We love the 4th of July in Long Beach, Washington.  Well–sort of.  It is clearly the most exciting day of the year on the gorgeous Long Beach Peninsula.  We would love it more if all the people packed out what they pack in. (Our Boreas guests are always perfect–it’s the other 20,0000 guests on the Peninsula who aren’t so perfect!)  The Long Beach Peninsula is truly a place for amateur and professional pyromaniacs!

To address this post-explosive and partying beach clean-up problem on the 4th of July on the Long Beach Peninsula, there are now “Treasure Our Beach” volunteers at all the beach approaches, handing out trash bags and fliers encouraging everyone who comes to the beach to picnic and blow things up, to take their trash home with them!  We treasure our Treasure our Beach volunteers.  Thank you all!  If any of our readers would like to help in this effort, please let us know.  Shelly Pollock’s Grass Roots Garbage Gang will have hundreds of volunteers combing the beaches on July 5th to pick up after the 4th of July revelers and we are grateful to those volunteers also!   This is a big beach clean-up and we always need more volunteers!

Well first of all, on Saturday, the 2nd of July, to lead off the pyrotechnic displays, there is a stunning and sparkly professional fireworks show on the Port of Ilwaco over the harbor.  We like to reserve tables for our guests at Pelicano on Saturday at the Port of Ilwaco, before the 4th so that they have front row seats for the Ilwaco Fireworks display.  So in addition to wine pairings at Pelicano that evening, there are fireworks pairings also!  If you have dinner at Pelicano, you will also have a place to park right on the harbor for the fireworks. It is truly inspiring to see the glittering on the water and this display just whets the appetite for the total pyrotechnic craziness that is the true 4th of July in Long Beach, WA.  We’ve never seen anything quite like Long Beach on the 4th.  So there is a method to our madness–we like our guests to dine on the best for breakfast and dinner and watch the celebration of our nation’s independence!

We brag about our 28-mile long beach.  Well just about every foot of our very long beach will be filled with cars, families, picnics and We’d estimate–millions of dollars of fireworks that will blow your socks off.  This doesn’t include the very fine professional show that happens at dark on the ocean-end of the Bolstad Beach approach five blocks south of Boreas Inn.  It’s all FREE and quite insane.  Stay on the boardwalk or sit in the back yard of Boreas Inn, (the hot tub has a great view) and stay a safe distance from all the pyromaniacs and you will have a great time in Long Beach, Washington on the 4th of July, 2011.   I found a video taken by visitors to the Peninsula last year and you can get a little idea of what it’s like in front of Boreas Inn on the 4th.  Hang onto your sparklers, baby!

Grab our last rooms and watch the 2nd and 4th of July shows at Boreas Bed and Breakfast Inn on the lovely Long Beach Peninsula!

Long Beach, Washington will open for razor clam digging for FOUR days at noon March 19!  Dan Ayres, WDFW coastal shellfish manager, advises prospective diggers to pay particular attention to the shift in digging times during this month’s razor-clam opening.   “It gets a little tricky scheduling digs at this time of year, but the goal is to arrange openings during the best clam tides,” Ayres said. “The split schedule also provides an opportunity for back-to-back digs the evening of Saturday, March 19, and the morning of Sunday, March 20.”

Digging days and low tides for March are:

• Saturday, March 19, 7:04 p.m. (-0.1 ft); Long Beach
• Sunday, March 20, 7:36 a.m. (-0.5 ft); Long Beach
• Monday, March 21, 8:23 a.m. (-0.9 ft); Long Beach

·         Tuesday March 22, 9:12 a.m. (-1.0 ft); Long Beach   So get your clam digging license, required if you are age 15 or older and come down and dig some razor clams.   Ayres reminds diggers that WDFW is tentatively planning another razor-clam opening April 7-9 until noon each day at Long Beach and Twin Harbors if marine toxin tests show the clams are safe to eat. Licenses expire on March 31,  so you need to make sure, for the April digs coming up, that you get a new license.

It was a beautiful, calm day of razor clamming at Beard's Hollow

We want to cook you the perfect breakfast!

We promise you a beautiful, lazy weekend at Boreas if you decide to visit us.  We have room for you and would love to cook up a storm in the morning if it’s not stormy enough outside–and even if it is.  Don’ t listen to the weather guys–they are usually wrong, unless they tell you it’s going to be wonderful–because sunshine, rain, wind…it’s always wonderful here. The fireplaces beckon and we’re offering our Walk-in Special at our romantic getaway by the sea. $150 a night including our “perfectly plated” 3 course or more breakfast (plus tax of course).   We don’t want to be lonely–so come to Long Beach and we will fix you up with two fabulous dinners out at our fine dinner houses and promise you the most relaxing weekend with fireplaces blazing and our new hot tub beckoning.  We hope to see you soon!

Valentine’s Weekend calls upon not just us, but also our  restauranteurs, to “pony up”  with the most wonderful special Valentine’s weekend menu’s.  Sample the Shelburne Inn Restaurant’s menu–itself a beautiful piece, not to mention the cuisine that completes their package!  Take a peek at the hotlink and then let us know if you would like us to book you a table at The Shelburne Inn Restaurant over Valentine’s or President’s Day weekend!

Valentine's Day at Boreas Inn will be the highlight of your February!

We have the gift of unmatched sunsets at the Inn

Where else can you behold such open space on a beach anywhere in the country with  a glorious winter sunset as the highlight of your day?  Tonight the full moon will glisten off the water…with clear skies and a winter nip in the air… Come to a place where you will find beautiful surroundings, a beach that goes on forever, culminating in headlands with lighthouses, walking trails and bicycle paths along the ocean and through the wooded parklands. There is always something to entertain you whether visually, physically or spiritually–or all three at once.  When you tire of that, you can sleep like a baby in the most comfortable beds with down over you and under you, dine on a breakfast that will last all day long, and perhaps just do nothing…until dinner of course, when you again DINE at the finest restaurants on Oregon/Washington coast.  You work so that you can play!  So play in Long Beach, Washington….a seriously perfect place to escape from the rest of the world.  Boreas Inn is here for you!  Come enjoy the sunsets.  (Or when those aren’t available, enjoy the sound of the rain and the cozy fireplaces!)

Our Brand New Spa--Come Bubble Your Troubles Away!

The tub new spa is a bit smaller than our older one and very roomy for our “couples” only soaking.  There are three seats, including two side-by-side recliners, 36 jets (!) and beautiful revolving underwater colors, if you like a little light.  It’s hard to get a good picture of the new spa unless you dangled from the gazebo ceiling! The tub is made by Cal Spa’s division “OC Hot Tubs”.  I thought Orange County motorcycles were gorgeous, but this spa is pretty lush!  Bill and I tried it out on Thursday night and it was just perfect.  The operations and materials are quite “green” and so far, our guests say they love the new spa.  So in addition to fine regional cuisine, the most comfortable beds, and extra special whatever we can think of for our guests, we now have a new spa with a beautiful view.   The ex-spa works fine–and we’re looking for a home for it.  It sprung a leak around a seal (we think) but other than that, it works fine.  So if one of our former guests would like it, we can arrange for that to happen.  You will have to haul it away!  It was very sad to see it leave the gazebo (and quite a project to get it out of there!)

The Goonies All Grown Up

The Goonies 25th Anniversary Celebration will take place across the River in Astoria from June 4-7, 2010.   The Goonies was filmed locally in Astoria, OR and was originally released on June 7, 1985.  But did you know that the Goonie’s director,  Richard Donner, also directed Superman and The Lethal Weapon series and that it was a Steven Spielberg (E.T., Jaws, Schindler’s List) presentation? The Goonies screenplay was by Chris Columbus (Home Alone, Harry Potter series, Mrs. Doubtfire)  from a story by Spielberg.  Richard Donner produced the movie with Harvey Bernhard (The Lost Boys) and Spielberg executive produced with Frank Marshall and Kathleen Kennedy (Indiana Jones series, Back to the Future, Curious Case of Benjamin Button).   Clearly, The Goonies had a group of young geniuses masterminding a movie that has stood the test of time and is much beloved by fans around the world.

“In 1985 when The Goonies was filmed, we knew the movie would create a lasting impact in Astoria, and its legacy continues 25 years later,” stated Willis Van Dusen, Mayor of Astoria, Oregon.  “This celebration is dedicated to the amazing Goonies fans and to the film itself, both of which have become an integral part of the cultural fabric of Astoria.”   Well–that can’t be a bad thing, after all, The Goonies has given us pleasure, excitement and giggles for 25 years!

The Goonies is an adventure-comedy film set in Astoria about a group of kids from the “Goon Docks” neighborhood of Astoria (hence the nickname “Goonies) who band together hoping to save their homes from foreclosure and demolition due to the expansion of  the Astoria Country Club.  The group embarks on an adventure to find the buried treasure of a legendary 17th century pirate, One-Eyed Willy.  The kids have an exciting time on their coastal antics featuring spooky caves,  old lighthouses, treacherous traps, pirate maps and skeletons, clever script and much beloved characters– Mikey, Chunk, Data, Mouth (Corey Feldman), Brandon (Josh Brolin!) Rosalita and the rest of the nasty Fratelli’s.  The ending of The Goonies is classic, perfect and predictable with  the jewels from the pirate ship providing more than enough to save everyone’s homes from foreclosure and demolition.  The story and its ending could also ring true for homeowners battling their individual crises during our nation’s current “Great Recession”!  If only we could plunder a pirate ship and bail out everyone losing their homes–or better yet, bail out those of us running small businesses!  Let’s all go search for treasure!

The Goonies 25th Anniversary Celebration has a schedule of events in Astoria and a very cool website.  The Astoria-Warrenton Chamber, of which we are proud members, is partnering with Warner Brothers on the event who are assisting in marketing and licensing Goonies souvenirs, which will be sold at the “Goon Docks”, the center of all the Goonies Celebration events.  Boreas has rooms available for the celebration weekend so you can be at the beach but be within a half- hour of all the events.  Watch a video clip of The Goonies and come to Boreas for the Goonie’s celebration!