Oceanside, CA

What a great weekend! The weather cooperated by staying clear and in the high 70's, the hotel was just fine and the food was great. What's not to like?

We arrived on Friday a little after 1:00 and checked into the Beachwood Motel. It is a typical two level walk-up motel that probably dates back to the fifties but it was freshly painted and clean. It was the kind of place that could have inspired Hemingway or Hunter S. Thompson with the parade of characters living there! I booked it through Booking.com for $140 for two nights, a great savings over it's more glamorous neighbors that wanted up to $880 for two nights. The owner was friendly and gave us a fan to plug in to replace the non-existing air conditioning.

We carried the bags and coffee maker up and then walked the short block and a half to the ocean and along the beach to the pier. There were lots of surfers and sightseers around. We stopped in at Hello Betty Restaurant to enjoy one of their "famous" margaritas on the roof top open air bar with a great view.

Later on Friday evening we decided to try out Harbor Fish and Chips for dinner. We goofed and ordered way too much food. My $13 three piece dinner had three foot long slabs of cod and at least a pound of fries and could have fed two people easily. Norma's $12 Friday Special had one slab of cod, one large shrimp, a pound of fries, a cup of clam chowder and two or three cups of cole slaw. There was enough food on the table to feed a decent sized family. Friday night we were too full to do anything so it was a hang around the motel and watch TV night.

Saturday we were up early and walked over to the Breakfast Club Diner for a California Skillet for me and Eggs Benedict for Norma. Both were very good but enough food that we did not need lunch.

We walked along the Strand that follows the beach and then out to the end of the famous 2000 foot long pier. Walking back towards the motel we picked out a couple of possible places for dinner not really thinking about it being Valentines Day! Later on we got dressed in casual clothes and walked into the 333 Pacific Restaurant. They were full but found us a small table. The "menu" came and it was a fixed price Valentines Day five! course dinner for $60 each (before wine). Well for us a five course dinner is a joke, specially for Norma who would not get past the soup and salad! A gigantic waste of money!

We left and walked back to Hello Betty where they were serving the regular menu. There was a forty five minute wait but it was still the best option available. Saturday night was spent strolling the interesting area where we were staying.

Sunday morning we were up earlier than we planned for some reason, loaded the car, found a nice breakfast place and headed home by a more interesting route than the one we came on. The return route took us past the Julian Pie Factory where we stopped to buy a pie.

All in all, a nice break from the desert.

Some photos:

The Strand

Margarita Por Favor!

Beachwood Motel

Breakfast Club

The Pier Looking Out

Surf's Up

The Pier Looking Back

This guy was doing a pretty good job with some Gordon Lightfoot songs

And Finally....