I promise, this is the last gallery about Seaside! After we strolled the Promenade, enjoyed the beach and the dunes, and even stayed at a hotel, the only thing left is to have a walk around town.
Seaside is one of those very rare and unique cases, when you can trace the origin of the whole city to just one building. In our case, the building was called Seaside House. It was a hotel in the Italian Villa style, built by a transportation tycoon Benjamin Holladay in 1871. He purchased an already existing guest house, and rebuilt it as a much bigger facility. The proximity to Portland, the biggest Oregon city, and the affluence of Seaside House made this destination so popular that Holladay eventually built a whole resort around it. The resort became even more alluring when a rail line was built between Portland and Seaside. Before, the vacationers had to take a steamboat along the Columbia River to Astoria, and from Astoria along the coast to Seaside.
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This is the main intersection of the city, Broadway St. @ Columbia St., one block away from the turnaround on the Promenade. Note the Art Deco style of the buildings.The Times Theatre is one of the most iconic buildings in Seaside. It was built in 1940 as a movie theatre, got closed since then, like many of them, and now reopened as part movie theatre, part pub & brewery.You still can watch movies here (not latest releases, though, only old classics. At the time of writing they were showing "The Groundhog Day"), and have a real glass of beer while you are at it. In fact, the beer brew tanks are located right behind the screen. The next building along Broadway Street is a video arcade. But it′s a video arcade on steroids. It occupies the whole building. No wonder, this is the North Oregon Coast′s biggest video arcade.It was built in 1928, in the very popular then Art Deco style, and is still going strong. Across the street from the arcade is another pretty building from those early-20th-century times. If you noticed "Wheels & Waves Car Show" banner in the previous picture, you will not be surprised to see this charming little thing parked on the street.The blue building looking like a lighthouse is just a seafood restaurant. But pretty. Later in the gallery, I will show you what you can get there.Another distinctly American thing, along with video arcades, is a carousel. It seems that any town aspiring to even the slightest whiff of significance, has to have one. In our case, the carousel is hidden inside this shopping mall.This is still Broadway St., the town′s main thoroughfare, which we′ve been walking along all this time.No resort town can exist without an antique store. Only, like the huge video arcade, this one is, apparently, big enough to call itself a mall.There is a stream cutting through the town, which adds to Seaside′s charm. It′s Necanicum River, called such after an indigenous village Ne-hay-ne-hum, which once existed in the area.Necanicum River is the third name for the stream. William Clark, who visited the area to see the beached whale, called it Clatsop River, by the name of an indigenous tribe living farther north. Lewis and Clark named their winter camp Clatsop Fort after that tribe.But Clatsop River didn′t stick. Then the stream was known as Latty Creek, after William Latty, an early pioneer in the area. That didn′t catch too.So, Necanicum River it is. La pastorale, non? You can even rent a swan and ride it around in the river.And yet another thing that every American resort town must have - a year-round Christmas store. Portraited here is a happily married elderly couple - Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus.A regular store. I have a friend, who is fascinated by such depictions of mundane everyday things. This is for him. (With a little Photoshop enhancement, to make it worthy to be posted 😊).Since we just visited a grocery store, let′s talk food. There is this restaurant in Seaside, which turned out to be a very fine (an even a fancy) Italian restaurant.Inside, they try to recreate that "Italian neighbourhood trattoria" ambiance. This is the way they present Caprese salad with heirloom tomatoes. They aptly call it "Caprese tower".The next dish is Cioppino - a sort of a tomato bouillabaisse. It′s an American-Italian dish, originated from the communal meals in Italian fishing villages, when everyone "chips in" (hence cioppino) with the catch of the day. And no Italian meal for me can be complete without tiramisu. It′s the first time I had tiramisu in a Mason jar.And, to finish the food part of the story, here′s what you can get at the seafood restaurant I mentioned earlier. As you can see, you can get lobster tail ⇨ ⇨ and Dungeness crab. [And this is the last image in Seaside section! But Seaside is only the beginning of our trip along the Oregon Coast.]Press ESC to exit
