Oregon’s Central Coast

TRAVEL THERE: THE CENTRAL COAST OF OREGON

Welcome to Oregon! Well, sort of. This past summer my husband and I spent twelve days traveling the state and now I’m sharing the experience with you. I’ll tell you about the attractions we visited, the meals we ate and where we stayed. Maybe you’ll decide you want to visit Oregon, too. Today we’ll take a look at the Central Coast.

Mind-Numbing Beauty

According to my friends at VisitTheOregonCoast the Central Coast runs from The Dunes to Lincoln City.  Bill took some great shots along this coast, but I didn’t do such a good job of discerning which pictures went with which stop.  I mean it’s all gorgeous, right? So forgive me for not being more specific about exact locations

But I can be very specific about where to stay and where to eat in Lincoln City.

Shearwater Inn

My travel booking site of choice, as I’ve mentioned before, is expedia. Sure, if scoring the cheapest room and flight is your number one priority to the exclusion of everything else, then there are other places to go, but for ease of use and consistent value, I’ll take expedia.  That’s where I booked all my hotels for Oregon.  One was called the O’dysius Hotel – at least it was when I booked it.

Then one day as I did further work on my vacation, I noticed expedia thought I was staying at the Shearwater Inn. I panicked and started making calls.  Come to find out, there had been a change of ownership and hence the name change.  My reservation and my pricing were intact.

I’d been on the fence about the hotel, because the comments were

conflicting.  One guest would rave and the next would complain about a funny smell or the location.  I took a leap of faith and booked it.  I’m a raver when it comes to this hotel, but I think I’d be raving even more if I’d gotten to stay more than one day.  Our quick overnight didn’t give me a chance to really relax and sink into the amenities.

To begin with, they have a hospitality hour every evening, but we got there just as things were winding down.  We had a few pretzel sticks and cheese cubes, but they’d quit pouring wine.  Then we went to our room and all was forgiven.   Beautifully appointed, carefully laid out and extremely comfortable.  I WANTED to stay there for a few days.

The location of the hotel is odd and the parking challenging, but it’s worth the trouble.  The inn is built on a very small bit of land and to maximize the lot, it’s built over the parking lot, and the parking spots are very tight.  If you choose your accommodations based on commodious parking lots, don’t stay here.  If you think a wonderful hotel stay is worth a little parking lot maneuvering, then like me, you’ll love it here.

The small bit of land is right on the highway and there are other buildings between you and the surf, but it’s really no big deal.  The land next to the highway is significantly higher than the low one-story buildings behind it, so your view of the ocean is unrestricted. There’s easy access to the beach between the buildings, so that’s no hassle either.

Once we’d checked in and eaten our cheese cubes, we wanted to enjoy the beach.  Bill pulled out his kite and we went for a stroll.  We loved how friendly everyone was and there was some gusty winds for the kite.  It was a great time.

The Black Fish Cafe

For dinner, we found Black Fish Cafe – like a whole lot of other people did.  It was among the more upscale of the food choices and definitely the most hip.  The food was OK, but one dish was way too salty.  We weren’t going to say anything about it, because on the whole, it had been a pleasant dining experience.  But the waitress sort of pumped us about our food in a way that led us to believe she actually cared.  So we told her about the salty entree and she admitted someone else had complained of the same problem.  She went to the manager and passed on our complaint – the one we weren’t going to make, but had been grilled out of us.  We thought there might be an adjustment to the bill or the offer of a dessert, but instead we got scolded for showing up without a reservation.

Back to Luxury

Returning to the hotel, still snickering about the little lecture, we turned on the fireplace.  Yes – our room had a fireplace, but it wouldn’t stay lit.  Someone came to fix it, but they didn’t know much more about it than we did – so we had a beautiful fireplace that didn’t work.  Here’s how great the room was – I didn’t care.  I cozied up on the huge white sofa and made my breakfast selections from the card provided.  Then the next morning, instead of having to tromp down to the lobby for breakfast, it was delivered to the room – all included in the price of admission.

If you ever go to Lincoln City (or anywhere near it) do plan on staying at the Shearwater Inn.  You’ll love your room so much that you won’t want to leave it, but if you do, you’ll find other things to love.  I’d even recommend eating at the Black Fish Cafe, just be prepared for a little extra salt and don’t complain about the food, or you’ll be chastised.  Now enjoy the photos – even if I can’t tell you exactly where we took all of them.