We recently took a trip to Lincoln City to spend time with my parents. They rented a house in the Olivia Beach development and invited us to join them for an extended weekend.
I always feel a kinship with the Central Oregon Coast as I worked there for six years in the early part of my career. I’m happier to just visit now as the climate can be wearying while living there year-round. Oregonians think they know rain, but it’s something entirely different in a coastal climate. Damp. Everything is damp. Always. I’ve written extensively about my time there in the Newport Tales, and at some point I need to continue that series. There are quite a few more tales, some outlandish, to be shared!
While visiting, I also met up with my good friend, Ron Eggert. He was the sales manager at KSND during most of my tenure. A lot of craziness happened at that place. The things he talked me into! He could sell, that’s for sure.
Ron would come in early while I was doing the morning show, and we’d chat about life and myriad other topics. He had some gems: “No bad days” and “Quit wishing and go fishing” were a couple of my favorites. One thing he said to me many times was that he hoped when we had long gone our own ways that we’d always remember the fun we had together. Consider that mission accomplished, buddy.
Though I was a resident at one time and have countless pictures of ocean, sand and bridges, I never tire of photographing the landscape — even now. I’m sharing the best photos from the weekend here including a great picture of Ron and me taken by his wife, Nancy:
September into early October has some of the best weather on the coast, and it’s usually better than the summer. For the most part, that was the case for us. It was a great trip, and we look forward to visiting the ocean again soon.
My wife, Lisa, had been in need of a break for a long time. My work schedule is problematic and leaves her handling child care responsibilities at night during the week, and we hadn’t gotten away alone as a couple since our daughter was born three years ago. Lisa prefers experiences over things when it comes to receiving gifts, so this Christmas I set up an adults only weekend at the Oregon Coast. We took the trip earlier this month.
My first real full-time job out of college was in Newport, Oregon, a coastal hub town. I lived there for more than five years and have retained local knowledge of the Central Oregon Coast. It’s not a booming metropolitan area so the challenge is to find new places to stay and new things to do. I thought that a bed and breakfast would be more interesting than a hotel and went searching for a place we hadn’t previously visited.
What I found was a beautiful home tucked away in a little Depoe Bay neighborhood. The home overlooks the ocean and is just a short walk from Fishing Rock State Park. Kim and Lori are the innkeepers at Pana-Sea-Ah Bed and Breakfast, and I worked with them late last year to put together a little Christmas package for my wife. They delivered an experience above our expectations, which is the overall sentiment of most who visit.
We arrived at the home on a late Friday afternoon. Kim, who has to be one of the warmest people I’ve ever met, greeted us and gave us a tour of the inn. Wine and cookies were waiting for us in the common great room where the view of the ocean was magnificent. Kim took us upstairs to our weekend retreat, the Garden Room. It’s in a corner of the house with a panoramic view of the ocean and reading nooks under the windows, perfect for my wife who loves to read early in the morning. Waiting for us in our room was a bottle of sparkling cider and Dove chocolates. It was wonderful to fall asleep at night with the shades open, hearing the roar of the ocean through cracked windows.
Earlier in the day we started our trip at the coast with lunch in Gleneden Beach at the Side Door Cafe. It was our first time at this little eatery in a renovated warehouse where repurposed materials from Multnomah Public Library and Portland City Hall were used to decorate the restaurant. Following a delicious lunch, we walked next door for massages. Fantastic start to the weekend!
After a wonderful breakfast Saturday morning the rain let up, and we walked down the street to Fishing Rock State Park. There were only a couple other people there and no one else on the beach below. There was plenty of room to explore the small forest and rocks and then stroll home along the beach. After that we headed into the main stretch of Depoe Bay and then Newport for shopping, more shopping and lunch.
For dinner on Saturday Lisa and I went to Tables of Content at the Sylvia Beach Hotel. The hotel is a boutique inn located in the Nye Beach neighborhood where I used to live. Each room has the theme of a famous author: William Shakespeare, Jane Austen, John Steinbeck, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jules Verne, Agatha Christie, etc. The restaurant is unique and something of an open secret. I was aware of it while still living on the coast but never tried it. There is only one seating per night, and everyone picks an entree when making reservations earlier in the day. All other food is served family style. There are only a handful of tables, and seating is assigned much like on a cruise ship, meaning parties mix. It’s a fun way to meet and dine with new people. We ate with John and Tibby, a couple from the Willamette Valley, who were guests at the hotel and interesting people. Tibby was in the Navy during the Vietnam era. Based in Iceland, her job was listening for enemy submarines. We couldn’t top that!
After dinner with our new friends Lisa and I drove back to the bed and breakfast through the driving rain for more relaxation at the inn. There were no cookies on Saturday night, but there were brownies! We watched a movie and fell asleep to the ocean once again.
The trip was a panacea (or Pana-Sea-Ah!). Lisa was so relaxed and recharged by the end of the weekend, and we were so grateful for the hospitality and kindness that Kim and Lori showed us. It felt like we were old friends by the time we left on Sunday morning. Their home is a haven, and we promised to return. I’m hoping in the fall…
Love. It permeates everything at the Lightkeeper’s Inn Bed and Breakfast in the coastal town of Newport, Oregon. It’s in the design of the home, the family history that adorns the walls of the guest wing, the little touches in each guest suite, the wonderful breakfasts, and the snacks waiting in guest rooms at night. Most of all though, it’s in the warmth that goes beyond coastal friendliness of innkeepers Cheryl and Bill Lalack.
As I’ve written, Newport is a special place for me. My wife, Lisa, has been on the receiving end of much nostalgia: I lived here, the radio station was located there, our studio moved here later, that used to be a gas station, I remember when they built this hotel, that used to be a terrible restaurant, etc. She’s always been a good sport about it, but for Christmas last year she found an interesting way to change the paradigm a bit. Lisa, through some work connections, discovered the Lightkeeper’s Inn — a place that did not exist when I lived on the coast — and booked an extended weekend stay. She also made restaurant reservations at places I’d never been. This added up to a unique experience in familiar territory when we visited last weekend.
I used to love driving along the Newport Bayfront, but I didn’t get to see it much from a higher elevation when I lived in town. The Lightkeeper’s Inn changed that. The home features a panoramic view of Yaquina Bay from the outdoor decks, the entry level dining area and the two guest suites. The YouTube video from their website posted above gives a glimpse of the inn’s charm.
Cheryl and Bill’s salubrious home, which is only a few years old, sits on a bluff on the west side of the bayfront. Cheryl’s great-grandfather was a lighthouse keeper, which inspired the name of the inn. Directly across the bay from their home is the Port of Newport, NOAA headquarters and the South Beach Marina. Fishing boats come and go at all hours. The bay at night is beautiful with all the lights, and the sound of sea lions barking in the distance is both relaxing…and comical.
The location is great and has such a tremendous view, but the food is spectacular. This is where Cheryl is truly in her element: sour cream scrambled eggs, oven-baked bacon, French toast with a maple pecan glaze or homemade berry syrup, seafood benedict, and cinnamon rolls with raspberry jelly filling. That’s just some of what we had artistically presented to us each morning. She even packed a cooler for us one day when we had to leave early to go crabbing, and she made extra food for the friend we were meeting!
Julia Child would be proud that Cheryl uses both butter and cream in her food preparation. That being said, she caters to guests that have dietary restrictions and the results are wonderful. I’m still thinking about those raspberry cinnamon rolls, though. I asked one day if there were any left. There were not, but Cheryl added a raspberry glaze to some regular cinnamon rolls she had also baked and those showed up for us one night. One evening we even had German chocolate brownies waiting in our room.
The accommodations, view and food would have sufficed for an excellent experience, but there was something I found quite moving in the way that Cheryl related and catered to us. While that’s good business, it’s also genuine and flows from a natural desire to connect with guests. Had we wanted absolute privacy, it would have been granted. We chose to engage more than we would anywhere else. We talked about the town and shared stories. Turns out her grandmother and I lived in the same Newport apartment complex. Cheryl always checked to see how our dinners and shopping trips turned out. She even offered to cook the crab from our crabbing trip. If only we had caught more than one!
Other little touches were endearing. There was a magazine left in our room featuring an article on crabbing that Cheryl had specifically laid out for us. The afternoon following our crabbing trip we returned from lunch to find the gas fireplace on, drying out our jackets and gloves. She also dug up several Newport history books that had belonged to her grandmother, which were fun to browse.
Everything Cheryl did was rooted in love, or fussing, as she put it. She was genuinely interested in us and our experience. When we left, I was sad because it felt like we were leaving a good friend’s home. Coastal folks are friendly, but this was warmth that went beyond that. Her kindness was remarkable, and we can’t recommend the Lightkeeper’s Inn strongly enough to friends and family who want an enjoyable, relaxing and special experience. Apparently, we’re not alone.
Cheryl and Bill, it was a joy getting to know you and sharing your home. Thank you. We’ll be back.
