Coasting

Well, we're just back from the Oregon Coast and I'm already wishing that I was back there. Two days isn't long enough to be somewhere when it takes half of the first day to drive down and then another half day to drive back. We went to Yachats a couple of years ago and that was farther down the coast, so even though we really liked it there, we opted to not go there (for a weekend) again. We looked in Seaside, but it was booked (unbeknownst to us there was a hot rod weekend) and finally settled on Lincoln City.

Friday we took our time getting down there, first stopping at Sonic out in Hillsboro. Jessica and some of my co-workers were quite envious. I had a cherry slush... whoo hoo! Pretty decent food for a hamburger joint. They offer tots as an option to fries, which I was very excited about. I'm not a big fry fan for the most part. Kate was very excited because we bought her a junior burger of her own. Anyhoo... it was fun stopping in there.

We had a leisurely drive in the sunshine and arrived at the hotel. I don't know that I'd stay there again. It was a little ghetto. It was clean for the most part, but I tried not to look too closely because the windows were really grimy so it led me to believe that there was scungy stuff elsewhere. I don't think they vacuumed under the bed all year. It was quite the dustbowl under there. We were right on the beach, so the view was stunning once you got past the dirty windows. Tim spent a lot of time at the open window, trying to catch pictures of seagulls that would fly right by the window. I think he ended up with probably 15 of those pictures. So funny.

We took a walk on the beach and Kate was quite happy to be racing through the sand. We ended up letting her off the leash just once, but she wouldn't mind (or stay), so we had to keep her under control. She enjoyed prancing along the edge of the water and running from the waves. She really liked the little river (D River) that ends up as a little stream dumping into the ocean. It doesn't really move much and it was fairly warm (due to its shallowness), so she frolicked in that for a few minutes with me. We walked for miles and the wind kept pushing at us.

Friday night, we went to dinner at a place that sounded really good from the restaurant guide. They had okay food, but the ambiance left something to be desired. We were, by far, the youngest of the people in the place. It was a spot for the old fogies and they were loud and obnoxious. The table next to us seated a couple of captains of industry, talking shop, drinking hard liquor and bull-shizzing all over the place. Completely horrid. Then there was a table filled with old couples who were discussing their various medical ailments, prescriptions and their unfortunate side effects. Another table behind us held two older women who were fighting about something and got really loud at one point before they finally packed it in and took their show on the road. Two stars for excellent fresh salad (organic greens from a local farm) and sadly that was the best part of the evening.

Saturday we didn't do too much other than take it easy. We had breakfast at the Pig N Pancake (and I found inspiration for a poem) and then went up to the outlet mall to pick up a new hat for Tim and to see if we could score any good deals. We also took another long walk and then patronized a small local bakery that was really cute. I didn't end up liking my brownie, but that's okay. We went for another shorter walk later and took some pictures that I will have to upload later. For dinner we hit a place called the Roadhouse. It had good food and you could throw peanut shells on the floor. It was kind of an amusing place because there were some real guy guys working there. Not like regular waiters who are male... but rough and tough guys that didn't seem like waiters at all. It was kind of funny. Our waiter was nice, but he totally forgot to bring us our salads. By the time we realized it, he was handing us our entrees, so we just ignored it.

Sunday we headed for home and stopped in Cannon Beach to have lunch at a dog-friendly restaurant. Dog-friendly meant that we could sit on the deck, but the dog couldn't. She had to sit under the deck, on the ground, and it wasn't an easy task to keep her there. But it was our only option. We couldn't leave her in the car because the temp was in the 80s. Nice, but deadly. All in all, it was a nice relaxing trip and I was relieved to be getting to go somewhere and do something even if it was nothing. :)