Seaside, Oregon

A mutual friend of mine and a colleague was here for the weekend, so we drove down (braving the holiday traffic) to spend a few nights by the Oregon coast (even though I had suggested going to Portland, apparently my colleague’s wife had other ideas).  We stayed in an Airbnb rental in a coastal town called Seaside, a house that seemed like it hadn’t changed much since the late 70s.  My strong preference is to experience the local cuisine by eating out – but my colleague and wife had decided to bring some food to cook (they are Chinese).  So had some lamb skewers cooked on the BBQ and then wandered down to the huge beach to watch sunset – we were very lucky with the weather, which made for a great sunset beach walk.  During the rest of the evening, started to feel really ill – splitting headache, burning up, nauseous – when we got back I had to retire to my room to lie down in a lot of pain, and eventually ended up vomiting during the night.  A clear case of food poisoning – thanks either to some under-cooked meat or an unpleasant reaction to some strange Asian spices.  Not a good way to start the weekend!