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The coastline at Lincoln City
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Our Vacation: Day 1
Here it is, the beautiful Oregon Coast, with it's great majesty and awesome power of nature. This was where Karen and I decided to go for our romantic getaway for last Valentine's Day. There's nothing more romantic and refreshing than a few days at the ocean as you will see in the following pictures we were able to snap off. We tried to take pictures of everything that we saw to keep in a photographic journal in such a way that we could tell a story. I hope we were able to accomplish this. If not, well, either way, we had a good time. Not only was Lincoln City fun and relaxing, the trip down was full of surprises, as well!
On our way, we stopped in Hood River. I wanted to show Karen a scary park I'd known about. Well, we saw it and then she was ready to get going. Since the park didn't have any restrooms, we went to the nearest restaurant to use theirs. When we got there...WOW!! Wouldn't you know it, we ran into some of my relatives from Idaho!! I hadn't seen Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru in over 20 years!! It was a great reunion. We got to chat about horse tack and exchange e-mail addresses.
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What a surprise in Hood River!
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Karen said my relatives seemed rather boring and she thought my Aunt Beru was petrified at the whole encounter. I told her that my Aunt was always like that, because she's had a hard life. Anyway, time was a-wastin', so we said our goodbye's and headed on down the highway, ocean-bound.
We made it to Portland and traffic was horrendous. I decided to take a short cut, but got lost somewhere downtown. Luckily, it was to our advantage, because we would've never got this excellent snapshot! I believe it's a mime doing some radical street theater thing, but Karen insists that it's just a naked manequin with tattoos. Whichever, you gotta love Portland!
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Drive-by Snapshot in downtown Portland
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While trying to find our way out of Portland, I happened along a StarBuck's coffee house. Weary from the day's adventures so far, I stopped to get a quadruple Irish Mocha. Karen said a hot chocolate sounded good, so we went in. After we ordered, we went out into the beautiful, crisp weather to sip our drinks. There was a young man sitting at a table and we figured he could give us directions on how to get back to the freeway. He said he'd be honored to do such a good deed, as long as we could give him a ride to Beaverton. Of course, we weren't going to Beaverton, and I told him that, but he said, "Close enough, where you parked?" Well, he looked harmless, and Karen didn't mind, so we gave him a lift in exchange for the directions he would give us.
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Wired Hitchhiker
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He was a strange fellow, nonetheless. I asked him what his name was and he refused to answer the question, saying that that was on a need-to-know basis. Karen asked him how long he'd been at StarBucks before we picked him up and he said he wasn't sure, but that he'd had time to down about 4 of what I was drinking. He didn't seem to be homeless, but I was sure glad to drop him off at that Texaco station at Beaverton Junction! After that, Karen and I agreed not to pick up any more hitchhikers.
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The Sea Hag Resort Bungalows in Lincoln City
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A few hours later, we finally made it to our hotel to truly begin our vacation. It was a cozy bungalow nestled right on the beachfront. The Sea Hag Resort offers these getaway havens for a very quiet, little price. Probably because certain vegetation wasn't real and they didn't have to maintain it. Those aren't real palm trees in the picture. Everyone knows they don't grow on the Oregon coast; it's too cold. They're plastic, but a convincing likeness, especially in these photos. There was one just to the right of the camera lens that was knocked down and sawed in half. Kinda neat 'cuz you could see the hollow inside and how they were made. We were lucky to make a reservation when we did, for all of the other bungalows were either taken or under repair.
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Our relaxing view
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We quickly unpacked the car and retreated into the cabin to find the inside was much nicer than the outside. The room was a little dark, but the view was breathtaking. We even had a TV and a VCR in the room, but we didn't so much as even turn it on in the 3 days we were there! How can you watch TV when you're in the lap of luxury?!! As you can see, Karen found her spot and serenely wound down from all the travelling. After putting a few things away in the kitchen, I would join her for a nice, relaxing afternoon before venturing out for dinner.
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A SeaMonster?
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I approached the big bay window and instantly snapped this photo. I could've swore I saw something in the water. I asked Karen if she'd seen it, but I think she was so engulfed by the awesome magnitude of the ocean that she didn't hear me and didn't answer. I let the silence linger as I sat down next to her and wondered if it were possible.... a sea creature.... Finally, she said, "Did you say something?" and I kissed her. Ahh...the romance had begun.
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Whoa -- quite a scare!!
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Moments later, we got quite a scare from our toilet, of all things. It wasn't because of lack of maintenance, it was the alien staring up at us. With a few shouts of "Oh my God!" we stumbled over each other out the door and sprinted to the main office to tell them of our discovery. They were very pleasant and understanding, saying this has happened before, and sent a housekeeper to our room without delay. Plus, about a half-minute later, a couple guys wearing black suits and dark sunglasses showed up and helped with the removal. It turns out the alien got stuck in the toilet because of bad transport calculations by his friends on their ship. Frightening, but kinda funny. Luckily, these men flashed a weird light in our eyes and we forgot the whole thing.
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Oregon's Best!!
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At last, we were hungry. All the days excitement had taken it's toll on our bellies. Here was another reason why we picked Lincoln City: Our favorite restaurant, Kyllos! With a lovely atmosphere and great service, their food is the best in the state! However, tonite seemed a little different. We ordered the seafood platter to share between us and they brought us a bowl of steamed critters! I guess it was seafood, but it was disgusting to even look at.
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Seafood Platter?? Gross!!
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We couldn't understand it. They must've gotten a new chef or maybe it was because we were there during the off-season. Karen relunctantly waited for me to finish my drink and then headed for the door. Needless to say, we left without paying and went back to our bungalow.
Still very much hungry, although our appetites were diminished a little, we stopped off at safeway to grab some food that we could prepare at the bungalow. We decided to steer clear of the seafood. I grabbed a half-dozen eggs and a package of bacon, and Karen grabbed a loaf of bread.
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Frying bacon at midnight.
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It was 11:30 PM by the time we got back, and I made us breakfast. Karen passed out in the chair by the window, but woke up enough to eat. We finished up our breakfast and passed out at the table. I woke up about two hours later with egg on my face and found Karen rolled up in a blanket on the bed. She must've sleepwalked because she didn't wake me up and pull me away from the table. She's so cute! I couldn't wait for the next morning. We were having a great vacation and tomorrow I promised her we'd go fishing!!
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