Recently, Dinah Dog and I had the opportunity to spend the night at a house on the beach in Seaside, Oregon. It was a beautiful little refurbished cottage originally built in the 1950s that has been magnificently updated to include modern appliances in the kitchen, nice new fixtures in the bathrooms, gas-log fireplaces, along with super comfy beds and a DVD player and TV in every room. Well, after all, it is a vacation rental property!
We were there as guests of my son and his partner, Nick, and Isabelle Pug, who know the owner. (Mark and Nick were checking out the feasibility of staying at the beach house until the spring rental season opens up in April.) Nick’s parents, along with their little dog, Cody, also arrived for the night so we had a nice full house of congenial people and happy dogs; always a pleasure when that happens!
Dinah and I arrived in the late afternoon and, after off-loading our required overnight belongings, we all took off in a two-car caravan, heading to the beach we could drive on, and then to the beach where the “sand” was actually large, smooth cobbled rocks. The afternoon fog was coming in fast and the tide was already high so we stayed a shorter time than we might have otherwise but it was great to be out on the sand and really awesome to see Dinah enjoying herself in the surf. Isabelle and Cody spent their time trying to check out all the fabulous smells that a beach has to offer – I think they got to them all!
We finally headed back to the little house and settled in for a tasty pasta dinner prepared by Nick, complete with roasted veggies, steamed fresh-from-the-farmers-market zucchini, a tossed green salad, and toasted French bread (the garlic was accidentally left behind!) – it was indeed a dinner straight from the gods. Afterwards, the evening was capped off perfectly by a relaxing walk on the beach for some of us, and a relaxing sit-around-the-living-room for the rest of us, before we all headed to our respective bedrooms.
The next morning, everyone except Dinah, Nick and me headed back to the “real world” so after a breakfast of toasted English muffins with peanut butter, we three headed out to take a nice, slow, leisurely walk in the sand, looking for shells or rocks or other treasures that might catch our eye and beg for a space in our pockets. Alas, I don’t think anything hitch-hiked its way into our hands but it was a gorgeous day out, clear and sunny, which made for a very pleasant walk on the sand in the wake of the receding waves.
Dinah, being the old girl that she is (105 in people years!) tuckered out before we did so we headed back to the house and prepared to drive back to Portland.
It was a wonderful evening and morning, most certainly very relaxing, and I’d do it again in a heartbeat. Thanks, Mark and Nick!
PS. I’m very blessed to have friends with beach houses – Dinah and I have been guests in Neskowin, Oregon, that is just as delightful as this place in Seaside was. Lucky us!
Now that most of the vacation renters are back to school, etc., I think we should go to Neskowin again, sound like something you would like to do?
Oh gosh, Lorna! How cool would that be! Yes! I’d love it and so would Dinah! Thank you!