Being an Oregon girl, born and bred, for me summer isn’t complete without a trip to the beach (or “going to the coast,” to use a Pacific Northwesterner’s regionalism). Some of my favorite childhood memories involve our family packing into our ’62 Chevy station wagon with all our gear for a daytrip from Portland to the coast. Depending on the year, that meant five, six or seven of us kids and at least one parent — pre-seat belt and car seat days, obviously — all crammed in for the 90-minute to two-hour drive. We’d wave at logging trucks, loaded with enormous Douglas fir logs on the way to a mill, and spot out-of-state license plates to pass the time, but it seemed forever before the first sight of the ocean came into view.

Once settled at one of our favorite beaches (the entire Oregon coastline, all 363 miles, is open to the public), we’d spend the day on the sand and in the water, even if (this being Oregon, after all) it was cloudy and cool. We’d gingerly wade into the cold Pacific waters until our legs became numb enough that we’d end up waist-deep and shrieking from the thrill of it all. There was always a driftwood fire to warm up to and over which we’d roast hot dogs and indulge in toasted marshmallows (s’mores came later in the decade, for us). We’d stay ’til sunset (or nearly so) — 9 o’clock or later on those long summer days — before cramming everything back into the car (along with half the beach, my mother would say) for the drive home. I don’t recall anything of those return trips; I’m sure the lot of us were sound asleep from all the exercise and fresh air minutes after Dad started the car.

Now my grandsons are the age I was on those early trips to the beach, but I still look forward to those excursions as much as I ever did when young. A few weeks ago we made our way back to Oregon’s quintessential beach town, Seaside. First home to Tillamook and Clatsop tribal peoples, the area was visited by Lewis and Clark in 1805–06 on their Corps of Discovery expedition (one can visit a re-creation of their salt works at its original site right in Seaside) and shortly thereafter boomed as the logging, fishing and trapping industries exploded in the resources-rich region.

The first guesthouse in Seaside opened in the 1850s, long before the town was officially incorporated in 1899. In the 1870s a Portland land and railroad developer built a luxury hotel, Seaside House, complete with landscaped grounds, a racetrack and stables and successfully marketed it up and down the West Coast. More hotels and holiday cottages followed. Vacationers arrived via boat, stagecoach and rail, swelling the permanent population of around 500 to between five and 10,000 in the summer. Today the city of nearly 7,000 still sees a huge influx of visitors every summer (with smaller crowds throughout the rest of the year), come to enjoy the long, flat, wide expanse of soft sand beach;   the shops and arcades along Broadway Street; local seafood; and access to outdoor pursuits from fishing and hiking to surfing and clamming.

We booked a week’s stay at a three-bedroom unit in the WorldMark by Wyndham complex directly on the Promenade running along the beach.  COVID-19 adjustments meant a few of its facilities (hot tubs, fitness center and arcade) were closed, and restrictions were placed on others (limits on the number of people and length of time they could access the pool, and masks, of course, worn in all public areas), but we felt comfortable and safe with the added cleaning and distancing protocols in place. Our third-floor condo afforded us a fabulous view out over the beach and ocean, so we could easily check the conditions and tide before we headed out each day.   It made it easy to time our arrival on the beach for each evening’s sunset, too. 

After taking the first evening to do some grocery shopping and unpacking, I couldn’t wait to get out the next morning for my first walk on the beach. What a great week it would be!

— Patty Vanikiotis, associate editor/copy editor