Back at the end of last year I entered a contest on Facebook called Winter Getaway to the Oregon Coast. It was put on by
The Oregon Coast Visitors Association. I had to write a story of 300 words or more about an experience I'd had on the Oregon Coast. The winner was to receive 2 night accommodations and round trip airfare with
SeaPort Airlines. Well needless to say (or this would be a very short story) after a couple of weeks of people voting for their favorite story I was notified that my story had won! Melanie & I were very excited and couldn't wait to get more details.
We chose to go to Astoria as we'd never been there and wanted to see more of Oregon. The rules stated that we needed to take the trip before the end of February. We decided to schedule it for the 19th of Feb. so we could save up some money for gas for the 8 hour drive to Pendleton & back, a car while in Astoria, a room in Pendleton for before and after our Astoria trip and, of course, food and maybe souvenirs. Well, the 18th came and we could hardly stand it. Our kids were with their other parents as it was Presidents Day weekend. We woke up bright and early and started our roadtrip to Pendleton to catch our flight the next morning. We had emailed Rebecah at OCVA prior to our trip to see if she could give us some recommendations of a place to stay while in Pendleton. Her and Valencia provided us with a list of hotel options as well as some with discounted rates. We arrived at our hotel,
The Rugged Country Lodge, that afternoon and checked in. It was a very cute and more importantly clean place and the people at the front desk were very kind and helpful on suggesting some places to eat that evening.
The next morning we woke up and prepared to check out and head to the Pendleton airport to catch our flight.
This is when we received the first of, what we would later find to be, many surprises. While at the front desk checking out, the young man informed us that our charges for that night and in 2 days when we return from Astoria had been taken care of by Rebecah with OCVA. Melanie & my jaws nearly hit the floor with this news. We quickly thanked them and scurried to the car so no one would see Mel & I breaking down in tears. We were already overwhelmed at the fact that we'd won this trip but to be surprised like that with people going above and beyond what had already been promised was more than we could handle at that time. We had been hit with some pretty poor luck and unfortunate circumstances over the past couple years and were direly looking forward to escaping and getting away with each other to refocus and re-energize.
We then made our way to the airport. We were not disappointed with SeaPort Airlines. No rubber gloved body search, x-ray machines to walk through, in fact I even boarded the plane with a bottle of liquid! Not to mention the friendly staff from the front counter personnel to the pilots. It was a wonderful and unique experience. Durring our brief layover in Portland Melanie was contacted by Donna with
Cannery Pier Hotel in Astoria. She was calling to make sure we were still coming and that she'd made arrangements for a person named Skip to meet us at the Astoria airport and he would give us a ride back to the hotel. This was another pleasant surprise as we'd just planned on renting a car or grabbing a cab. After a quick flight from Portland to Astoria we were greeted on the tarmac by an older man named Skip who also happened to be the Director of the
Chamber of Commerce in Astoria. He grabbed one of our bags and escorted us into the terminal and to a rental car office. After some quick introductions and exchanging of information Skip threw down his credit card and paid for our rental car for the weekend! Once again Melanie and I were thrown back and a bit bewildered by the kindness and generosity that had kept being thrown our way at every turn. Skip then led us in his truck, to The Cannery Pier Hotel.
When we got there he helped us in with our bags, introduced us and got us checked in with the front desk, then helped us up to the top floor to our room. He then opened up a map of the city and began to map out many different attractions for us to see. After Skip left we took a minute to soak in our surroundings.
The room was amazing! The views from our private deck, even more amazing! We then focused our attention to the table in our room filled with; Champagne, chocolate, smoked salmon, free passes to many local attractions and museums, and topped off with a note from Donna from the hotel informing us that our names had been left with many other local establishments granting us free access and that she'd made dinner reservations at
Bridgewater Bistro and
Clemente's, two fine dining
establishments, for our 2 nights in Astoria. Again, Soooo overwhelming. It's hard for me to put into words, the way Mel and I were feeling, although complete humility and gratitude have to top my list.
We decided to go check out the
Astoria Column first. It is a beautiful piece of architecture. It was 164 steps to get to the platform 125' above the ground.
Our legs felt like rubber once at the top but Holy Cow were the views worth it! They sell little balsa wood airplanes in the gift shop that you can launch from the top of the column.
Pretty fun to watch. We then decided we should head back to our room to get cleaned up for our dinner at Bridgewater Bistro. It was just on the other side of the pier from our hotel so we just walked over. Our dinner wa amazing. The food was terrific and, again, the views overlooking the Columbia River and the
Astoria-Megler Bridge were breathtaking as the sun set.
The next morning, after Mel's soak in the big claw-foot tub, we decided we couldn't stand it anymore. We had to see the ocean and walk on the beach. We jumped in the car and made our way to
Seaside and
Cannon Beach.
It turned out to be a beautiful morning at the beach.
We walked around for a bit looked at he starfish at Haystack Rock, found 3 sand dollars, uprighted some alien looking crab thing then made our way back and had a delicious breakfast at the
Wayfarer Restaurant overlooking Haystack Rock on Cannon Beach.
After breakfast we decided to head south down the coast to Tillamook stopping a many beautiful overlooks along the way. We finally made it to Tillamook and had used up far more of our day than anticipated. Since we'd already been through the tour of the factory (which I highly recommend) and due to long lines we decided to save time, grab my Squeaky Cheese and get on the road back to Astoria.
On the way back Melanie and I, due to the generosity of all who had contributed to this amazing trip, decided to reinvest into the local economy of Astoria and go get us some new clothing. We had felt fairly under dressed at our dinner the night before.
We weren't planning on being able to afford to eat at such fine dinning establishments. We then went back to our room to get ready for our dinner at
Clemente's. For our diner tonight the hotel had reserved us their 1952 Cadillac to be chauffeured to the restaurant in. It was a lot of fun and turned a lot of heads. After arriving the host escorted us to our private reserved booth.
Tonight we decided to step out of our comfort zone and try something that we wouldn't normally order. It was all so delicious, from the appetizers to the duck to the desert.
The next morning we decided to go check out the house from the
Goonie's movie. While we were up on the hill We heard Sea Lions barking down by the docks. We drove down one of the piers but were unable to hear them anymore.
While down the we saw there was a
BumbleBee Tuna Historical Museum so we walked through it then went and enjoyed a warm drink at
Coffee Girl. While we were enjoying our drinks on the dock overlooking the river, a local fisherman came over and started talking to us. We must have been obvious tourists as he started asking us if we wanted to take some sea lions home with us and that when they start seeing them it means the salmon are not far behind.
He then gave us directions to where they would be hanging out so we cold go see them. After watching the sea lions for a while we decided we'd drive across the bridge to go check out
Cape disappointment and that area. We started to hike to the lighthouse but decided that the hike up Astoria column may have taken more out of Melanie than we'd thought. So for fear of not being able to make it back we decided we better turn around and head back to the car.
On our drive we kept getting sidetracked by all the wild life. I have to stop and take pictures whenever I see wild life, especially Bald Eagle! When we returned to Astoria a lot of the museums we'd planned on seeing were getting ready to close. We were however able to do the speed tour of a couple of them. Including the
Columbia River Maritime Museum.
Before we knew it it was time to head to the Astoria Airport to return the car and catch our return flight. Surprisingly enough this was fovorite memories of our trip.
When we noticed the plane coming into the terminal it was a different plane than the others we'd flown on.
The wings were above the plane and the landing gear was stationary. Melanie and I were the only ones on the flight until we connected in Portland. It was BEAUTIFUL. We flew, what seemed to be, only a couple hundred feet high along the columbia river all the way into Portland. Mel had taken some Dramamine so she was even able to enjoy the views as we flew.
Before we knew it we were back in Pendleton and the next morning making our 8 hour journey home. Back to work and shoveling the driveway........ Already day dreaming....
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