the blue door

Lately, I've been working on a website for our beach house, The Blue Door on the Oregon Coast. The town is called Oceanside but people always get it mixed up with Canon Beach because of the rocks in the water (for future reference, Cannon Beach has Haystack Rock; Oceanside has Three Arch Rocks, Storm rock, Seal Rock and the Three Arch National Wildlife Refuge). My family and I have been going to Oceanside since I was tiny and I confess that it has never stopped growing on me. There are few places as beautiful and unique. It's situated on a quiet hill town unspoiled by commerce and on the beautiful Three Capes Loop. Oceanside has three miles of beach, rugged volcanic cliffs and enticing tidepools. Each visit is unlike any other. 

The Blue Door is a cozy cabin overlooking and walking distance from the ocean. Many a visitor has spent hours gazing out the enormous living room window at the water, the rocks, the clouds... While it's perfect for three to four, it can sleep up to six people. And regardless of the admittedly often sporadic Oregon Coast weather, one can safely say the place never disappoints. Please pay a visit to The Blue Door website for more information and images!

simple feelings

Inspired by fashiontoast's images and the feeling of a cold and rainy Sunday in November, I thought I would post some photographs of my own.

a human town

A couple weeks ago two friends came down to visit from Seattle. All I could think of to show them the city was food, so we literally jumped from crepes at home to St. Honore Boulangerie for coffee to lunch to coffee to tinto de verano in the park to appetizers and so on...

On our return home, a woman stopped to comment on how "human" Portland is. I thought this was an interesting  word choice. Upon a bit of reflection, it occurred to me that this is exactly what I love about the city. For years, I believed Portland to be simply a somewhat smaller version of Seattle. While I do still believe this to a certain extent, the last couple years I found myself more and more amazed at the size and the feel of Seattle and how drastically different it is from Portland. Seattle, I see now as a composite city made up of many different smaller towns ("towns" isn't the right word here, but the right one evades me...). 

But I think Portland is seriously catching on there, too, and while I can't begin to describe how much I miss Seattle, there's nothing quite like wandering around here.