By the Seaside

For one day of our Oregon trip, we drove out to the coast. Oregon is such a beautiful state, and every drive through it is scenic. It was a really nice drive, and we headed through Astoria and then stopped in Seaside. Kirsten was so happy to get out of the car and take a ride in her stroller, seeing all the people and sights. I had no idea Seaside was the end of the Lewis and Clark Trail, until we saw this sign.
The beach surprised me by how huge it was. It's really a large beach! It wasn't beach weather at all, cool and cloudy, but at least it didn't rain on us. We didn't get to spend any time on the actual beach, but we walked around and saw the little town, ate lunch, and got some homemade ice cream.

I thought Seaside was a strange town. This picture shows what we saw on all the streets. . . a bunch of funny little vehicles people could rent and drive around. The rest of the town was a mix of restaurants, food stands, hotels, mostly tacky souvenir shops, and arcades.

I don't think you'd need to spend much time in Seaside, unless it was a really warm summer day and you wanted to hang out at the beach all day. We saw everything we wanted to see, including time for lunch, in about an hour and a half. I really wanted to find a Christmas ornament because I love collecting them from places we visit, but it was difficult to find one amidst the sea of cheap T-shirts, magnets, and mugs that cluttered all the shops. I did manage to find one eventually, but it was tough!

If you're going to drive on the Oregon coast, I do recommend stopping for a short time in Seaside and then continuing on to Tillamook, home of the famous Tillamook Cheese Factory. We were planning on going there again but we ran out of time. I was glad we went to Seaside though, since we had never been there before. It was a fun little stop on our trip!