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18 December 2017

Library People On The Oregon Coast | Spindrift Cottage, Manzanita

My sister is a library person in Portland, Oregon. Library people are weird and wonderful. Or weirdly wonderful. Or wonderfully weird. You decide.

I think being a library person would be awesome. You're surrounded by books and like-minded people. And there's interesting weirdos too. Like the people who bring rats in Tupperware containers into the library and try to pass them off as service animals. Seriously, that kind of thing happens where my sister works.

One of the amazing perks that the library where my sister works has to offer (besides rats in plastic boxes) is access to a cottage on the beach in Manzanita on the Oregon coast. She was lucky enough to win the employee lottery and I was lucky enough to be visiting when she had the cottage.

Here's what it looks like when the sun is out and it's bright and cheerful on the coast. I cheated and took photos of other people's photos. {For the record, it's usually windy, gloomy, and rainy on the coast.}



When you're on vacation with a library person, guess what you do? Yep, you go visit the local library. My sister and the library person on duty at the Manzanita library had a fascinating conversation about periodicals. Well, fascinating if you're a library person. If you're not a library person, then not so fascinating. I read a brochure on tsunami evacuation procedures while it was going on. Slightly more fascinating, considering Scott and I were on our boat in New Zealand during a tsunami warning once.


After the fascinating periodical decision, we went to one of the candy shops in town. My sister bought salt water taffy for her co-workers which was a smart move on her part because none of us like salt water taffy. If she had bought something chocolaty, there probably would have been nothing left for her co-workers.


Possibly the coolest thing about staying at the cottage, other than the fireplace and the ocean views, was the journals which guests of the cottage fill out during their stay. Library people are really creative people. The journals are full of poems, drawings, and even locks of human hair. Okay, human hair isn't so much creative as it is slightly creepy.

Isn't this amazing? The picture on the left is of some woman staying here, reading a book, and trying to ignore everyone talking around her. I can relate.


Kids are also prolific leavers of art in the journals, usually of an outline of their hands. {Yes, I'm sure "prolific leavers of art" isn't grammatically correct, but you need to give library people something to get excited about while brandishing their red pens.}



I really like this one. No idea what it says in Chinese, but you have to admire the penmanship.


There's reference to several ghosts at the cottage, including a ghost dog. Here's proof that the ghost dog exists.


Unfortunately, there are other unpleasant creatures at the cottage, like mice and cockroaches.


 Competition for the cottage is fierce. The holidays are very popular dates, especially the 4th of July.


If you're really lucky, you can see whales on the coast, as documented by this person in one of the journals. We were here at the wrong time of the year, but we still had a wonderful time hanging out with family and my sister's friend and her daughter. {Rebecca and Tseten - thanks again for the great company and the amazing food!}


If you want to know more about Spindrift cottage and see pictures, check out this blog.

Are you a library person? What would you do if someone came into your place of employment with a rat in a plastic containers?

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18 comments:

  1. Cool! You timed your visit just right. The guest book is a great idea.
    Rats in plastic containers? You can't make this stuff up, people!

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    1. You really can't make this stuff up and the rats aren't actually the strangest thing that goes on there :-)

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  2. Not a library person. I was a cop for 25 years. Okay a deputy sheriff. I know lots of people who have rats and/or mice as pets. I'm not one of them, but it wouldn't freak me out. It's just part of the weirdness.

    Have a fabulous day. ♥

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    1. I'm sure you saw an awful lot of weirdness during your time as a sheriff.

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  3. Library person here! Not sure where I fit on the weird and wonderful scale though. I’ve never encountered a rat in a box, a library holiday cottage or an interesting conversation on periodicals (sorry, Ellen’s sister), but I do like to visit libraries on vacation.

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    1. Libraries are a great thing to visit while on holiday - you get a little insight into the local community and, of course, there are books!

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  4. I like libraries, I don't like rats, in or out of any kind of box. I mostly visit museums though, and I don't think they would go for that kind of thing.

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    1. Rats in boxes or cages are one thing, but running loose on my boat, that would not be a good thing.

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  5. Your posts are always so entertaining! Love this. Love the journals too. Whoever drew the raccoon and the woman is quite the artist.

    I'd love to be a library person, though I've heard it's not as glamorous as one might think. And I know from personal experience that people leave disgusting things in library books. :(

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    1. They do leave disgusting things in the books :-( The stories my sister has told me are cringe-worthy.

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  6. Love it. I actually worked in a library when I was younger as a volunteer plus my wife and I frequent as many of them as we can. Might be partly because I'm a writer or more so just because I love books.

    That aside, I was TRYING to translate the Chinese for you, but my Cantonese is pretty terrible. Sorry. :/

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    1. What a great place to volunteer! Thanks for trying to translate. I guess it will be one of those mysteries I'll never solve.

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  7. I've been a card-carrying member of many libraries in my life, and I've spent countless hours perusing their shelves and doing research in them, but I've never actually worked in a library, so I dunno if I'm a true "library person" or not.

    As for rats in plastic containers? Not cool. I don't think that kind of confinement would put them in very good humor...

    And holy moley, that's some "cottage!" Lucky you!

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    1. It was an amazing cottage. I was very lucky my sister won the lottery and I was there when she had it.

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  8. Never knew anyone who kept a rat in a plastic container (hope there was air holes), but I did have a roommate who would carry his ferret around in a backpack everywhere he went.

    This summer when I was scanning old letters from my youth I found lots of hair. Apparently that was a thing in my angsty teenage years - to mail your friends your hair.

    As always, I love your sister's library stories.

    Love the pics of the journal.

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    1. Yuck - mailing hair to your friends. I can't imagine what I would do if I received that in the mail.

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  9. Oh, I *should* be a library person. ~grin~ Mailing hair. Wow. Just wow. As for the rat question, I would probably allow it. Maybe the person needs the creature to ease anxiety? Having owned a rat-sized mouse as a child and a snake in early adulthood, I can totally see that possibility even as our two cats calm me now.

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  10. The first picture of the hand...drawn by my niece, Megan! My sister-in-law worked for the library in Portland for many years, and they stayed there at that cabin many times! I was never around when they went, but it sounds wonderful!

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