A Long Weekend

It is always nice to take a day of vacation and spend it with the one you love. It seems that, for the past several years, we make an annual pilgrimage to the Oregon Coast. It isn't necessarily the same weekend every year, but at some point, we just have to go. It was just time. With the hectic pace we've had in our lives over the past six weeks, it was the perfect time for a much-needed break.


Thursday afternoon, Tim picked me up from work and we went home to pack and dole out instructions for the doggy-watchers (my mom/sis). We took off and rolled down I-5, cutting over by Kelso/Longview and then into Oregon. We stopped for a quick dinner and then back on the road to Seaside. We arrived in Seaside around 9:00 only to drive around like crazy people in the dark trying to find the Best Western. It was well hidden behind another building (with no signage), and we ended up having to go to the local Safeway to ask directions because we could not find it. Apparently they are aware that it is diffiult to find, but are struggling with the city over signage issues. Nice. Our room was the size of a small square postage stamp, so I'm glad we didn't have to stay there for more than one night. It was crazy.

Friday morning we got up, hit the Pig & Pancake and then started on our way down the coast to Yachats. We were surprised to get a call from Tim's parents when our phones came back into service at Tillamook. They were really concerned about Tim's job because of the news that JP Morgan Chase bought Wamu. He had not heard the news, so it was kind of a jolt to him, and he felt like he had the world's worst timing for taking a day off. He was finally able to get ahold of his supervisor in California and heard as much as she knew at the time. They had a regional conference call later, so we hung out in Lincoln City for a couple of hours while he waited for and listened in on the call. It looks like things will remain status quo for now. He was still a little stressed out over the whole situation… of course… but at least he had some knowledge of what was going on and felt somewhat assured.

We drove the rest of the way, enjoying the sunshine and having a very nice time. We arrived in Yachats and checked in to our room, getting quite the chuckle over what the mangaement considered "remodeled." Can you say a coat of paint and a new set of lamps? The rest of it was circa 70s-80s. It was funny. After settling in, we explored a little bit of "downtown" to see if things had changed. Not much had. We decided that we'd eat in the room (compliments of the fine kitchenette), because we wanted to watch the debate, so we picked up stuff to make hamburgers at the local "grocery." Sticker shock smacked us a good one when we got the grand total. For our hamburgers, beverages, some fruit, popcorn and some tater tots, it was $60 for the pleasure of cooking our own meager little dinner. I do have to admit though, those were some of the best hamburgers I'd had in a long time.  :)  Maybe it was psychological. 

We tooled around town Saturday, checked out some museums and shops, took a walk up and down the beach, and then ended up driving up to Newport for rations rather than pay the exorbinant prices at the little store.  We made some bruschetta (with the help of our new toy... a garlic smasher) and relaxed in the room for a bit before going to dinner at the Sea Drift Inn.  There was quite a crowd waiting when we arrived, so we hung out for about a half an hour before we finally scored a table.  There was a musician singing Hawaiian-style songs.  Kind of like one of those things where he took popular songs and added a Hawaiian flavor to it and called it good.  He gave us quite a few laughs. 

We got home on Sunday afternoon and spent some time with Jessica and Emily who were both in town: a nice end to the weekend. 

I'll have to upload my pics later.