This week was supposed to be energizing and refreshing. Instead, the tickle in my throat the morning I flew out of Prince George turned into full-blown bronchitis before I landed in Portland and I feel like crap.

Foggy on cough medicine I wandered around east Portland to my haunts and then headed out to the coast for a few days in Seaside. Appropriate I think, since I am barking like a seal.

Seaside greeted me with sideways rain and wind so nasty that the stuff in my suitcase was wet before I got inside the hotel.  It was a bad hair day to say the least. So I spent a toasty night in my room by the fireplace watching  the seagulls play in the rain on the beach as I guzzled DM cough meds.

Today was neat.

•  I drove up to Astoria and across the famous bridge that is amazing to see and drive on. A bit queasy driving across the water for us inlanders.
• I saw a beautiful split rail fence.  Kind of a lost art with all the pre-formed Home Depot fences nowadays.
• Passing through Gearhart I remembered a trip there with my friend Michelle and her dad when we were baby teenager girls.  We sat in the back seat singing “I‘m Henry the eighth I am, Henry the eighth I am, I am.  I got married to the widow next door, she’s been married seven times before , and every one was a Henry……” as her dad chauffeured us to the beach.
• Found a little community called Chinook full of two-story houses that in summer with flowers would touch on nostalgia, but with the harshness of winter not turned to spring yet, felt like melancholy.
• Drove to Cannon Beach and felt like slapping Haystack Rock on the back and saying “good to see you again, old friend”.
• Went for a walk along the promenade and on the beach in the rain and it felt good. Nice to see you again Seaside, after all this time away.