The Travel Blog That Sorta Was
Hello, it's me.
It has been eight months since my last Jam On The Road update. YIKES. Apologies for being a terrible update giver! I think based on my last entry, I could say that I lost steam when our plans to travel to Portugal last year completely fell apart due to COVID-induced distraction. We eventually took care of the issue — Older Kid's passport expired during the lockdown — but by the time we got the new one, we didn't feel like going abroad anymore and just stayed put. More on that in future updates.
Anyway, so what now? Clearly, a lot has happened in the last few months and we've actually done a bit of traveling since my last post. So what I'm going to try and do now is backtrack and give you the highlights of every place we’ve been to as best as I can. Ready? Let's go.
Waldport, Oregon: Windy, Worry-free, and Wonderful
Our first stop after leaving Washington State was this quaint beachside town in Oregon. The J-Man just wanted to go to the beach, period. I, on the other hand, was reading a romance novel at the time (linked here, in case you are into that sort of thing) that was set in a beach/fishing town called Westport and was truly yearning to live #thesmalltownlife for a while, just to see how long I’d last before I started seeking big-city comforts. I looked up if Westport was an actual place in the country (it was) and asked Hubs if we could go there en route to Vegas. After having trouble finding a BNB rental in the area and realizing that Westport was actually still in Washington State (we really wanted to go to Oregon), he said that we should go to Waldport instead, which was about 230 or so miles south of Westport. They both had "-port" in the town name, so I figured, to-may-to, to-mah-to, let’s go!
We found a pretty nice-looking rental through VRBO. The shore was within a 5-minute walking distance and the neighborhood seemed quiet and the complete opposite of busy. There wasn’t a Walmart or a Starbucks nearby, which is my usual barometer for gauging a place’s livability (for me, personally). In this case, however, that factor did not apply. The idea of having the sea literally right across the street from where we were staying was just too dream-come-true for me to care that they didn’t really have an Asian grocery in town to cater to my family’s wants and needs.
Going for a walk along the shore became a daily habit for the entire J-Team. Even Chance came. The beach was almost always secluded and barely had foot traffic that it truly felt like we had our own personal paradise. Of course, the water temp was freezing and the wind was pretty much at a hundred percent regardless of what time of day it was, but that didn’t deter us.
The place we rented for the month also had a hot tub, so the J-Man and I also made that a regular activity once the kids were in bed. We also found a crab shack in town — shoutout to Alsea Bay Crab Co.! — that served the best crab rolls I have ever had! In the short time that we were there, we became sort of regulars, going there almost on a weekly basis. Funny story, actually. At the order window of this tiny foodtruck trailer, there was a challenge put forth by the establishment’s owner, Troy:
Being Asian/Filipino, I immediately knew what this thing was. I told the J-Man, who looked at me like I was nuts. He didn’t believe me. I was confident and told him I bet $100 I was right.
When Troy handed us our order, he noticed us looking at the mystery item and asked us to guess. The man I married swooped in and told him my answer with an expression that read, I’m not part of this lunacy, this is all her. (To be fair that might have been my imagination’s interpretation. I know he’s proud of me!)
Troy was stunned for a moment and confirmed that I was, indeed, correct. (I won’t say what my answer was in case you want to guess. Filipinos/Asians, you are exempt!) He proceeded to tell us that in the last three years, no one has been able to correctly guess what it was. I broke the streak. I am the champion. I got my next crab roll for free. I never got my $100 from the J-Man, though.
Anyway, back to my Waldport wrap-up. While we were there, other cool things happened:
We visited a nearby town called Newport, where we took the kids to the dock to watch people fish and seals lay around all afternoon
We picked blackberries from the side of the road
J-Man celebrated his 38th birthday
All in all, we thoroughly enjoyed our time in Waldport. It’s probably not a place I’d want to move to long-term — the lack of an Asian grocery is really a big deal, plus to get Amazon packages, people in the area had to go to the local post office to pick them up, which is YIKES — but I would definitely consider going there again for a peaceful vacation.
See ya later! 🤟🏼