BEACH NEWS YOU CAN USE
Covering 160 miles of Oregon coast travel: Seaside, Cannon Beach, Manzanita, Nehalem, Wheeler, Rockaway, Garibaldi, Tillamook, Oceanside, Pacific City, Lincoln City, Depoe Bay, Newport, Wadport, Yachats & Florence.

Oregon Coast Travelogue: A Truly Manic Tour

By Andre' Hagestedt

The whole point behind the Manic Tour Guide portion of Beach Connection's print publication is to throw a lot of beachy possibilities at the reader all at once - to show them the myriad of things to do in various circumstances - in rapid succession, in a humorous, fun and offbeat way, much like the way I experience these possibilities on a typical day on the coast. I try to live by example with this column: this is what to do here, this how I discovered it, and then some personal anecdotes.

Hence this installment: a truly manic tour of the Oregon Coast, all done within a little over 24 hours, exposing various sides of this shoreline in a multitude of ways. It all took place in May of 2005.

It began with a run to Seaside on a Saturday afternoon, where the rainy storms of spring lived up to the wild, wild legends of the "secret season," with hard showers battering my windshield the whole time between Seaside and Pacific City, and insane breakers smacking the coastline the entire trip.

In Seaside, despite the weather, it's nutty, with loads of landlubbers wandering these streets and flooding the parking spots on Broadway. It's here where I chat with Flashback's Gary Diebolt about local biz stuff, and he chuckles and good-heartedly slaps me on the back after I make a slightly kooky suggestion about what Seaside might need to help local business. Soon after, I'm having a similar conversation about North Coast economic numbers with Zinger's Homemade Ice Cream czar Mike Exinger.

I suddenly realize I often turn to Seaside's ice cream people for sociological/economic discussions. Go figure.

Within an hour, I'm down in Cannon Beach, chatting with Wine Shack's Dean Reiman and wandering through his labyrinth of a wine shop. I overhear him boasting to customers about one particular brand of wine, and I get excited and chime in to agree on its qualitative amenities. I actually know about this Washington wine, though I feel like a big kiss-ass type for butting in (ouch, the puns here).

Pasta at Fultano's: Yes, it's delicious, but too close it looks like a monster

From there, it's gobbling down that addictive pasta at Fultano's in Cannon Beach, then zipping past the Nehalem Bay area (where so many of my friends reside), through the rainstorm, down through Rockaway, Tillamook and then to Oceanside - a good 50 miles from Cannon Beach. The tide is high and mighty, and churning with ferocity. Oceanside was the place that turned me into a lover of the beach back about 20 years ago. There is something very different about this place. It's inspiring and magnetic.

Oceanside in a moody place

Two hours later, I'm finally in Newport (my final destination). There, I hang at the home of my pal JT, who keeps the fine wine flowing all night, into the wee hours. He, his mom Deborah and I stay up until 3 a.m., talking about everything from music, politics, the crazed, Peyton Place-like exploits of the wine giants in California to the antics of JT's goofy and lanky greyhound dog. He - called Dash - periodically asserts himself next to someone or begs attention.

Sunny Nye Beach

I wake up to an incredible, beautiful day in the Nye Beach district, an astounding Gumbo at Village Market & Deli and a really scrumptious fruit salad at Nye Beach Scoop - which I scarf down on the tables outside. This is a particularly, wonderfully pastoral way to take in your breakfast.

Soon, I'm on the road again, snapping shots of the frothy high tide at the Nye Beach Turnaround, chatting with Apollo's Brian Timme, then making my way to Lincoln City, eventually snagging a stunning Mexican dinner at La Roca there, which I immediately scarf down by a beautiful and semi-stormy beach in town.

It's 5 p.m. and it's time to zip to Portland - quickly. I have tickets to see one of my musical gods of all time: Peter Murphy. The beach connection continues here. I run into Greg, part time Manzanita resident (otherwise known as DJ Gregario, often appearing at Nehalem Bay Winery). Old friends appear, like Gina and Michael from Portland band Love Nancy Sugar, Kevin of Written In Ashes; and KNRK's Gustav fills me in on the change in direction on that absolutely godsend of a station. The coast comes up in all these conversations in one way or another. With Gustav, I didn't get the chance to tell him I can catch that deliriously delicious alternative rock station at some spots along 101.

Then Murphy appears on stage - the main architect behind Bauhaus in the 80's, but now a monumentally melodic artist whose works soar with intense beauty and depth. I can't count how many times I've grooved to his music while in the car, traversing the coast in all sorts of weather. Ironically, he begins with the uplifting, unbelievably gorgeous "Gliding Like A Whale" - as if he knew it was appropriate to have a maritime theme here. I lost it, and tears filled my eyes.

Sure, Murphy looks a bit goofy now with that middle-aged paunch and a somewhat startling bald spot that wasn't there before. But his god-like voice is still shiver inducing, and each song floods me with memories of driving 101. The whole beach theme has come full circle, even here. There's a reason this mag is called Beach Connection.

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