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39 vacation homes around Pacific City, all fully furnished and beachfront, 20 of which are pet friendly.

A famous little family eatery where the seafood practically gets shuffled from the sea straight into your mouth. Soups and salads include many seafood specialties, including cioppino, chowders, crab Louie and cheese breads. Fish 'n' chips come w/ various fish. Seafood sandwiches with shrimp, tuna or crab, as well as burgers. Dinners like pan fried oysters, fillets of salmon or halibut, sautéed scallops.

Feed the seals! One of the oldest aquariums in the U.S. is here in Seaside, Oregon, right on the Promenade

Lincoln City’s only resort hotel built right on the beach with all oceanfront rooms - nestled against a rugged cliffside overlooking a soft, sandy beach. Dine in penthouse restaurant and bar, for casual meal or candlelight dinner. An array of seafood specialties, juicy steaks and other Northwest favorites, including decadent Sunday buffet. Rooms range from bedrooms to studios to 1-bedroom suites with microwaves and refrigerators to full kitchens. Also, wi-fi, spa, saunas, exercise room and year-round heated swimming pool. Kids will love the game room and easy beach access. Full-service conference/meeting rooms for that inspirational retreat; extensive wedding possibilities.

There will not be another property built like this in Cannon Beach in our lifetimes. Rare, premiere ocean front location; handsome, dramatic architecture and tasteful, fun (nostalgic) beach interiors. Overlooks Haystack Rock. 100 percent smoke free. Imaginative special occasion packages. Massive wood burning lobby fireplace. Library w/ fireplace, stocked with impressive book collection. Pet and family friendly. Lavish continental buffet breakfast. In-room fireplaces, mini-kitchens. Jacuzzi tubs in select rooms. DVD players, complimentary movies. Morning paper. Warm cookies.

Inn at Wecoma Lincoln City.  Sleek, modern design w some partial ocean views, balconies and fireplaces. Spacious guestrooms w/ microwave, refrigerator, coffeemaker, free continental breakfast.  Indoor pool and a hot tub. W-fi, fitness room, business center, and located within walking distance to finest restaurants. 867-sq-foot conference room for business meetings or large social events. Some pet friendly.

the finest in luxury condominium lodging. Every unit is focused on the beauty of the sea and the beach.

A castle on the coast. Fine antiques, gourmet breakfast, luxury w/ ocean views, pet friendly. Social hour in the eve. Have to see to believe. East Ocean Rd., just north of the Arch Cape Tunnel. Arch Cape, Oregon (s. of Cannon Beach and Seaside). www.archcapehouse.com. 800-436-2848

For over 80 years a favorite of Seaside visitors. 51 oceanfront condos, individually owned and decorated. Suites for couples, small apartments with fireplaces and kitchenettes, one or two bed family units with fireplaces, kitchens and dining rooms. Oceanview cottages sleep anywhere from two to eight, w/ two bedrooms, some with lofts, fireplaces and kitchens. Heated outdoor pool, enormous grounds w/ picnic tables - all at quiet southern end of Seaside.

20 gorgeous homes sleep up to 18; doubled that with some side-by-side homes. Some pet friendly. Cottages to massive homes; new oceanfront to renovated historic beach houses. All over central coast w/ Lincoln City, Otter Rock, Boiler Bay and Nye Beach. Long list of features, including barbecues, large decks, antique furnishings, wood stoves, gas fireplaces, hardwood floors, Jacuzzis and hot tubs. Most have movies, music, books. Gift basket w/ goodies in each

smaller homes with a view to a large house that sleeps 15. All are either oceanfront or just a few steps away – all with a low bank access and fantastic views. Most are in the Nelscott area; one is close to the casino. You’ll find a variety of goodies: fireplaces, multiple bedrooms, dishwashers, Jacuzzis, washer/dryers, hot tubs, cable TV, VCR, barbecues; there’s a loft in one, and another sprawling home has two apartments. Pets allowed in some homes – ask first. Each comes with complete kitchens. Most have seventh night free.

Suites, duplex units, houses for 2-8 people. Close to everything. All units w/ kitchens; many have fireplaces, decks, jetted tubs. Robes, slippers, luxury bath amenities and more. Award-winning flowers. Featured on Travel Channel.

Sumptuous indoor pool heated year round. Lovely ocean views come with many rooms. All units big, extremely comfortable, w/ special touches. Each room contains a microwave, refrigerator, in-room coffee makers, cable TV, and larger kitchen units are available as well. Free parking, choice of smoking or non-smoking rooms. Within walking distance to all of Yachats’ various amenities; short walk to the beaches

Literally over 100 homes available as vacation rentals – all distinctive and carefully selected to be special. Find them in Yachats, Waldport, Newport, Nye Beach, Otter Rock, Depoe Bay, Gleneden Beach, Lincoln Beach, Lincoln City, Neskowin, Pacific City, Tierra Del Mar and Rockaway Beach. Some pet friendly.

 

 

The Gooey and Scary Sides of Oregon Coast Science

Published March 2009

The beach in front of the Tides by the Sea as it is today: lots of it didn't exist before the late eighties.

(Oregon Coast) - Beyond the pretty sights and sites of the Oregon coastline, its lovely, calming ocean vibes and the memory-making moments that are created by a vacation here, there's a layer of weird stuff. It’s one of those oddball secrets that sits below the surface of the usual tourism activities – quite literally below the surface. But if it’s something you’re aware of, it gives you whole new vistas to gawk at and enjoy while on these beaches.

In the worlds of weather, the ocean environment, the fauna and even the strange tales told by the rocks themselves in the geologic sciences, there’s more drama here than just the wave action.

New Chunks of Land in Seaside

The southern cove area of Seaside, with all its surfing glory and splashy waves, was not always what you see these days. There was until 20 years ago a lot less of it.

“A huge landslide in 1987 added about 100 yards to the southern end of Seaside, where the cove is now,” said Tom Horning, a coastal geology expert living in Seaside.

Horning explains that Tillamook Head sometimes drops tons and tons of rocky material into the sea, which periodically changes the landscape. Back then, boulders and rocks from this particular landslide slowly filled in the cove area, extending one part out hundreds of feet. A new spit was formed by the rocks for a time, which locals used with glee to catch loads of fish. Fairly quickly, that space between the spit and the land filled in, creating an enormous dead tide pool for a few months. Eventually, sand and rocks filled all that in, as well as down the beach. The entire southern end of Seaside's beaches became wider after that.

Horning points to the building at the cove that is the beachfront section of The Tides by the Sea hotel. “Back when they first built this, the sea practically came right up to the building,” Horning said. “They had boulders and rip rap there to keep it away. After 1987, 100 yards of beach was created in front of that area.”

Mole crab (photo Seaside Aquarium)

Freaky Mole Crabs

They show up in summer, usually late in the season, and do some kind of creepy things to the waves.

They are called mole crabs, but they don't pinch or bite. In fact, they have small feather-like appendages which they wave through the water to collect plankton. Instead of pinchers they have paddle-like legs which help them burrow quickly into the sand. Mole crabs swim and dig into the sand backwards - that way only their eyes are sticking out of the sand. You’ll see the waves appear to “bubble” as their vast numbers in the sands are tossed around by the tide and they struggle to burrow themselves into one spot.

You’ll notice these bug-like creatures washing over your feet in the late summer. You can feel the sensation of dozens of little something-or-rather’s zip across your feet.

Photo by Boothe

They dig themselves into the sand using a tail, which they utilize with a swirling motion, allowing them to change direction with whatever the tide is doing or wherever it’s taking them.

Instead of pinchers, mole crabs have adapted claws to help them dig in the sand. They also come with two sets of antennae: breathing tubes and feeding antennae.

They normally live on sandy beaches in the surf zone, usually buried in the sand with the breathing antennae sticking out. You’ll find them in the geographic range of Alaska to Chile, but only occasionally found north of Oregon. Northern populations are from larvae that ride the current up the coast.

Colorful creatures can be especially vibrant in tide pools in Oregon (photo Tiffany Boothe, Seaside Aquarium)

Colorful Creatures from Inner or Outer Space?

“When you go out to a tide pool, are you seeing all there is,” asked Seaside Aquarium’s Tiffany Boothe. “Do you know what it is you're looking at? Can you determine whether or not what you're looking is an animal or a plant?”

Boothe said there is quite a bit people are probably overlooking on their often cursory glances or looks into the little colonies of life left by low tides. One of these is the wild and wonderfully colorful sea slugs – or nudibranchs (pronounced with a “k” sound at the end, not a ch sound). They come in such diverse shapes, patterns and colors it is impossible to see all the configurations.

Flabellina triophi is one of the wild creatures you may find in a coastal tide pool (photo Boothe)

Some 3,000 different species inhabit the world’s oceans and tide pools, ranging in length from 1/8 inch to 12 inches. They look like creatures from space, or the product of that esoteric mixture of art and computer algorythms called the Mandelbrot set (where computers take a fractal exercise and generate elaborate, colorful designs that are infinitely intricate).

“Nudibranchs are marine snails, relatives of limpets and abalone,” Boothe said. “Through evolution they have lost their shell. In fact, the name nudibranch means ‘naked gills,’ referring to the fact that their gills are on the outside of the body. While most lack shells some species have a reduced or internal shell.”

Boothe said they come in all shapes, sizes, and colors. Some nudibranchs are able to blend in with their environment by means of cryptic coloration, while others brightly advertise their presence to everyone.

200 different species call the Pacific Northwest home, making quite the color splash in those tide pools you’re peeking into on the Oregon coast. Click here for a complete list of places to find tide pools on the Oregon coast.

Spooky Geology in the Rocks of Cape Meares

Layers of lava flows are visible in the massive cliffs of Cape Meares, just north of Oceanside and west of Tillamook

Gazing at the massive cliff walls and their ragged features from the various viewpoints along Cape Meares is, understandably, one of the big pastimes at this amazing spot on the north Oregon coast. But if you know how to read it, a wild saga emerges. They are, in many ways, a slice of the Earth’s crust in this area, cut down the middle so we can – quite literally – see the layers.

Horning is a renowned geologist on the subject of anything coastal, with Seaside's Gateway To Discovery. He’s spent considerable time staring at the myriad of layers embedded in the rocks here, frozen in time from the Miocene period. He says these layers represent eons of massive lava flows that have piled on each other over millions of years, coming here from hundreds of miles away.

Cape Meares is like a cutaway of the Earth, with layers of lava flows visible in the rocks, covered by sandstone that was once an ocean bed

He says it all begins with a fiery situation over 15 million years ago, when a giant hole in the Earth’s crust spewed so much lava it scarred and seared its way across what was then Idaho and Eastern Oregon, until it reached the sea (which was several miles inland, perhaps as much as 75 miles east).

This is the same hole that now fuels the action at Yellowstone National Park. Continental drift pushed that weakness in the crust eastward over time, and it now lies there.

Essentially, these massive flows came again and again, separated by hundreds, thousands maybe even millions of years. No one is really certain how long between each eruption. The lava flows literally filled up the space in a prehistoric valley, locking its shape in time with the sturdy basalt rock that happens after lava cools. Eventually, that valley eroded away, leaving only the rock.

If you look closely at the cliffs, you can see the layers piled up on top of each other. Some layers appear as pillow basalt, which is formed when the lava hits water and cools very fast, forming bubble-like structures that aren’t as jagged as the regular layers.

When the others layers simply cooled in the air, it sometimes created strange shapes, which can also be seen at the bottom of the cliffs: little bundles of what look like columns dotting throughout one layer. This is when the lava cooled from the inside upward, and the cooled sections of lava separated into these upward-pointing shafts.

“At the bottom, you will see cross-bedded gravels and pillow layers,” Horning said. “Near the top, you will see lavas with nearly vertical cooling joints in the flows. They can interfinger or interlayer, depending on water levels. Sometimes, lavas can squeeze in between deeper layers to cool as sills, with vertical joint systems that look much like columnar jointing of lava flows.”

Horning said everything is at a bit of an angle because the whole complex has been tipped to the west by about 15 degrees, so its eastern part has been lifted high into the sky.

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Dozens of homes in that dreamy, rugged stretch between Cannon Beach and Manzanita known as Arch Cape. Oceanfront and ocean view , or just a short walk from the sea.

Beautifully wooded natural setting at quiet south end of Cannon Beach. Great during winter storms with a new book by the fireplace – or when the sun is out for family fun and beach strolling. Handsome beach cottage-style architecture. Lush flowering gardens and naturalized courtyard pond. Warm, inviting guest rooms. Continental buffet breakfast. Warm Cookies. Family and Pet Friendly. Welcome gifts. Smoke-free. Complimentary Wireless Connectivity. Wine and book signing events.

Perfect for large family vacations all the way down to a getaway lodging for two - with over 25 vacation rental homes to choose from. A breathtaking collection of craftsman or traditional beachfront homes, or oceanview houses – from one to seven bedrooms. In various areas of Lincoln City and overlooking the beach, with some in Depoe Bay. All kinds of amenities are available, like hot tubs, decks, BBQ, rock fireplaces, beamed ceilings and more. Some are new, some are historic charmers.

Breathtaking high panoramic beach views from oceanfront rooms, spacious family suites & fully equipped cottages.  Known for gracious hospitality, the sparkling clean Sea Horse features a heated indoor pool, dramatic oceanfront spa, great whale watching, free deluxe continental breakfast, conference room, free casino shuttle & HBO.  Fireplaces, private decks and spas are available in select rooms.  Close to shops, golf, fishing & restaurants.  Pets are welcome in select rooms.  Senior discounts.  Kids 18 and under stay free in their parent's room.  Very attractive rates.

Oregon Coast event or adventure you can't miss

All rooms are immaculate and have TV’s, VCR’s and in-room phones w/ data ports. Oceanfronts have queen bed, a double hide-a-bed, kitchen, cozy firelog fireplace and private deck. Both types sleep up to four people. Others are appointed for a two-person romantic getaway, yet still perfect for those on a budget. Elaborate oceanfront Jacuzzi suite has two bedrooms, kitchen, double hide-a-bed, fireplace and private deck, sleeping as many as six. For family reunions or large gatherings such as weddings, some rooms can connect to create two-room and three-room suites. Some rooms pet friendly