We LOVE the beach and spend many a weekend enjoying the Pacific coast throughout the year. With my birthday approaching we considered packing up the camper and heading out but with an extremely wet forecast and a Groupon at the Sandy Cove for a mere $94 for two nights, we changed our thoughts and eagerly signed on.
Sandy Cove Inn is one of the last family owned hotels on the North coast and nearly all the reviews we checked on gave a positive response. Only two blocks from the beach and at the southern end of the 1.5 mile promenade of Seaside, the hotel proved to be a fantastic location.
We got a bit of a giggle upon check in when we were told each room had a VCR and there were free VHS movies to watch in our room. That’s right VHS movies! I wonder how many younger couples arrive at the hotel having never before seen a VHS and VCR, but at least now we know whom we’ll donate all of our old VHS tapes to when we, once again, hit the road.
The hotel is small and all rooms are individually decorated with different themes. We got the French Country room, one of several that allow dogs. Although a bit smaller than a chain hotel, the room was comfortable and chic with a French antique look and wrought-iron bed.
Although the weather proved to be as wet and unpleasant as we’d feared, we had a great weekend. Friday night we enjoyed pizza delivery, something many take for granted but a secret pleasure of ours because it’s never an option for us at our rural property. Angelina’s proved to be the perfect antidote! The Alfredo Cordon Bleu was the bomb.. fabulous crust, Alfredo sauce, grilled chicken, ham, and Gorgonzola….rich as hell but truly amazing.
We got in a few long walks on the beach but it was truly a slugfest of a weekend….movies, reading, drinking good red wine and listening to the Ducks and Beavers games, all interspersed with napping. We did manage to drag ourselves out into the weather to do some beer tasty at the Fort George Brewery in Astoria. We were familiar with several of their beers but had not, as yet, been to the brewery. Set in a scenic pub in downtown Astoria, the Fort George was started in 1920 and has been going strong every since. One of our favorite canned beers, the 1811 is still brewed in the manner of early brewing when ice was not often available and so stronger levels of yeast were used. More flavorful than most modern lagers, and fermented at warmer temperatures, 1811 is lovingly concocted from 2 row malted barley and cracked maize; corn being a popular beer ingredient in pre-Prohibition days and gives the beer a distinctive hop character.
Porter anxiously waiting for daddy to get the morning coffee.
Sunday morning a breakfast at Firehouse Grill culminated our weekend of some really great food. The biscuits were absolutely the best we’ve ever had, bar none. Even the great biscuits of the South can’t hold a candle to these – light, fluffy, with an almost sourdough taste on the back end. SO worth the stop.
Seaside is not a city we often spend time at on the Oregon coast, being not as quaint as some, however it was the perfect weekend away of doing very, very little! Just what everyone needs every once in a while.