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Thursday, October 6, 2011

Seaside, second post!

With more on our first family vacation ever, I humbly present the Seaside recap, version 2.0!

What's the first thing you do when you go to the beach?  I think a lot of folks would recommend to frolic – in the sand, in the surf, in the mighty Pacific….and the good lord knows, I love to frolic.  The Tottens?  We go to the beach to eat.  And if you’re going to eat in Seaside, hello The Stand!  The finest made-to-order Mexican spot in all of Seaside, Oregon – and they serve cerveza’s as well, FYI.  Parker didn’t like his quesadilla, so I ate it for him.   In the picture to the right, you can tell he's thanking God for the food - see his "praise Jesus" hand?  He does that for the good stuff in life...

Another cool thing about the Stand is that it’s actually on a block that holds significant memories for Team Totten.  Just kitty-corner is Lil’ Bayou, home of one of the 145th best jumbalaya’s on the Oregon Coast.  Clearly, it’s not the food that makes this place memorable – the hurricanes certainly are tasty but, again, don’t support the memory queue that much.  Rather, I believe one of our first trips to Seaside with the Hueys, this is where they learned my intolerance for waste and freely accepted me into their family circle of friends, despite the occasional personality faults that rear their ugly head in fragile and over-served moments.  Even better – Tiffany’s sister and brother-in-law still actually talk to me when I see them, meaning the damage the hurricanes inflicted either couldn’t have been as bad as I remember…OR, Family Dees / Morris have a long-term view on friendships.  Anywho, I digress. 

Across the street from The Stand is the Cleanline surf shop.  When I was in high school, my best buddy Wyatt and I would tear out of Skunk Hollow before the sun reared it’s cheery face on any given Sunday, final destination Cleanline – the only trusted surf shop in Seaside.  We’d rent surfboards, we’d rent body suits (well, always except once – mistake not repeated), and we’d head south to a place called Indian Beach.  And it was magical – as magical as 46 degree water and three foot breakers could be anyway.  Still fun, and I’ll never ever forget the excitement I got when we would finally get to Cleanline after the drive….it’s just a deck full of good times associated with that shop.  I bought a ponch necklace and everything – I still have it.  I don’t wear it anymore and not because the necklace isn’t cool, it’s because my neck is significantly fatter. 
 
I feel that I may have gotten off track.  As mentioned in v1.0, staying so close to the promenade was really nice.  A long enough walk to make it feel like you were working off a Pork Burrito, but close enough to enforce a strong feeling of guilt if you didn’t trek it daily.  Olive loved walking with us but was clearly more interested in the beach.  It seemed like nobody was out there, so multiple times we just let her loose off the leash and she went nuts…so much stuff to smell!  Parker didn't have as much interest in the beach - but he liked being so close to Mrs. Tots and I'm sure he enjoyed the ocean smells! 

Day 1 in Seaside was perfect - Day 2 in Cannon Beach was even better....more later!  Until next time, just because it smells like fish doesn't mean you'd want to eat it with chips.

dwt.

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