A beach trip

So this weekend the kittens were trusted to stay home without a babysitter, and Marsha and I went to the beach. My company has a condo in Rockaway Beach and they give us the opportunity to rent it for a really good price.

It's almost timeshare-ish I think, or something, as there are some rules about laundry and cleaning and stuff like that, but it's not at all difficult to follow those rules, and the front desk folks are very nice and helpful and all that. Plus every unit is beach-front. We left Beaverton at about 6:15 or so, and pulled into the complex around 8 or 8:30. It was still light, check in took no time, and there we were, staring at the ocean. This is the view from the deck.
The condo has a hide-a-bed and a regular queen bed in the living area, a kitchenette situation, a separate bedroom with queen bed and two full bathrooms. I take crappy pictures no matter what the situation, so this is about the only usable picture in the bunch - it's the main living area. After dumping our stuff, we darted out to find a store to purchase some snacks and water and ... stuff. We found a little place, got some necessities, and found that they had a huge selection of all things "Mike's Hard": meaning just about anything made by the fine folks at Mike's Hard Lemonade. Pomegranate, cranberry, mojito, screwdriver, and lemon. (Stupidly) I convinced Marsha to put the beer back in the cooler and we bought instead the equivalent in bottles. Then we went to a bar and grill across the highway and had some food. After two beers with dinner, I was suddenly exhausted. It had been a long day.

I have to say I haven't been drinking that much lately, so it's almost as if I am out of practice (but really, who am I kidding?). Cracking open a bottle of one of the Hards and sitting on the deck staring at the dark sea was just making us more tired. Finally I suggested a drinking game, and Marsha suggested chandeliers. Try to remember we have no beer. Good gravy. After losing twice I could barely get this swill down. For a person who has suffered from "stomach issues" her whole life, I don't know what the hell I was thinking. We powered through the game though, only to find ourselves bloated and still not even THAT buzzed. It's like we didn't even know ourselves. I felt like a 15 year old drinking wine coolers. Yeesh.

The next morning I woke up around 5:30 I think and cleaned up the sticky disgusting wreckage and cleared away the bottles and lamented that we still had like six bottles left. Fine. Marsha got up around 8:30 (you know what, I don't even know anymore. I totally forget time right now so I am just throwing in random values), and we got dressed and went on a coffee mission. Here's my morning view off the balcony - it was cloudy this morning. We did finally find our coffee, then took a little drive north looking for breakfast I guess, but ended up at Oswald West State Park, and the trail to my favorite beach, Short Sands. I didn't have my camera of course because I thought we were just getting coffee, but we took the trail down to the beach there - it's about a 15 minute walk down through the woods with a stream and all that, there is camping in there and all that and it is just really bad ass. I love that place. When you get to the beach, there is a day camp area, and then you walk down some steps and over a ton of river rock to the actual beach. This is where tons of surfers do their thing. There were no waves this day, but plenty of surfers, and we hung out for a few minutes checking it all out, then made our way back up to the car. It was energizing and neato and I really have to remind myself to get back there more often.

The rest of Saturday was spent having breakfast at the Morning Glory Cafe - a very charming little place with awesome food, and then going back to the condo and "reading" - two pages in and I was napping. Napped and read and napped and read, and around 5:30 I took a shower and we went to dinner at a nicer restaurant south of us. Can't remember the name of it, but it was something piratey, and the view was awesome. So was the food. A little spendy for the beach, but who cares. That evening we rented "The Insider" (a movie that was good but for God's sake it was like three hours long) and went to bed around 1am. I slept in the living room both nights because if I am at the beach I have to hear the ocean. Have to.

Sunday morning we got up around 7am, and took a good walk on the beach (again, no camera). We had to check out at 11, so we went for more breakfast at Morning Glory, and then cleaned the condo and hit the road. We decided that you can't go to the central Oregon Coast and NOT go to the Tillamook Cheese Factory, so we headed south to Tillamook and for the first time got there before the crowds. The Cheese Factory is the actual factory, and they have a little self guided tour and samples and bags and bags of squeaky cheese for sale that I always have to get, and then even though it was only 11:30 we had to have ice cream, so that was fun. I highly recommend it if any of you ever find yourself out this way.
Under two hours later we were back in Beaverton with dirty laundry and little kitties to attend to. They tried to give me the cold shoulder when I first got home, but it didn't last very long, and I am pretty much covered in fur now since they kind of won't leave me alone. But I think they enjoyed their independence.

I had a great weekend even though I left my book behind when I wasn't finished and now I don't know what happened at the end of Dean Koontz's "Odd Thomas", so if any of you have read it, let me know. The beach here is only about 65 miles away and I don't know why I don't go more often. I think I might have to fit it in to my really busy schedule this summer...

Hope you enjoyed it!