Fun in Seaside…

Seaside is one of my favorite places to stay, so I try to come here at least once a year. The Venice RV park is my favorite place to stay because of several factors. It’s within walking distance of a real sports bar, Creekside Pizzeria, with huge screen TVs, they even get the PAC-12 network for Oregon Ducks games, they have a couple good microbrews on tap, food there is always great including their pizza, they have a salad bar so you can pile on your favs, there’s outside seating right on the estuary, and finally, the bartenders know me now and seem to think I’m funny instead of weird. The RV park itself is a little difficult to park at, spaces are narrow but long, the transient area is all blacktop, the cable TV loaner boxes can be problematic, the Wifi is consistently good though. Not super fast, but good. Then, the park is walking or bike riding distance to the theater, Safeway, and various other shopping areas. And of course, the town is relatively flat so’s I ride my bike all over the place. Good exercise and there are so many routes to take that I’m not bored just riding. And besides that, Seaside has one of the neatest touristy downtowns you’d ever want to see. Look at all these fun things to enjoy if you Visit Seaside!

I can do most of my shopping on the bike but every two weeks or so, I’ll walk over to Safeway and Riteaid shopping center to do my heavy shopping. And here’s another benefit to Seaside. There’s a very reliable taxi service (Seaside Shuttle – 503-440-7777) there that’ll pick me and my groceries up and deliver me home for $5. I do only shop between Tues-Thurs though so they’re not too busy. Seaside has a brew pub too, but I keep forgetting to plan a trip there. When I have stopped by, I liked the place. And the brews are pretty good.

I was there a couple days before I got around to carrying my camera with me. Here’s some shots to show you how nice the weather was. Instead of 85°F, here is was 72°F. Nice.

Here’s where lots of local folks either fish, or crab. Looking east. Nice little quiet spot on a side street that’s heading towards the Venice RV park. There’s a bench and a little deck extending out over the cliffside where I’ll stop and enjoy the peace.

This time during my visit to downtown, I tried some clam chowder at a couple places trying to find something that comes close to the excellent flavor of the chowder Skippers Seafood n Chowder House use to carry in all it’s restaurants years ago. It was so popular, they even carried it in cans. Way back in 1998 or so, they switched manufacturers, and I asked a couple owners where they originally got it because their new brand really sucked. They didn’t know, but did know it came from somewhere on the Oregon coast. So I’ve been asking, trying to find the original manufacturer. I’d buy a case at a time if I could find it. The old Skippers went bankrupt but the intellectual properties were sold in 2007 so it’s back, and the new owners promised that the original chowder is back, it’s just the stores are now few and far between and I’d like to try it before I buy 6 cans from their online store at a $7/can. Or find the original source since I spend more time here then I do where there are Skippers stores.

Anyway, I’m enjoying my visit to Seaside…again…and drop by the bike shop I take my bike into every time I’m here, for a tuneup. This time the news is bad…the crank bearings are bad, the chain is getting worn & loose and should be replaced, and the gear stack is worn. The gear stack was the only thing it made sense to put off. But even with replacing it, the work would only come to $95. That’s not bad, but the bad thing was I’d have to leave the bike there, for 4 days! With all sorts of fun things coming up in downtown. So I told them not at this time. Wish I’d gone ahead and had it done. Thing was I expected to leave early the next week and didn’t want to be without the bike. Then I caught the flu or something so I ended up being there longer anyway.

Meanwhile, before I got that minor illness, I rode downtown for a restored antique car show. Holy frijole. Lots of cars all tricked out, cherried as we use to say, up and down the street in downtown Seaside. Main and most of the side streets blocked off so there was only foot traffic. So much fun.

There are tons of pics and I’m just going to throw them all up here on the blog so you can enjoy some of what I enjoyed…

So I was here, looking at this car in the next set of photos and a guy walk up and stood next to me. I was thinking, “Gah, Chevy really made some ugly ass cars” and the guy says, “Pretty nice, huh?”. Well, I tell him what I was thinking when he walked up, and he goes, “Yeah, that’s probably why there are several Fords here with Chevy engines!”, WTF? He’d just proved my case but before I could get that thought out of my mouth he’d quickly walked away. I’m guessing he figured out his ignorant comment soon enough though.  I thought the glassy water made a good picture. Uggggly. Never cared for these. What is it? A ’57 Buick maybe? I always thought the ’57 Chevy was even uglier. And then you get to the end of Main Street to the Turnabout and this here trav’lin’ car. Local guy who brings this to the car show every year. Really old people love this car.  There’s the owner, poking his head inside. He’d just pulled up and parked a few minutes before I got there. Looks a little chilli and people were wearing coats but I wasn’t. Then on the walk back down Main Street, there were a bunch of cars on the side streets. Some of them hadn’t been completely restored yet. This old service vehicle was pretty unique. Don’t think I’ve ever seen one quite like it…

And that was the end of my day browsing around 100’s of classic cars. Took hours. Much fun. Had dinner out and everything. And bad news tonight…the Cubs were eliminated from the World Series bid by the lowly Mets!