Seaside, Oregon - Vegan Adventure

This is not the first time Mharie and I have been in Seaside, Oregon during Christmas. Given that it is fully off season for beach towns, everything is quite a bit less busy than usual and we like that. Off season accommodation pricing is of course as low as it gets and we don't mind that either. Of course, sun bathing is out of the question and even the prospect of a dip in the sea is for those more stout of heart than we are but we love the show of force that the ocean provides. Since all the family festivities had been scheduled for the weekend prior, we were free to flee south on Monday.

It is the fist time that we have been here since I went fully vegan which presented some easily overcome challenges (i.e. nothing is open on Christmas Day so vegan eats are even harder to find). Of course, we could have brought food from home but the border rules can be a little challenging when it comes to food and we decided not to complicate our crossing. So I did a little research and I learned that the Olympia Food Coop (in Olympia, Washington) was open on the 25th. We decided to forage for supplies there!

The Coop is a nice little grocery store with lots of vegan grocery options. As you might guess, everything is a little pricey as they cater to a community which probably includes anti GMO, organic preferring helicopter moms and hippies (not that there's anything wrong with that). I notice that they sell meat. Anyway, we also learned that if you're not a member you pay 10% over ticket which means our $54 USD of groceries became $60 USD which means $80 CAD. Beggars can't be choosers.

We certainly did not go hungry and everything we bought, we would buy again. I was quite excited about the Miyoko's Cream Cheese as we don't not have the brand in Canada. We tried it on some Dave's Killer Bread Bagels and loved the slightly tart almost nutritional yeast notes ( I know. Nutritional yeast is not even an ingredient).

That little shopping adventure and the results were kind of fun. We enjoyed our comfy room at the Inn at the Prom and a walk on the stormy beach.

We are big fans of the Inn at the Prom and have stayed there at least 4 times over the years.

Its not a super fancy place and although they do have units facing right onto the beach, we usually stay in one of the smaller units at the back. It is still a short walk to the beach and the units have full kitchens, huge jetted tubs (such that I feel bad about using so much water to take a bath), gas fireplaces and wonderful king sized beds. The television streaming system is confusing and annoying and there doesn't seem to be a way just to watch the news. Still the drive and a relaxing walk on the beach and crashing out early made for a pleasant Christmas Day.