Weekend on the Oregon Coast

Oregon Coast at Pacific City

“We’re all here, because we’re not all there.” That is the town motto of Yachats, Oregon, a sleepy beach village of about 700 residents just two hours southwest of Portland. The Oregon Coast is a largely untouched and undeveloped landscape. It has its share of tourism, for sure. But between the larger and more well-known destinations of Cannon Beach or Lincoln City, there are miles of peaceful coastline with rugged beauty to be discovered.

We rented a little beach house that we found on VRBO and headed south from Seattle for a long summer weekend. The house itself was a place I would love to visit more often, and I wish I had some of its amenities at home, like the sauna, two-person bathtub, or the indoor/outdoor shower. The layout of the house was in keeping with its name “Zen Beach House”. Every room was open to the next, and the layout had a nice Feng Shui flow. There were no cupboards in the small kitchen, but that was fine because the tiny room next to it was a pantry with plenty of shelves and supplies for cooking. The sandy beach was a short walk from the house, and at night we were lulled to sleep by the soothing rhythm of waves breaking on the sand.

On the way back to Seattle we stopped in at Pacific City, a fishing and logging town that has remained largely unchanged for the past 50 years. The big attractions here are Haystack Rock and Cape Kiwanda, where you’ll find a playground of sand dunes. A climb to the top of the dunes will tire your muscles and reward you with stunning views of the coastline. You might also catch a glimpse of brown pelicans as they glide along the top of the surf and plunge in now and then to grab a fish. After some exercise and fresh air we headed over to Pelican Pub, which has its own award-winning brewery and great food! All in all a perfect weekend, that we will probably repeat soon!