We've been asked, several times now, what made you move to Lincoln City. We've always answered The Beach, but I think we'll be changing that flat response. Oh, to be sure, the beach was a huge part of our decision to move. I mean, c'mon, how many times in your life do you get the chance to live next to the beach?
So I'll admit that the beach was a huge part of our decision but I'm gonna expand my answer and say that the reason we moved to Lincoln City was that it is a great place to try new things.
Makes sense, right? Ties in with the beach thingie but also opens up all the other features included with living along Oregon's Central Coast. All of the adventures waiting to happen up and down the coast. The challenge of adapting to a new style of living; the opportunity to experience old things in an entirely new environment.
The adventure of it all.
That's why we moved here. I could say that about any of the places we considered and it would be equally applicable. But, hahahaha, here, you also have the beach!!
Hahahaha, some things never change, do they? Spring is coming quick and she's starting to show her colors.
Yesterday, we needed to go to the store and so we drove a round about way and stopped by the downtown area for a short walk on our way to the store. As soon as we stepped out of the Mini, we were treated to a colorful display of color and beauty.
Hahahaha, and it's all free!!
So I'll admit that the beach was a huge part of our decision but I'm gonna expand my answer and say that the reason we moved to Lincoln City was that it is a great place to try new things.
Makes sense, right? Ties in with the beach thingie but also opens up all the other features included with living along Oregon's Central Coast. All of the adventures waiting to happen up and down the coast. The challenge of adapting to a new style of living; the opportunity to experience old things in an entirely new environment.
The adventure of it all.
That's why we moved here. I could say that about any of the places we considered and it would be equally applicable. But, hahahaha, here, you also have the beach!!
Hahahaha, some things never change, do they? Spring is coming quick and she's starting to show her colors.
Yesterday, we needed to go to the store and so we drove a round about way and stopped by the downtown area for a short walk on our way to the store. As soon as we stepped out of the Mini, we were treated to a colorful display of color and beauty.
Hahahaha, and it's all free!!
Love me some daffodils. We've even got a couple just outside our window . . . the one over-looking the beach. (FYI, I will be insufferable about reminding you that I've got a kick-butt view of the beach everyday!! Insufferable!!)
Ahhh, We're looking forward to Spring.
So the main drag in town is US 101. It defines the city, the county and the coast. Arguably one of the most scenic highways in the world but it took a lot of lobbying and maneuvering to get it built.
Fun Facts: Understandably, the first major highways built in Oregon were not along the coast. The priorities were to connect the major cities of Oregon to the commerce and opportunities that Washington and California offered. If folks wanted to travel to the coast, they traveled by train or wagon.
As automobiles became more popular, the clamor for access to the coast and the need for a coastal highway increased. Enter now, B.F. Jones. As a young man, Jones had been a mail carrier on the Central Oregon Coast and came to love the area. In 1892 Jones led a delegation of coastal people to the Benton County courthouse in Corvallis to petition for road improvements.
The Commissioners denied the petition joking that the coastal people were just clam diggers who didn't really need roads. Jones took those clam diggers and, in the next year, created a new county, Lincoln County, so that they could pass the laws needed to improve transportation along the Oregon Coast.
In 1919 Jones wrote the first bill authorizing the construction of the Oregon Coast Highway to be built from Astoria in the north to the California border in the south. Work began in 1921 on a new 350-mile north-south road to be named, The Roosevelt Coast Military Highway.
It wasn't an easy process. At many points along the coast, the Highway was rough graded, wood planked or made of crushed rock. In some places, shell material was used to surface roads. There are still, today, in some coastal towns, streets named Shell Street. In many areas, the sandy beach was the only north-to-south route possible.
The Great Depression slowed the construction down but the Federal Government stepped in with assistance and, finally, on September 6, 1936, the last of the six great coastal bridges, the Yaquina Bay Bridge, was opened to traffic marking The Completion of the Last Link of the Oregon Coast Highway.
The total cost of the five coastal bridges built between 1933 and 1936 was $6 million. the total cost of building U.S. Highway 101 was estimated at $25 million. It only took fifteen years to build the 350-mile long highway.
Today the highway is an integral part of Oregon serving the commerce and tourism needs of Oregon's coastal cities.
And it's our Highway now. We live under a half-mile from it and it will be our main drag to adventure. Hahaha, it'll be great.
Lincoln City has a year-round population of just a touch over 8,000 souls. In the summertime, however, the populations swells to over 30,000. So, as much as I will love the 101, I am sure, in the summer, I will be cursing it on a regular basis. Hahaha, can you say, Traffic Jam?
So let's start today's adventure here, at Bob's Beach Books along the 101.
Both Carol and I share a deep love for books and we are always looking for an opportunity to stop by and browse through any bookstore. Especially ones like this.
Pretty cool, eh?
In addition to having all the books you could ever want, they also had a pretty healthy selection of tourist doo-dads and gee-haws.
My kind of stuff!!
You'll see this kind of sorta beachy and way touristy architecture all up and down the 101. Oh, and another thing I've noticed, at least in LCO (Remember? LCO stands for Lincoln City, Oregon), is that there aren't any buildings over three stories tall. Most of them, the great majority, are just one story.
The 101.
It was a glorious day, the weather was mild and the breeze refreshing.
And, to give you a better understanding of just how nice it was today, here's me in my new Hawaiian shirt. And my blue Skipper's hat.
Hahaha, you'll be seeing a lot of Hawaiian shirts from now on.
One of the neater features we noticed as we ambled around this afternoon were these little mosaics set into the sidewalk along the way. Evidently they are set at different intervals for the length of the city. I think. Hahaha, we'll find out for sure and you and let you know, 'Kay!?!
You'll be seeing these peppered throughout our blog. Guaranteed!!
Yeah, we got a reflected selfie. It's our thing.
We weren't necessarily barefoot, but we both did have on flip-flops.
Hahaha, remember when we were kids and we called them thongs? Can't do that anymore.
After the book store, we eventually crossed the street. I won't say that Candyland wasn't a huge factor in my wanting to cross the street . . . I won't deny it either. Yum, yum.
We were just strollin' with no particular place to go and so we went up, beyond the candy store and checked out the coffee shop at the end and then came back. The first place we came to coming back was the bright blue store next to CandyLand.
It was CLV-R Nest.
Or, as the card I picked up says, CLeVeRness in store.
Hahaha, pretty clever if you ask me.
And inside we got to meet and chat with Carole and her beautiful baby granddaughter. Love the babys hair, right!?!
Carole had two HallMark Stores and when she closed them she stored all the left-over merchandise. When she finally got tired of paying storage fees she decided to open up a new store in Lincoln City. She and her daughter, when she's available (she's a Tax Accountant and is pretty busy right now), run the store with some help from the granddaughter.
Hahahaha, I know I'm mangling the whole story so forgive me, Carole. E-mail me with the correct story and I'll update the blog. I'm flexible like that.
But the store was fun to browse through and this one had all kinds of neat stuff. See that yellow car? Steve Melby was playing in the street in a red one just like that when we moved into our house on Cohassett in Sun Valley, California way back in the mid-fifties.
Oh, I loved that car and wanted it for my own.
Another old-time favorite, Betty Boop.
Hahaha, what a tart!!
It really is a neat shop and I strongly recommend you stop by when you're in LCO. Friendly staff, good prices and a wide selection.
Plus, you can take care of your Christmas ornament shopping, too.
I still have a soft spot in my heart for Snoopy and the Gang. Not so much for the TV Specials but for the newspaper cartoons.
Hahahaha, he's everywhere!! SquareBob SpongePants!!
Backstory is that Carol's daughter, Gretchen, worked on the recently released SB movie and so we've been on a SB Hunt for some time now. It's been fun and it is staggering when you realize ALL the ways this cartoon character is marketed.
But here he's a cute drawing being shown off by a proud Grandma.
There's something for the golfer . . .
. . . and the Evangelical.
And, of course, something for my daughter, Michelle.
A lighthouse!!
And if one is fun, then two must be twice as good. Plus, as a bonus, you get Mr. & Mrs. Claus thrown in.
Hahahaha, what little girl didn't have at least one of these anatomically believable models of modern femininity.
Lookin' good, Barbie!!
There was jewelry and a lot more.
We had a good time and a good conversation. A win-win sorta thingie.
And right next door was CandyLand!!
Ummmmmm . . .
CandyLand branched out beyond just candy. Hmmmm, a Christmas gift for a certain good little boy named Matt?
Maybe.
Ka-Boom!!
The first LCO T-Shirt!!
I will get one . . . eventually.
Count on it.
There are plenty of these. Plenty!!
And this store specialized in candies that were popular once, a long time ago.
There, almost in the center, is the one Carol got. A Look Bar.
Look is a candy bar with chewy, peanut-filled nougat covered with mouth-watering, rich, dark chocolate. A West Coast favorite since the 50s.
Me? I got the Cherry Mash. You can just see it in the cherry-pink box near the upper right corner.
Mmmmmm . . .
Hello, Old Friend. It's been far too long.
Hahaha, and how about these politically incorrect candies for kids. They even had chewing gum cigars.
And they had a lot of Bacon Stuff.
A lot!!
There was bacon soap., toothpicks, bandages and whatever that bacon-themed stuff is just to the right of the bacon soap.
Bacon Lollipops . . .
. . . and Bacon Sticks (with a free, presumedly bacon-themed tattoo, inside of the package) . . .
. . . plus Bacon Soda!!
Heaven, I'm in Heaven,
And my heart beats so that I can hardly speak . . .
And we finally got to the reason for the store.
A Balanced Diet is Chocolate in Each Hand!!
Amen.
Never one to pass up a chance for an easy selfie, I didn't.
Here's another sidewalk mosaic.
They have a program, during the slow months, where they hide glass floats along the beach and if you find one of the glass balls, you get to keep it.
I am hoping to find at least one. Hopefully. Remember, the beach is 7.5 miles long so, that increases the odds against me. Still, I shall persevere.
I wants me one of them free glass thingies!!
Moving on down the sidewalk, this gives you an idea of the decor.
Hahaha, early Miocene Tourist Decor. This epoch covers the rise of the Totally Tourist Trap as Tourists arose and diversified becoming widespread in the New World. By the end of this epoch, the ancestors of the humans had split away from the ancestors of the Tourists to follow their own evolutionary path.
And they are not shy about sprucing up their Traps.
I've never lived in a Tourist Town before. I should explain that the two main industries in LCO are Tourism and Retirement.
Hahahaha, now it begins to make more sense, eh?
And then we came by the Bijou. How cool!!
This theater, with its one screen, is still showing movies. Given the fact that it is in Oregon, most of the shows here are avant-garde, just a bit out of the mainstream. Now playing is Still Alice, which, I must admit, is a movie I had not heard of before seeing it advertised here.
Next up is The Homesman and, after that, Mr. Turner.
See!?! I haven't heard of them. Have you?
The really neat thing is that every Saturday, at 1100 sharp, they show an Old-Time Classic Movie.
This Saturday they're showing The Man Who Knew Too Much. This movie, made in 1934 stars Peter Lorre and was directed by Alfred Hitchcock. It was one of his last hits made in England before he migrated to Hollywood.
And they're only $2.00!!
The city isn't just Highway 101. The Avenues run north-south and the streets go east-west. The streets go in numerical order starting at D-River so it is 34th Street NW vs 34th Street SW.
The Avenues are lettered starting with A and going all the way through to Z. The first Avenue is Anchor and the last is Zephyr.
Pretty simple.
The city is also broken down into areas. In 1965 five different cities decided to join as one and so now each district, or area, has it own name. Like this one, Oceanlake.
It's not a flat city.
And then we come back to Highway 101.
And some more mosaics.
Hahahaha, I will never get tired of these and there are SO many more out there waiting to have their picture taken.
We were still meandering and enjoying when we came to the Sea Wick.
Let's go in, shall we?
Hahahaha, we shall.
Annnnnd, another lighthouse.
This was one of the first things I saw. Hahahaha, I would love to play this game one time. I'm thinking, due to its lack of success as a popular board game, that one game is about all I could play.
I mean, who would want to be one of the Venturesome Traders competing for profits as you Buy and Sell Cargo on all the Seven Seas!!
Sign me up, Matey!!
Hahaha, we had a lot of toy guns when we were growing up. Then Carol mentioned that her sister, Allida, was always strapped up when she was little. She had a set much like this one.
Ahhh, they were simpler times. Geez, how did the Boomers screw it up so badly?
And they had a lot of old books.
Some great titles here.
Window scene.
And this. I really would like to have this beauty hanging Pride of Place in the front room.
Superman!!
Fun Facts: Action Comics #1 (June, 1938) is the first issue of the original run of the comic book series Action Comics. It features the first appearance of several comic book heroes - most notably the Jerry Siegel ad Joe Shuster creation, Superman.
For this reason, it is widely considered both the beginning of the superhero genre and the most valuable comic book of all time. On August 24, 2014, a copy graded 9.0 by CGC was sold on eBay for $3,207,852. It's the only comic to have sold for more than $3 million for a single original copy.
In January, 2933, Jerry Siegel wrote a short story titled The Reign of the Superman, which was illustrated by Joe Shuster and self-published in a scifi magazine. Trying to create a character they could sell to newspaper syndicates, Siegel re-conceived the superman character as a powerful hero and he and Shuster developed the idea into a comic strip, which they pitched unsuccessfully.
National Publications was looking for a quick hit to accompany their success with Detective Comics. the owner of National Publications told editor Vin Sullivan to create their fourth comic book. The tight deadline forced Sullivan to make the comic out of inventory and stockpile pages. He found a number of adventure stories but needed a lead feature. Sullivan asked if Sheldon Mayer could help him and Mayer found the rejected Superman comic strips and Sullivan told Siegel and Shuster that if they could paste them into 13 comic book pages, he would buy them.
They did and he did and history was made.
Oh, I was sorely tempted. What All-American Boy wouldn't want something like this for his living room wall?
Ball jars.
After the Sea Wick, we dropped by Deli 101. They've got Ruebens and a hefty 15% discount if you're military!!
Woo, woo!!
This being LCO, this shop was, like the others, just a bit outside what you might consider the norm. On one side of the Deli, they have the Oceanlake Library. And see that old-time Motorola Radio in the background? It was still belting out some good tunes. The library? Take one and leave one and, if you can't leave one right now then get it on the next time.
Next up was this store . . .
WindDriven - Kites/Toys/Flags
Whoa!! This was a color riot and loads of fun.
Hahaha, we kept seeing little snippets of our lives . . . like this one of my brother, Dave, riding his golf cart way out there in Florida.
Marine Copters and Cessnas.
Plus a lot of metal art. I was informed that if I bought one I could only have it in the house as the weather down by the beach would eat it up in short order.
Wha . . . !?!?!
Hahaha, they even had Army and Marine wind socks. Oh, and Air Farce, Coasties and those guys that take the Marines wherever it is they need to go and fight. They had'em all!!
But Carol and I were thinking kites. Gonna be getting one soon.
Just. Too. Many. To. Choose. From.
Carol spotted the Bald Eagle Kite there on the left.
We'll be getting one but I'm gonna wait for a bit. They cost around $50 apiece depending on what you get.
The good thing is that we found out we're now considered Locals and we get a 10% discount!! Hahaha, that's right!! We're now Locals. When I told the lady where we were renting at she knew exactly where our house is.
Love that small-town America thingie.
Me? I had my eye on this beauty.
I could see me flying that.
Then Carol spotted this old friend. She bought one as a graduation gift for a friend of her daughter a long, long time ago.
Everything was a color riot
More wind socks.
CB
The Peter Principle . . . too many choices for me so my choice, right now, is no choice.
Whew, dodged that bullet.
Carol walked up to the store later in the afternoon. I was flat on my back. She's worked it out so that she walks a half-mile up the beach and then goes up to the store. This way she gets a beach stroll coming and going.
And along the way she gets to see some neat things . . . like this dog gamboling on the beach.
CB
She saw some seaweed washed up on the beach and was struck by how much it looked like a lasso.
CB
Just pretty.
CB
There's always someone on the beach . . . like this Granddad walking with his grandkids.
CB
She's really worked out a routine. Here's where she washes the sand off her feet before she hits the pavement for the rest of the trip to the store.
CB
It's hard not to get a good picture when the sun is setting Even though there was still a couple hours of sunlight left.
CB
You can always find a dog on the beach. This guy was chasing a stick but, somehow, he lost it. Regardless of how much his Master pointed and yelled, the dog just couldn't seem to find it.
Hmmmmm, maybe he was through for the day.
CB
What a great day. We didn't do much, we haven't done much. I've been feeling a wee bit punk since the move. I think I tuckered myself out a bit more than I realized and now I'm paying my dues.
Regardless, it was fun. It was there and it will be there for us tomorrow, too. There is so much to explore that we'll get to as soon as I begin to feel a bit better . . . in the very near future.
Liking this LCO.
Life is good.
Hooah!!
No comments:
Post a Comment