Up early the next day, we rented a car to go to the Oregon coast and maybe dunk our toes in the water. The natural scenery of the area in between is lovely, but the built environment wasn't exactly the pinnacle of beauty - yes folks, even Portland has grit:

 

 

 

I will say that the St. John's bridge was impressive:

 

Kitsch-arrific!

 

 

Sauvie Island bridge:

 

Saw a lot of this:

 

We were too early for the sauerkraut festival:

 

Kitschety kitsch kitsch:

 

 

After Scappoose, it was a lot of signs for "Snow Zone" aka we're going waaay up and around some winding mountain roads. How I kept breakfast down, I'll never know:

 

Woodsy grit:

 

We finally made it to our "mid point" break, Astoria. Astoria has been the setting for quite a few films, my personal favorite of the bunch being "The Goonies".

 

Taking in the sights along the water - there was a small strip plaza and there was a bike/walking path alongside so we stretched our legs a bit:

 

Holy crap these sea lions (seals) were loud!!!

 

 

Downtown Astoria:

 

Maritime museum:

 

 

Some beautifully detailed historic buildings:

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Flavel House museum - sorry for the wonky angle; this house was up on a hill and so d@mn tall it made it difficult to photograph:

 

 

 

Building on the left was the jail in "The Goonies":

 

Anyway, time to head out:

 

We got to Seaside which was waaaay too touristy and full of idiot tourists who couldn't parallel park in the two parking spots left to save their lives...

 

Not wanting to spend our vacation looking for parking, we headed over to Cannon Beach which was much more our speed:

 

 

Haystack Rock:

 

Beautiful beach, but being the northern Pacific, it was ice water so I only dunked my feet in. I think anyone who jumped in had non-functioning nerve endings:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ah well, time to get back to Portland - someone has one hell of an expansive compound up on that hill!

 

Easily my least favorite part of the trip - the scenery between Cannon Beach and the periphery of Portland reminded me way too much of Applachian blight; just swap out deforestation for strip mining and there you have it. I sh!t you not, as we were driving along, I lost count at how many places had a "Deliverence" vibe - and one had a pickup truck in their driveway at the edge of the road - with an elk carcass being "cured" on the hood :-P

 

 

 

 

 

 

The cherry on the top of the whole trip - people being toted around in the back of a pickup truck.

 

It wouldn't have surprised me to see them advertising "Wayward tourist jerky"  :-o

 

Glory halleeelewya, it's civilization again!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next up, the Belmont-Hawthorne neighborhood and waterfront area.

 

 

 

 

 

 

love it. Cannon Beach is really nice. It did have a large ratio of self important yuppy types, but I can't blame them for flocking there, its very pleasant. Regarding the elk carcass on the way back to town-that was actually a joke. I was grossed out by it and the spouse laughed at me for not realizing it was fake. Looked real to me, but if it was still there when you were there, then I think that confirms it's a fake. (right side of the road when heading east back to portland, right?)

^We actually parked one block from the beach - asked one of those yuppie types if we could park in front of their place and they were really cool about it, but yeah there were some uppity-types (especially some of the gallery owners). And I think we both know your hubby laughed and told you it was fake so you wouldn't be like me and scream "OHMYHOLYGOD!!!DRIVE!DRIVE!DRIVE!!!!" :-)

Awesome pics as usual, MayDay. This one made me say "wow" out loud.....

 

http://www.clevelandskyscrapers.com/portland2011/pdx0911_111.jpg

Coast looks beautiful, but as an urbanite I feel so relieved to be back in a real place again. Hope you made it to Alberta St which went from worst ghetto to seriously gentrified with the artists and hipsters getting priced out: Portland's Short North. If not, Belmont-Hawthorne will definitely suffice. This pic from Wikipedia of Hawthorne St is already making me salivate.

Fun times in Oregon today!  OREGON!!!

"Coast looks beautiful, but as an urbanite I feel so relieved to be back in a real place again. Hope you made it to Alberta St which went from worst ghetto to seriously gentrified with the artists and hipsters getting priced out: Portland's Short North. If not, Belmont-Hawthorne will definitely suffice."

 

I know what you're saying about being back in "a real place" but as someone born and raised in a working class Appalachian family now living in inner-city Cleveland... my life is *full* of 'real'. ;-) We wanted to check out Alberta Street but time wouldn't allow it and honestly, while I know it's not an apples to apples comparison, it sounded pretty similar to Cleveland's Tremont neighborhood albeit on an accelerated pace of gentrification. Belmont-Hawthorne was nice - reminded me a lot of Ohio City and Tremont  as well as Lakewood/Cleveland Heights.

Maybe its just me but I was looking for a Sasquatch. Isnt that where they live?

nice astoria, but no lewis and clark? and goonies, but no "it's not a tooma!" kindergarten cop school?

 

there is a very popular a-frame hostel in seaside or cannon, i forget which, that has been run by a former clevelander for many years. she was doing legal for the city of cleve, took the money and built the place out there. now if only somrone would stick around and open a hostel downtown in cle somewhere!! :whip:

 

also, old 101 is great. as you can see some of here, its a sort of a timewarped americana riviera and a great tour from sf to seattle. if you ever have time to kill and like a scenic driving route, ocean and redwoods(!), skip I-5 because this is it - highly recommended!