people don’t shut the curtains on their big picture windows so you can check out all the houses. We remembered a path that brings you out right by the back yard of Schooner’s Cove and came up for tea and relaxing. And that was our day.