Picks and Pans – Oregon Coast

Oregon beach towns often have a thin veneer of small town kitschiness covering the blatant commercialism that keeps the town alive and running. Read: you go for the ocean, you leave with a bunch of crap and a lot less money. Yachats, however, has been able to maintain itself without inundating visitors with holes down which to drop their money. It’s the kind of ocean hamlet where you can honestly spend the entire day watching the ocean and exploring the tidepools unfettered by the feeling that you should be doing so with the help of a bagful of cheap tchotchkes from the local tourist trap.

Equipped with nothing more than a picnic lunch and a kite (and some beloved fellow New Yorkers, Katya, Peter, Romi and Nika, a.k.a, KaPeRoNi), we were more than prepared for hours of lounging on the fine sand of the Oregon Dunes. It was quiet, except for the contented sighs from the youngest of our group, happy giggles from others and the sundry other usual sounds of old friends spending an afternoon together. Marvelous, I tell you, simply marvelous.

I argue that this Depoe Bay classic is mostly still in business due to its primo location overhanging the bay where we saw a small gray whale frolicking in the waves. My suggestion: order a bowl of the satisfying smoked salmon chowder, take in the view and avoid paying $12-15 for the mediocre fried seafood offerings.