Last spring, a beautiful thing started between me and Sou'wester Lodge. I had heard of this strange place that seemed to be a time warp into the seventies. Vintage trailers co-habitate around the 1892 lodge with marks of history everywhere, nothing seeming to be new.
I discovered the wrap-around porch where an honor store exists. Bands that have played there leave behind a few records or cassette tapes to sell. Crafters leave hand-made wares huddled all cozy in baskets and arranged on shelves. Artists leave prints and photographs for others to discover. I was happily welcomed into that family of vendors when I presented my photo tote bags last year, and this year, I have revamped the stock to include some photo prints on archival paper as well.
If you have not been to this place yet, you will stop in your tracks when you first get there. I promise. It feels like nowhere else I have been in the northwest. Lots of discoveries await you here, not to mention it is right at the entrance to the Seaview beach and just down the road from a 3rd floor bar/ restaurant/ music venue called the Pickled Fish (where they serve a delicious "illegal" drink called a Pisco Sour.) Be sure to also stop at the Cottage Bakery in the midst of Long Beach tourist shops (it's worth it!) to be dropped back into the eighties with some great pastries and decorated cupcakes that have plastic trees and deer stuck on them, and swing back into the present moment by filling your growler at North Jetty Brewing with some Leadbetter Red Scottish Ale, a reminder of the beautiful solace I found at the top of the peninsula.
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