So Much to Post, So Little WiFi

OK--- it's 10/17 and we're in Tillamook, Oregon at a strip mall doing more laundry. The Radio Shack next door has unintentionally proffered us their wireless signal and while the clothes go round and round in the dryer, I'll pack as much as possible into this post. We haven't downloaded any photos from my birthday adventures yet, so that post is yet to come but I assure you it was quite a day ... and quite quite the night.

Here are some more photos from our time w/ Fatguy at Cooley's Cottage -- a cute little place much like what you'd find on the North Shore.


It was a two block walk from the beach and we had no view but the back deck was surrounded with coastal shrubbery which gave us privacy from neighbors. On Friday night, we found a pretty damn good dinner in Old Town at the Waterfront Restaurant. A self-proclaimed shaman (with "heavy necklace") was our waiter and he poured on the charm(s) if you know what I mean. Returning to the cabin, we made our way to the beach in the dark. The tide was out but the water was wild and it was windy. The weather was grey the next day, but we did some stuff anyway like driving to a state park to see the dunes.
The dunes are much larger and more impressive than can be seen here -- but I really had no idea that pine trees grew all over them -- a strange sight for a girl used to midwestern black dirt spawning pines. In the distance, people rode rental dune buggies up and down the steep slopes. Hilarious. We decided not to spend the money. But, I made a Lumix movie of a tiny blonde boy sandboarding on the dunes. It's all the rage out here. I'll show it to you sometime when we invite you to dinner to view our vacation photos and films. You know... the night when everyone falls asleep while we go on and on and on and on....

Then, we took a long walk on the beach near our cottage....
....returning to the cottage for cocktails serviced by the 1960's vintage Executair 707 port-a-bar I gave Brent for Christmas two years ago, which we finally got to break in on this trip.... (note the squeeze cheese for color and fun with crackers).

.... and, finally, an awesome take-out from Thai Talay,my favorite being the hot seafood curry which had tons of scallops, shrimp, crab, myriad fish and mussels (still in their shell) and god knows what other kind of sea creature. Damn.... that was good.

What happened next (after absinthe) is what you've already read in the previous post.... that crazy encounter with beach lightening. We were lucky to make it out alive and we are definitely enlightened for having survived it. Nirvana takes unexpected forms. We are beginning to really understand how Rimbaud wrote poems like a madman for four years and then disappeared into the ocean.

Today we're leaving Tillamook, heading north to the Washington coastline -- Long Beach -- as we've been advised to check out. It appears there is much history around the Lewis & Clark expedition which brought those brave and weary dudes & company, on the last leg of their journey via the Missouri River to the Pacific. Some good hikes will be had here I'm sure. And possibly sleeping in the car if we can't find a place to stay.

We hope to finally get a cottage that feels right for a couple days ... something on the beach or at least with an ocean view that doesn't cost a million dollars or, worse, look like a suburban neighborhood replete with stone gates, private resort signs and garish streetlights.... for what....?.... spotting land sharks? What we have discovered on this trip is that the Ma & Pa motels of the past are struggling and very rundown, and while we can roll with that (even though we've tired of it after two weeks), they are not very affordable either, especially for what you're getting. The rest of the beachfront places have become condos or are huge, corporate hotels which just suck, no matter what. So even if we have to blow our budget, we're gonna get a piece of beach. Or at least a clean bathroom that doesn't flood the floor when you shower. Still, we have dug the human beings we've met along the lo-fi way and decided that there really are awesome people most everywhere... and they far outweigh the assholes.


ONWARD, BRAVE TRAVOLIERS!!!