The economy may feel a bit unstable, but vacation rental homes are enjoying a rock solid flow of business.

Recent news reports from coast to coast describe how travelers are doing the math and realizing a win-win by utilizing a vacation rental home as an alternative to a hotel vacation stay. Vacation Rentals offer travelers more well-appointed space for their dollar and a more rememberable experience thanks to amenities typically not afforded by hotels. Also, according to the Vacation Rental Managers Association (http://www.vrma.com/), the vacation rental industry saw a 17.4% revenue increase in 2007. Correlating with these trends, Seabrook Cottage Rentals realized a 192% increase in nightly rentals in the first 6 months of ’08 compared to ’07.

Seabrook will host a Pacific Northwest Garden Tour on September 6th, 2008 in conjunction with the annual Seabrook Salmon Bake. This is a great opportunity to learn more about the native trees, flowers, shrubs and vines most conducive to thriving in the unique seaside conditions of the Pacific Northwest. For more information on Monrovia and the Pacific Northwest Garden Tour visit: Monrovia Garden Tour. Below are some images of the native landscaping used throughout Seabrook including reclaimed oyster shells found on walking trails and alleyways.

GHype or Gray’s Harbor Young Professional Evolution visited the Front Street Cafe at Seabrook on Wednesday, July 16th. GHype is an under 40 offshoot of Gray’s Harbor Vision 2020, which is an organization focused on building a sustainable Gray’s Harbor County. Seabrook and the Cafe were proud to host GHype as we feel our sustainable directives coincide well with the sustainable foundation 2020 and GHype intend to build in our home county. For more information on Vision 2020 and GHype please visit their websites:

Below we have a select group of photos from a beautiful July 5th at Seabrook. At the very bottom, is a slideshow of the entire photo album provided by Seabrook’s Stephen Poulakos. If you have photos of your own from the Illumination Celebration, or Seabrook in general, please submit them to http://www.seabrookphotochallenge.com/ and we will be sure to get them on the blog as soon as possible. Thanks!

Thank you Tricia Anderson for this great photo of your family enjoying the new playground structure at Seabrook. This is located just south of the recently built water facility. Enjoy!