A cottage by the beach

Beaches in the Pacific Northwest are different. Darker sands, loads of seaweed and mud flats to go clamming (crabbing starts later in the month.) After two days of staying in a very "rustic" (i.e. yuck) beach cabin, we're off to the more miraculous spa and resort (OK, I planned poorly on this trip) for a one-night stay with television and spa treatments!

The slumlord/innkeeper here charges $425 to $525 a week, which I guess isn't bad -- averages out to $60 and $75 a night -- but the beds are hard and unforgiving and you have to make a quick trip to Target for linens (unless you bring them yourselves, like we did!) Otherwise you stay at places starting at $150 a night, but hotels are almost nonexistent. It does have a tiny kitchen for preparing meals, so I guess it's a place mostly for families as evidenced by the number of bicycles and yelling children -- but mostly in the day, night time is quiet.

All in all, I like the hard-packed sand of California. The sludginess is hard to get past up here, and I can't handle the feeling on my feet. The water is warm and that also is strange. But it's the cold ocean water that makes Southern and Central California so beautifully warm and temperate.

Will keep you posted on the luxury resort.