Tuesday and Wednesday of last week my Airbnb was in Gearhart, Oregon which is just north of Seaside. Unlike most Pacific coastal towns I have visited thus far Seaside reminded me very much of beach towns on the east coast (Seaside Heights, NJ, for example) in that it has a “boardwalk” (concrete, but that’s ok), arcade palaces, ice cream vendors, salt water taffy, etc.
You may notice an inordinate number of beach volleyball courts (and wooden posts in place to accommodate nets). That’s because this weekend, as I post this, Seaside is hosting it’s 37th annual beach volleyball competition. Over 1,000 teams are competing, making it the largest gathering of it’s kind in the world. I counted 50 courts looking north (3rd photo) and posts for another 50 looking south (first photo). This was taken Wednesday morning and they were working to add nets and court outlines for all the courts by Friday. In the second photo above you’ll see a stage being set up for a music concert and people were already staking out their spots with beach chairs setup on the manmade sand dunes.
Shortly after I arrived on Tuesday and parked a few blocks from the beach I heard sirens coming up the street behind me. Two ATV’s (lifeguards/beach rescue) came by me with lights and sirens blazing. Fortunately it was a false alarm and before I could even walk as far as the beach one was returning to it’s station:
There were lots of places to rent various pedal-power vehicles, single, double, or one for the whole family:
Seaside is not very big but there are a few big chain hotels with either beachfront locations or just one or two blocks from the beach. It was very easy to walk around town but I was glad I was there before all the volleyball crowds arrived.
As I walked somewhere to get something to eat I crossed over this river which also runs through town, parallel to the beach:
And as I was driving back to where I was staying I saw a small airport with a guy offering rides on his vintage 1929 bi-plane:
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