Oregon beaches are more suited to microbrews than piña coladas.
I love little beach towns. While I dream about tropical palm-tree-and-white-sand beach towns, I really love small quaint slightly foggy coastal towns. I guess it has to do with the fact that I grew up on Kodiak Island, a tiny town in the Gulf of Alaska. No matter where you went, you weren’t far from the ocean, salty air and harbors full of fishing boats.
My husband also has an affinity for such places so it was easy to convince him to spend last Sunday at the Oregon coast, despite the overcast weather. We have spent quite a bit of time in Newport and Seaside, but we hadn’t done much in Astoria. We drove through the town a few years ago but our my only purpose was to see the Goonies House (so cool!).
This time we wanted to spend more time poking around the town and being by the water. (I didn’t tell my husband my game plan also included beer, lots of beer! For a rather small town — less than 10,000 people I think — Astoria manages to have several breweries and I was determined to visit at least two of them.)
We started our day of adventure at the Ft. George Brewery — here we drank our way through a beer sampler tray with 12 different beers and 1 small glass of their homemade wasabi gingerale. Each beer was super good but the standouts were the Suicide Squeeze IPA and the Quick Wit. I brought home a half gallon mason jar of the Suicide Squeeze – yum!
Next we wandered down to the docks to take in the sights.
We were hanging out watching this little guy…
Very noisy little seal
…when we stumbled upon a beautiful sight!
Another brewery!
We popped into Buoy Beer Co., which just opened this year, and had a few pints. I had a pale ale and my husband had a doublebock. Both were delicious. (Have I mentioned that I love beer? Seriously. I love it.)
Then we took a tour of the Astoria Column, which will have to be a post of its own. It was that fantastic. But to give you an idea, here’s the Column:
After we had our fill of Astoria, we moved on to Seaside, Oregon, the more touristy summer beach spot. We loaded up on salt water taffy (because I love candy almost as much as I love beer) and then headed to the beach.
And guess what else we found?!
More beer!
Seaside Brewing Company is a small 2-year-old brew pub that’s actually housed in the old city jail. Their taps come out of the former “drunk tank,” which I find pretty entertaining. They have a good list of beers, including some fun guest taps, but I decided to go for their Lockkup IPA.
After enjoying our pints of refreshing goodness, we drove to Cannon Beach, about 15 minutes away. This is one of my favorite spots, maybe because it was the first trip my husband and I took when we had just started dating (which will be 11 years ago next week!).
We didn’t drink any beer in Cannon Beach, but we did catch the sun setting on Haystack Rock (also featured in The Goonies) before we ate a leisurely foie gras-filled dinner at Newmans at 988.
Then it was back home to Portland, where my husband was crashed out on the couch within 20 minutes of our arrival. A Sunday well spent!
Attempts in Domesticity 
Nothing like those Oregon beaches. When I was a kid, we used to drive up the coast in the summer to Bandon Beach, where we would rent the same house each year. I can only imagine it with a good pint of double IPA…
I know! As much as I am a sunshine/lay by the pool type of girl, nothing makes me feel more at home and happy than the Oregon coast. And the fact that over the past few years breweries have been popping up left and right is making it only better. Nothing against Rogue, but it’s nice to see some variety.
It’s nice to go rogue from Rogue.
Enjoyed seeing the sights with you!
I’ve got the beer bug too. Good thing – because I work at a microbrewery!
Thanks! =) And I would be in big trouble if I worked at a microbrewery — the beer bug bit me hard. Must be an awesome job though! I’m jealous.
It’s awesome until you learn that I work in Human Resources! haha
yes, what a Sunday! Thanks for sharing 🙂
Thanks for stopping by! I’m sure you might have been more interested in Seaside’s Distillery — they focus a lot of whiskey. 😉
I’ve only been to the Oregon coast once and was captivated by it! Your day sounds terrific!
It was! Even though I was tired come Monday morning but at least I felt like my weekend was full of fun! =)
Very nice post… Is that beer pink or does it just appear to be? I had pink beer once in Singapore’s Blue Bali. 🙂
Not pink — just having way too much fun with my Instagram filters. =) But now you’ve made me curious about pink beer. It’s going to have to go on my “beers to drink” bucket list!
How did you manage to sample all those beers and still drive from one town to the next?! All the beers and food look delicious! When I visited Oregon, we did drive through Newport and Astoria and a couple of the smaller towns. I’m a big small beach town fan, but my husband wasn’t really into them so we made quick stops and moved on fairly quickly, unfortunately. Had I known about all the breweries, I know I could have enticed him to hang around longer!
ha! I was smart and married a guy who drinks way less than me! 😉 I would drink my beers and then half of his. But yeah Astoria and Newport are both great little spots — Newport is a bit more touristy with their main drag and stuff but both are so cute. Depoe Bay is another fun stop. It’s teeny tiny but there’s a great candy store that makes all their salt water taffy in-house. And the ocean views there are just unbelievable. Worth a trip for sure!
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