Newport

The sun made a rare February appearance on Friday as Tracy and I made our way to Newport, OR for the annual Seafood and Wine Festival there. We had our Mapquest printout of directions but found a small sign with the name "Waldport" on it. We were staying in this small town a few miles south of Newport and we decided we would try it out. We were alone, only the two of us, and the day was open before us. The idea of travelling a road we'd never seen was a pleasant one and the gamble totally paid off.

Highway 34 cuts southwest out of Philomouth, OR and makes its way through high hills alongside the Alsea River. There were two and a half towns on the entire 70 or so mile stretch. Otherwise it was mossy forests and winding riverbanks. It was the middle of the afternoon, Tracy had taken the day off, so the sun was high in the sky and the trimmed grass of open meadows delighted us.

The CD was Ryan Montbleau, a solo musician we had seen recently in Portland, and his bluegrass/folksy rhythms made my knee bounce in time and a smile spread over my face as I watched the scenery change outside my window.

We arrived in Waldport around 2 in the afternoon and found our TINY condo soon afterward. My brother and a group of his friends were staying in a larger house nearby but Tracy and I wanted sanctuary, time away from all others, where we could read, talk, and, well, be a married couple without intrusion or embarrassment. We didn't have Shea, our two year old, for this trip and we were hoping to reconnect through some alone time.

The couple staying below us seemed friendly at first and, outwardly, they were. Although we quickly learned they argued fiercely behind closed doors, dropping all kinds of profanity on each other. It was an awkward situation but it only happened twice the entire weekend. That first afternoon we thought it was the television.

We settled in, stocked the fridge, dropped our bags into corners and settled in. It didn't take long before we found each other coupled in the bedroom. The passion of the moment overwhelmed me. It was like we had only been dating a short time. It cast me that far back into our relationship. I realized it had been a while and the last couple of times were stolen moments during Shea's nap and not the long, languorous, self-indulgent escapades of the newly dating, or the newly married.

Afterward, we lay in each other's arms, breathing, trying to regain our bearings and our voice. When our eyes locked, we both smiled, uninhibited, joyous, unashamed...in love. This was only the first day of what was turning out to be a perfect getaway for us.