August 16 marked four years married and four years together. We celebrated by heading out to Seaside, OR after my brother’s wedding. Highlights include a run-in with Tillamook ice cream:
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Josh has been to Seaside and I realized that I had not and probably would not visit again. The reason is simple: development. Seaside appeared to be once a sleepy beach town. Their ‘old town’ area was quaint and cute with little galleries, candy stores, and trinket shops. There was a ’strip’ with an arcade, diners offering fish and chips, and a tilt-a-whirl. Every place offered espresso. The old school Inn’s and Motels from the 70’s still dotted the town, with plenty of RV parking and neon sign charm. This all changed when you started walking toward the boardwalk. Lining the beach front were multiple enormous hotels–one of them so huge it was over twelve stories high and shaped like a big “U.” People were swarming the many balconies (each with their own gas grill) and you definitely got the ‘rat in a cage’ feeling when walking by these monstrosities. UGLY, UGLY, UGLY thing to do to a decent water front.
The beach was crowded California style with people all over the place thrashing around with buckets, kites, Crocs, and litter lying around. It was encouraging to walk down the beach and find the crowd slowly dissipate. Once removed from the chain of hotels the beach was actually very beautiful. For the first time since I can remember we experienced multiple days of sunshine and (gasp) slightly warm temperatures. No wonder everyone and their dog was out!

Our hotel boasted a tiny porch that faced the river running through Seaside. When not smoked out by the chain smokers below us we watched tourists scooting by on rented kayaks and paddle boats. “It’s like Venice,” I joked having recently seen Gina’s pictures of riding in a Venetian gondola. Our days consisted of eating the continental breakfast every morning, taking long walks down the beach, hobnobbing around the town, finding a cheap eat for lunch, and watching HBO at night. We watched the sunset from the beach both nights. We grazed off an enormous bag of saltwater taffy Josh had procured from one of the candy stores. I admired but decided against the chocolate covered twinkies:

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More vacation-y pics on flickr...