sand, sea, september

I took such a huge amount of photos on the trip I took last month to the Oregon Coast. I think the volume of them is what made me put off editing them, choosing them, uploading them and making this entry. But, I definitely wanted to because I had a wonderful time and they're so pretty.

I love this one of my friend Chelsea walking out to the beach.

You can see the whole folder full on my flickr page, but here are my faves.

I hadn't spent much time in Rockaway Beach before. It was nice to be on a new beach and in a new town. Rockaway Beach is very typical old style tourist beach town. It's not posh at all. There is a strip with the usual beach shops - fudge, kites, souvenirs, salt water taffy.

I realized on this trip that the reason all beach towns have the same kind of shops is because that is the only time you buy fudge, salt water taffy or fly a kite and so doing things kind of reinforces that you are indeed on vacation. It's a ritual.

And I did it too. I ate fudge, I wrote a couple postcards (even if one was to myself), I got smashed pennies, I went to the souvenir shop and I bought a kite and a cedar box.

There must be other people besides me who love cedar boxes, especially the souvenir kind. It can't all be 12 year old girls buying them at the tourist shops. I actually haven't bought myself one since I was a kid, but I always think about them and desire them. Why haven't I let myself just get one before this, I have no idea. I do have a few people have given me. The smell sooo good.

The house my friend and I were staying at had not been changed since the 70s'. It was filled with magazines from the early 80's. The decor was both kooky and cool. This climbing plant was growing through the ceiling and was even coming through in the other room. It was a little creepy. Despite this, we both felt really comfortable there. The super close proximity to the beach was perfect.

One day we went into town and heard a steam engine come though. We went to investigate and found out that it was a scenic train that went from Wheeler to Garibaldi and we could get on if we wanted to.

So, we got our ticket and hopped on. There was a old train car from the 40's, a partially open air train and an all open air train. We rode outdoors and took lots of pictures.

We got one good day of sun and I had a lovely day in the dunes, feet in sand, staring at the clouds, singing songs to myself, playing with grass reeds and flying a kite. It was perfect.

There was good food (we made it all, Rockaway Beach is not the best for good food - groceries or restaurants), sunsets, walks, sits, exploring relaxing and pretty much all you would want plus a old timey train ride. Pretty nice.