Tidal Raves And Parking Spot Manifestation
The Very Observational Newsletter, Vol. 2
Welcome to Very Observational with Adam Rockwell. This is my Email-Enabled Newsletter & Blog. Thank you for being a subscriber 😄
Contents Of This Week’s Very Observational Newsletter
📍 Field Report: Tidal Raves And Parking Spot Manifestation
🌊 Staring Into The Abyss - Writing Updates
📚 Totally Recommended
🚨 Unabashed Self-Promo Alert: Free Norm Rockwell eBook!
📍 Field Report - Tidal Raves
My family has lived on the Oregon Coast for two and a half years. Are we locals? No, the locals would never allow us to call ourselves that. We call ourselves “Resident Non-Locals.” I wrote a post about this conundrum called, “Am I An Oregon Coast Local?” if you would like to get into the weeds on this.
We’ve become very comfortable living here. That said, the longer we’re here, the more commonplace the impressive coastline becomes. The sea stacks, caves, pelicans and whales become, well, just the background of where we live. It was bound to happen. I’m not jaded, I’m just used to grandeur now. Grandeur is our default mode operating system.
Last weekend, K.L. Rockwell and I took a trip to Lincoln City. About twenty miles north of Newport. I went to the best bookstore on the coast called Robert’s Bookshop. Most bookstores on the coast have names like: Bob’s Beach Bum Books, so I find the mundane name refreshing. And it really is a great bookshop.
On our way back home, we decided to finally eat at the not-mundanely named restaurant: Tidal Raves. It’s a beautiful restaurant in the town of Depoe Bay that sits on a cliff overlooking the bay.
We have lived within 45 miles of Tidal Raves for over a decade, but every time we consider going there, I say, “I’m not eating at a place that named itself Tidal Raves!”
Plus, Tidal Raves doesn’t have a vegetarian option as far as I can tell. Our son, Fineas Rockwell, is a strict vegetarian, and unlike his mother, does not consider fish to be a vegetarian food. Luckily, he wasn’t with us, so we decided to give it a try and see if it was all it hyped itself up to be.
The real locals of Lincoln County really do rave about Tidal Raves. “It’s the best!” “You won’t get better fish anywhere on the entire coast!” etc. etc. So we had to try it at least once.1
Them’s the rules!
Tidal Raves has a very modern look to it, so we thought it would be haute2 cuisine. Something fancy.
It was not.
On top of it all, Tidal Raves does not take reservations, which is another reason we never eat there. It is always packed and there is very little parking.
Luckily, I’ve been practicing “The Art Of Manifesting Parking Spots.” Just outside Depoe Bay I went into a deep trance and put all my positive energies into making sure a parking spot would be available when we arrived. Not only was it a blue sky Saturday, it was also the lunchtime hour during Spring Break. I needed to tap into all of my chakras.
I chanted my mantra learned from the secret tome: The Secret. “There is a parking spot. There is a parking spot. A parking spot is available! Tidal Raves has a parking spot available for us!”
K.L. Rockwell previously thought my dark manifestation magic was bunk, but over the years she has seen parking spots appear, seemingly out of nowhere, after I perform my manifestation rites. I pray to the pagan God, Manifesto, and often my manifestations work.
After I had made all my incantations and sacrificed a handful of Doritos to a seagull, we rolled into the overly small Tidal Raves parking lot just as a mini-van was pulling out.
I was worried, not because I was using black magic, but because the place was packed. Without a reservation, we might be sitting there for an hour waiting on a table to open up. Maybe I should start utilizing my power of parking spot manifestation for shorter wait times at restaurants. Maybe I will?
I had always envisioned the clientele of Tidal Raves as retirees in suits. Its exterior has that vibe. It has an upper-middle-class Wisconsin supper club look about it.
Here’s what it was:
As you can see from the picture, the place sits right on the bay. It’s a beautiful view. But, it wasn’t what I had expected. It was full of … tourists!
I had worried about my attire, dark jeans and a black, Steve Jobs-approved long sleeve shirt. It turns out I could’ve worn my cargo shorts and a Hawaiian shirt for all they cared.
Instead of what I thought it would be, it turned out to be just another hectic, tourist filled fried fish joint. You know—what we’re used to.
The town of Depoe Bay is known for two things:
The World’s Smallest Harbor
People getting swept to sea on a regular basis.
As we sat there eating our fried fish and fried shrimp (K.L. Rockwell is fancy and orders shrimp), I had to watch a family crawl out on the rocks just to our west. We could see them through the immense picture windows. I could barely eat, worrying I was about to witness a family of four get swept out to sea.
For about a half hour, these people stood out on incredibly dangerous rocks. I couldn’t concentrate. I almost got in the car and drove over to yell at them to get off the damn rocks.
Finally, they left. About a minute later a giant breaking wave engulfed the basalt rock they’d been standing on. Lucky, lucky, family of four.
How was the food? Honestly, it was a bit greasy, but it was worth the view.
Now, I understand why people rave about Tidal Raves: It’s the view of the water and the cheap thrill of perhaps, just maybe, getting to watch somebody be swept out to sea. 🏄♀️
🌊 Staring Into The Abyss - Writing On The Edge Of The Pacific
Last Sunday I was struck down with severe lower back pain after picking up a five-pound potted plant. Oh, the humanity. One minute I’m having a good old time deck gardening and then BAM, I’m down for the count.
I wasn’t in much of a creative writing mood after that with seering pain running down my legs and up my spine. I’m not one of those people who “pushes through the pain.” No way. My creativity tank was on empty.
Luckily, things have been picking up the last couple of days and I’ve been writing again.
I’m also looking for an ergonomic chair that I can spend six hours a day in without getting crippling back pain. What a concept!
📚 Totally Recommended
Limitless Resources
My partner-in-life, K.L. Rockwell’s latest post on Substack is entitled, Limitless Resources, and was superb. Go check it out. It’s a beautiful meditation on her rabid journal collecting that is putting us in the poor house.
Shattered!
I’m also excited to read 𝐂𝐁 𝐌𝐚𝐬𝐨𝐧’s upcoming novel, Shattered! It is on sale now! I just ordered a paperback copy for myself and will report back in a couple of weeks.
Below, CB discussed her new book in her post, Shattered is HERE!
🔊 Unabashed Self-Promotion Alert! 🚨
I don’t have any self-promotions this week, but my late father’s Cold War army memoir, How I Won The Cold War, is FREE through Monday!
I was the editor of, How I Won The Cold War, so expect a giant bucketload of spelling errors. It was published in 2013 during the Kindle Golden Years.
If you are interested, just click the link below, and it’ll take you to the Amazon page where you can get the Kindle version for free!
This is a bit of an overstatement, they also like Luna Sea, Local Ocean, and South Beach Fish Market
Haute is pronounced “oat.” Not whatever I said, 😹😹😹.
Keep us posted on our the restaurant seating manifestation goes! I have goo parking karma too, so I’d love to know if I can expand my reach… And thank you for the shout out!
There has always been something about living near a coast that makes me feel that I'm "in" the world - somehow more so than living in proximity to mountains. When I returned to the States with my family from Australia as a kid, it astonished me, moving to Idaho, that there were kids at my junior high school who had never seen the ocean. Where I lived in Perth I was maybe 15 km at most from the Indian Ocean coast.