SCORE!!!
As I've mentioned, we really hoped that the encounter with beach lightning might conjure up a piece of shoreline and a nice cottage before we left for Seattle and then, home. On the phone, Rita mentioned an area she and Mike had visited on their last trip west on a skinny long peninsula that begins about six miles west of this amazing bridge we encountered leaving Astoria, Oregon where the Columbia River dumps into the Pacific. I don't think I've seen anything like it before.... a roller coaster bridge! I imagine there have been plenty of times that the lower portion of this bridge was completely submerged in a mix of fresh and salt water. Amazing.
Reaching the other side (about 3 miles later!!) we'd arrived in Washington state. We drove west through Chinook where there is much history available at the Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center and sites around Cape Disappointment State Park & Lighthouse but we headed up the peninsula to get a place to stay. The peninsula is about thirty miles long and only three miles wide, interrupted with little towns like Seaview, Long Beach and Oysterville, which is the very last tiny town before the Willapa National Wildlife Refuge and Leadbetter Point State Park.
The resort Mike & Rita stayed at was not responding via phone and when we pulled up, the office was dark and locked. We drove up past Ocean Park, checked out a few more dumpy motels and were starting to get discouraged. We turned around and headed back south. On the north edge of Klipsan Beach I spied a quiet grey sign: Klipsan Beach Cottages. Pulling in, it looked expensive and when an enormous Doberman barked from behind the locked office door at me I thought we were destined for the Super8 Motel chain. I hesitated before walking away ... and just then Denny appeared like a light in a dark road trip moment. He let me in, his dog calmed down and I said, "You have any rooms I can afford?" and he said "I want all your money!" Ocean views? Yes. Kitchenettes? Yup. Internet? Uh-huh... wireless. How much? I winced. $100. WHAT?!? We walked out to the car and he said to Brent..." Wanna see a cottage?.... $200!" He showed us two cottages and we took the one with the big fireplace, large window and sliding glass door opening to a huge deck overlooking a lovely, rolling grassy dune and the ocean beyond -- a 3-minute walk to the beach. "I've gained three acres since I bought this place... the ocean used to come up to the edge of the trees." I think he said he'd owned it since 1975. What a deal!
This resort is very neat and tidy; landscaped grounds that are beautiful but not precocious or precious, well-designed and utilitarian. The eight cottages plus the grand A-frame stand in a row facing the Pacific. There's an open-air shed stacked to the roof with wood; a big stump, an axe for splitting and a wheelbarrow to roll the wood to your cabin. "I don't chop it for you... and don't take your leg off -- you city folks don't know much about chopping wood", he said, "and no smoking in the cottage!... I can't even smoke in my own house." Another shed lined with BBQ grills on wheels which you can roll up to your deck and an area to clean fish or clams and ... a pay phone. No cellphone signal to be found here btw, not even roaming. The WiFi comes and goes for me, but Brent is relegated once again to the bathroom or the front stoop... the one and only downside to this place, given our penchant to travelblog.
Denny reminds me of a guy who shoulda been doin' stand-up in Vegas, sporting aa handsome beer belly like Brent (he likes his beer, he said) a quick, deadpan wit with steady delivery ...you can just hear a punchline coming, and he threw us a few. He looks a bit like a short Walter Mondale in Levi 501's and a cooler hairdo. He whipped out a map marking restaurants, grocery stores and fresh fish markets for us -- very helpful -- and told us what wasn't good, in his opinion, in addition to repeating (four times) that if we wanted to stay another night, we had to let him know by 11AM. (I had weird dreams worrying I'd sleep past 11AM since I couldn't fall asleep until 4:30AM) I'll try to get a photo of he and his wife Mary before we leave. They run a tight ship here and they are awesome. I have to get the name of their dog too!
Storytimes: After loading into the cottage, we drove south into Long Beach in search of dinner when we should have gone the shorter distance north to Ocean Park and gotten groceries there as well. Not much open in Long Beach and the first place we saw was a bar & grill sorta spot. Walking up the sidewalk, an ENORMOUS, bear-sized, territorial dog in the bed of a truck first growled, then barked and finally lunged, straining at a leather leash that didn't look very secure at the time. We laughed nervously and then scooted into a place that seemed okay from the doorway but once inside was... uhhh... not so good... instantly bad vibe.
It was one of those moments when everyone turns to look at you and if you leave, it's just not cool. So, we slid into a black Naugahyde booth struggling to converse over the straining voice earnestly going after a 90's girlie ballad on the Karoke machine, while we tried to figure out if there was a server or if we should just approach the bar. Finally, this skinny, overly-amped, scarey-smiley bartender approached our table (meth addict?) over-apologizing about not seeing us and then, again and again aaaaannnnnd again. Some guy was meandering back and forth aimlessly between a table and his beer on the bar, clearly wasted, but looking as if he was accomplishing something or other. To our left, a table full of white trashers were yapping and snarfing what looked like tacos from some distant steam table. The next Karoke singer launched into some country song. Yikes! We decided to order a drink and get the hell outta there ASAP. We were drinking some unidentified and nasty Irish whiskey, which I left 3/4 of in the glass as we exited, running into the bartender who was manically smoking and talking on a remote phone outside the door. He hailed us and apologized AGAIN for "not seeing us" to which we said, "no problem maaaahhhn", but kept moving, past Kujo in the truck without incident (didn't even growl... he must have figured out we're dog people) and hi-tailed it to a great Thai Restaurant where we met these kissy face fish....
and had a kick ass meal w/ left-overs to boot. Another S&N road night. I'm beginning to think we are magnets for making fun out of the weird, dark shit... which is fine and great and whatever but I was not in the mood last night for more white trash meth party tragic crazy. I just wanted to get back to that cozy little cottage on the dunes, dammit! It was time for a respite from the plight of America's small communities.
There has been steady rain since this morning. We went into Ocean Park to grab groceries; Klipsan Beach for fresh seafood -- oysters, crab, scallops. I'll make some kinda something for dinner out of what we have and we'll just hang here for the night. A quiet, uneventful evening ... unless the tsunami decides it's time to roll and we are staying in a tsunami zone. Now, wouldn't that be perfect..?... S&N finally land a great place to hang out and then....CRASH, SLOSH, GURGLE, GURGLE --- DOWN! Could be a great way to go, if we have to. But, I don't think we're ready to check out of the planet anytime soon. We're still having fun and reading the guest book library only reinforced our own feelings. We'll be back here.... maybe we'll bring some of you along.
Meanwhile, Brent takes a nap....
Reaching the other side (about 3 miles later!!) we'd arrived in Washington state. We drove west through Chinook where there is much history available at the Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center and sites around Cape Disappointment State Park & Lighthouse but we headed up the peninsula to get a place to stay. The peninsula is about thirty miles long and only three miles wide, interrupted with little towns like Seaview, Long Beach and Oysterville, which is the very last tiny town before the Willapa National Wildlife Refuge and Leadbetter Point State Park.
The resort Mike & Rita stayed at was not responding via phone and when we pulled up, the office was dark and locked. We drove up past Ocean Park, checked out a few more dumpy motels and were starting to get discouraged. We turned around and headed back south. On the north edge of Klipsan Beach I spied a quiet grey sign: Klipsan Beach Cottages. Pulling in, it looked expensive and when an enormous Doberman barked from behind the locked office door at me I thought we were destined for the Super8 Motel chain. I hesitated before walking away ... and just then Denny appeared like a light in a dark road trip moment. He let me in, his dog calmed down and I said, "You have any rooms I can afford?" and he said "I want all your money!" Ocean views? Yes. Kitchenettes? Yup. Internet? Uh-huh... wireless. How much? I winced. $100. WHAT?!? We walked out to the car and he said to Brent..." Wanna see a cottage?.... $200!" He showed us two cottages and we took the one with the big fireplace, large window and sliding glass door opening to a huge deck overlooking a lovely, rolling grassy dune and the ocean beyond -- a 3-minute walk to the beach. "I've gained three acres since I bought this place... the ocean used to come up to the edge of the trees." I think he said he'd owned it since 1975. What a deal!
This resort is very neat and tidy; landscaped grounds that are beautiful but not precocious or precious, well-designed and utilitarian. The eight cottages plus the grand A-frame stand in a row facing the Pacific. There's an open-air shed stacked to the roof with wood; a big stump, an axe for splitting and a wheelbarrow to roll the wood to your cabin. "I don't chop it for you... and don't take your leg off -- you city folks don't know much about chopping wood", he said, "and no smoking in the cottage!... I can't even smoke in my own house." Another shed lined with BBQ grills on wheels which you can roll up to your deck and an area to clean fish or clams and ... a pay phone. No cellphone signal to be found here btw, not even roaming. The WiFi comes and goes for me, but Brent is relegated once again to the bathroom or the front stoop... the one and only downside to this place, given our penchant to travelblog.
Denny reminds me of a guy who shoulda been doin' stand-up in Vegas, sporting aa handsome beer belly like Brent (he likes his beer, he said) a quick, deadpan wit with steady delivery ...you can just hear a punchline coming, and he threw us a few. He looks a bit like a short Walter Mondale in Levi 501's and a cooler hairdo. He whipped out a map marking restaurants, grocery stores and fresh fish markets for us -- very helpful -- and told us what wasn't good, in his opinion, in addition to repeating (four times) that if we wanted to stay another night, we had to let him know by 11AM. (I had weird dreams worrying I'd sleep past 11AM since I couldn't fall asleep until 4:30AM) I'll try to get a photo of he and his wife Mary before we leave. They run a tight ship here and they are awesome. I have to get the name of their dog too!
Storytimes: After loading into the cottage, we drove south into Long Beach in search of dinner when we should have gone the shorter distance north to Ocean Park and gotten groceries there as well. Not much open in Long Beach and the first place we saw was a bar & grill sorta spot. Walking up the sidewalk, an ENORMOUS, bear-sized, territorial dog in the bed of a truck first growled, then barked and finally lunged, straining at a leather leash that didn't look very secure at the time. We laughed nervously and then scooted into a place that seemed okay from the doorway but once inside was... uhhh... not so good... instantly bad vibe.
It was one of those moments when everyone turns to look at you and if you leave, it's just not cool. So, we slid into a black Naugahyde booth struggling to converse over the straining voice earnestly going after a 90's girlie ballad on the Karoke machine, while we tried to figure out if there was a server or if we should just approach the bar. Finally, this skinny, overly-amped, scarey-smiley bartender approached our table (meth addict?) over-apologizing about not seeing us and then, again and again aaaaannnnnd again. Some guy was meandering back and forth aimlessly between a table and his beer on the bar, clearly wasted, but looking as if he was accomplishing something or other. To our left, a table full of white trashers were yapping and snarfing what looked like tacos from some distant steam table. The next Karoke singer launched into some country song. Yikes! We decided to order a drink and get the hell outta there ASAP. We were drinking some unidentified and nasty Irish whiskey, which I left 3/4 of in the glass as we exited, running into the bartender who was manically smoking and talking on a remote phone outside the door. He hailed us and apologized AGAIN for "not seeing us" to which we said, "no problem maaaahhhn", but kept moving, past Kujo in the truck without incident (didn't even growl... he must have figured out we're dog people) and hi-tailed it to a great Thai Restaurant where we met these kissy face fish....
and had a kick ass meal w/ left-overs to boot. Another S&N road night. I'm beginning to think we are magnets for making fun out of the weird, dark shit... which is fine and great and whatever but I was not in the mood last night for more white trash meth party tragic crazy. I just wanted to get back to that cozy little cottage on the dunes, dammit! It was time for a respite from the plight of America's small communities. There has been steady rain since this morning. We went into Ocean Park to grab groceries; Klipsan Beach for fresh seafood -- oysters, crab, scallops. I'll make some kinda something for dinner out of what we have and we'll just hang here for the night. A quiet, uneventful evening ... unless the tsunami decides it's time to roll and we are staying in a tsunami zone. Now, wouldn't that be perfect..?... S&N finally land a great place to hang out and then....CRASH, SLOSH, GURGLE, GURGLE --- DOWN! Could be a great way to go, if we have to. But, I don't think we're ready to check out of the planet anytime soon. We're still having fun and reading the guest book library only reinforced our own feelings. We'll be back here.... maybe we'll bring some of you along.
Meanwhile, Brent takes a nap....
posted by wendy lewis at 10/18/2006 05:49:00 PM
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