I've been making it to the coast a little more often recently. Most weekends when the swell is between three and eight feet, I try to make it a priority to go over for at least a day. A particular weekend a few weeks ago, the swell on Saturday was 12-14 feet. That's definitely a bit out of my comfort zone. But, Sunday was supposed to get a little smaller and become a little more organized.
Rather than wait until Sunday, we packed up the car on Saturday morning and drove towards the coast. Instead of going south from Tillamook like we normally do, we took the scenic route and stayed in the quaint little town of Oceanside for the day and night. The town is beautiful--an amphitheater of homes overlooking a wild stretch of coast. There aren't many businesses in town, but I look at that as a nice change of scenery from the countless galleries and shops of nearby Cannon Beach. That can be a lot of fun too, but when really needing somewhere to relax I think that I would choose Oceanside every time. There's plenty of trails, forest, and beach to explore in the nearby area too, from Cape Lookout to Cape Mears.
Instead of surfing on Saturday, we just explored the beach (two beaches really, as you can walk through a long dark tunnel through the cliffside to a different beach), relaxed and read at the little rental cabin that we had for the night, watched the waves, and went out on the town in the evening to the Schooner in Netarts. I highly recommend the wings there...they're the best I can remember having anytime recently!
Then on Sunday, we drove down to Pacific City for the protection of the cove. The waves weren't perfect, but it was quite fun for my fish. With the fun day we had exploring a new area the day before, followed by a surf session and a burrito from Ben and Jeff's, I was certainly satisfied and as ready to go back to work on monday as I could possibly be.
