Adventures in Vacationland

After far too long without using any vacation time, I finally have a week off. Considering that the Wheel of Disgust is currently at a high point in its rotation as pertains to certain aspects of my work, it is a good time for some distance from my place of employment. What better way to distance oneself than a trip to the beach? There's nothing like the vastness of the ocean. Somehow it always helps me to put things into perspective.

So, Saturday morning Jen, MQ and I ignored the nay-sayers and prophesiers of rain and doom and took off for a day of beachy fun in the greater Lincoln City area. While Lincoln City itself is not the prettiest town on the Oregon Coast, it has a number of things to recommend it:

1) Devil's Lake. Despite one of my fellow travellers deeming lakes "creepy", I want to stay at the little hotel there sometime for a writing weekend. There's just something appealing about me and my laptop in a little room with a window overlooking the lake.

2) Outlet Stores with salty air, sea mist, an Old Navy (hooray $5 t-shirts!), and a cutlet emporium (sorry, Maidenform, we may meet again, but I STILL think I can do better than $29.95)

3) A great Thai restaurant. Who'd have thought it? Plus, it had free food (though that may have had more to do with MQ paying for my lunch than it being an actual restaurant policy).

4) Siletz Bay (though we didn't stop there this time). I love going there and watching the sea lions lounge on the sand across the water on Salishan spit.

5) Proximity to Gleneden Beach, which is a quiet little town that holds a lot of youthful memories for me. It is also home to The Crystal Wizard, which is a lovely little store as long as no one is playing with that infernal singing bowl, which is supposed to align one's chakras or something, but really just makes me want to me align someone's eyeball with an ice pick. I don't know what it is about the sound that irritates me so much, but its tone makes me seriously want to rethink my commitment to non-violence.

Eye gouging aside, it turned out to be a lovely day, and I am happy to report that the Crystal Wizard remained peaceful and no arrests were made, which always makes for a good first day of vacation!