Seaside, Oregon (place)

Before I started to write this, I assumed that every state with a seacoast in the United States would have to have a "Seaside", but after looking it up, it is actually not as common of a name as I would have guessed. But Oregon has a city named Seaside! As could be expected, it is a city on the Pacific Ocean, specifically in Clatsop County, on the north coast.

Seaside is a town of (by census numbers) about 7,000 people, located about a dozen miles south of the county seat and population center of Astoria and Warrenton. It is also located directly north of Tillamook Head (which confusingly, is not located close to Tillamook), the last rocky part of the Oregon Coast before the long stretch of sandy beach up to the mouth of the Columbia River. And furthermore, it is located at the junction of US Highway 26 (the major highway leading from the Portland area), with US Highway 101 (the coast highway. Since Seaside has a long stretch of sandy beach, and is the first town people come to after coming west from the Portland area, Seaside is in many ways the "default" tourist town for people in the Portland area. Which is why that census figure of 7000 people might be a bit deceptive, since it can easily have thousands more tourists and temporary residents in peak tourist times. There are a few additional tourist attractions in Seaside, like an Outlet Mall, but the beach (and other nearby hiking areas) is really the only attraction needed. So, not coincidentally, the town with a generic name is a bit of a generic tourist town.

Strangely enough, I don't think I have been to or through Seaside for decades. I can't actually remember my last trip there. I made a habit of traveling around Oregon, to many of its smaller towns, but somehow I missed visiting one of Oregon's most-visited tourist towns. But even so, I would guess that like other Oregon tourist towns, it is a nice place to visit, but might be a difficult place to live in, especially with rising housing costs and the lack of employment opportunities outside of the service sector.