Sept 10
Sept 11
Sept 12
Sept 13
Sept 14
Sept 15 - 21
Friday, September 15, 2017
I got up about 6:40. Carl slept in even later than that.
After a leisurely breakfast at the hotel, we drove north, stopping for a potty break at a small state park.
Once we got to Newport, we stopped at Waves (our first Oregon tour hotel) to return an alarm clock Carl had packed by mistake. The manager seemed surprised we'd bothered, but thanked us anyway.
Lunch was down the street at the Nye Cafe, which is where Carl had breakfast twice during our stay there. I had the shrimp salad, which was delicious – tiny pink shrimp on a bed of lettuce with cherry tomatoes, cucumber slices, half an avocado, and a hard boiled egg cut in half, with an thick slice of orange and a bit of watermelon. Yum! Carl had some sort of shrimp melt sandwich. Very nice place to eat!
We continued on north to Lincoln City to see if we could check into the hotel yet. Yes! Our room is ready. So, we moved in.
It's a really nice room on the top floor. It has a fireplace, living room and bedroom, and a kitchenette (and bathroom, of course). This is at Pelican Shores. We've stayed here before, and it's just as nice as last time. We immediately opened the deck door to let the ocean sounds and air in. Nice!
Then we ran a couple of errands. First, we stopped by the grocery store for some simple supplies – wine, popcorn, chex mix, cookies, laundry detergent and softener. Then we walked next door for a bottle of pre-mixed margaritas.
From there, we drove down the road to an office supply store for some canned air to clean the sand out of the tripod clasps. They got pretty grody coming off the sand dunes yesterday.
While Pelican Shores has a guest laundry (one washer and one dryer), we opted for the nearby coin laundry. So, we loaded up the dirty clothes, and headed there. An hour later, three loads of laundry done and we were back at the hotel.
Dinner was at Kyllo's Seafood Grill. Margarita (so-so), grilled salmon, and wine, with an small ice cream sundae for dessert. Yum! Ate a little too much. It's a fairly nice place - a bit of a tourist attraction with prices to match and very busy. But then, this was Friday night and busy was to be expected.
Then it was back to the hotel for a cookie from the lobby (which one of the local seagulls wanted to sample), which we ate on the deck. And to plan some simple touristy stuff for tomorrow.
It's only 8 pm and I'm about ready to call it a day....
Saturday, September 16, 2017
We both slept quite well last night. You can't hear the ocean in the bedroom part of this room, but it's not far away and can be heard when visiting the bathroom... Yes, we left the deck door open...
I finally got up a little after 7 and made a cup of tea. Tea with waves crashing – ah, does it get any better?
We filled a tray with some breakfast downstairs and brought it to the room to eat. Then we walked a bit on the beach - just like tourists. I read a little. Then we did some tourist type shopping, stopping first at a shop that sold wind spinners, kites, and other fluttery things. I picked up two new flags and two new spinner thingies.
We had lunch at the Blackfish Cafe. It wasn't as good as we remembered. As we were leaving, I took a look at the dinner menu – looks like they lost their chef.... So, we canceled tomorrow night's reservation. It was a shame. I remembered that place fondly. It used to have really good food.
We watched the glass blowers for a while. Very interesting. They were selling the experience of making your own, too, but we passed. Watching was enough fun. The ones they had for sale looked pretty, but expensive. And I just couldn't envision any of them in our house, so left empty handed.
I spent most of the rest of the afternoon posting a few photos on Facebook, since I hadn't really posted any during the photo tour itself - not enough free time!
We went out for dinner a little before 6. We were going to just pick up some clam chowder and bring it back to hotel to eat, but the place we were going to had just run out – half an hour until the next batch was ready. We left.
We went looking for something else - on Saturday night in a tourist town. We finally stopped at The Bay House on the south end of town. We spent a bit more than we planned to. The dining room was full and would be for the rest of the night – Saturday night in a coastal town – no place to eat... We wound up at their bar and ordered dinner from there. Two items from the small plate menu with wine and sorbet for dessert. It was okay, but pricey.
Then back to the hotel for margaritas and popcorn and tv. Lots of commercials... Now I remember why we don't watch much tv at home any more.
Sunday, September 17, 2017
It was a quiet morning. After we finally got up, we drove over to The Wildflower Grill for breakfast – very good french toast (with raspberries). We'll have to remember this one if we come back.
We stopped and picked up a paper on the way back to the hotel and spent some time just reading the paper, drinking coffee/tea, and listening to the surf!
We're having a lazy day after a week of chasing photo ops. It's just as well - there's a steady drizzle coming down outside, solid overcast above, brisk wind off the ocean. So, we're sitting here reading with the deck door open to the ocean sounds and the gas fireplace flickering away nearby....
Carl did get one chore done today - he cleaned the sand out of the tripod and I got the little bit of sand that had worked its way into the camera.
We had dinner at Kyllo's again tonight. I had the crab cakes – pretty good. And the place wasn't as busy - people had gone home after a weekend at the beach.
Then it was back to room for a quiet evening.
Monday, September 18, 2017
There was a pretty sky directly west of us this morning. Pretty ugly sky if you look north.
We started packing the car (spending time until the breakfast area opened for the morning). Then took breakfast up to the room again. Now to finish the packing and start the journey home.
Rain threatened or drizzled all morning.
We drove north on 101 to Tillamook, then headed east to Portland. I-84 is still closed eastbound (westbound is open). My original plan was to dawdle up the coast, possibly spending some time at Cannon Beach and going as far as Astoria, but, with steady drizzle, it's just not worth it. Another trip!
We entered Washington and the rain promptly increased. Carl said “of course!”
Lunch was in The Dalles at Cousin's Restaurant. We wound up splitting a sandwich and potato salad.
We got into Kennewick for the night. We left Lincoln City this morning a little before 9 and arrived in Kennewick about 4:30...
The person at the motel's front desk recommended “The Rock” for dinner. After reviewing Yelp and their menu, I started looking for other places... We wound up across the street from The Rock at a place called Bob's Burgers and Brews. Carl had a huge sandwich and salad, I had a yummy huge wrap with steak fries. Both had beers. Not bad at all.
Then back to the hotel for cookies and coffee/tea. We were both still pooped from the week's adventures.
There's a massive storm still following us. The wind is increasing now. It should be very wet in the morning...
Tuesday, September 19, 2017
Extensive breakfast bar offerings at this motel. I made up some super oatmeal and added a cranberry muffin.
After eating, we quickly packed up and left a little before 8.
There were rain showers off and on, heavier and lighter, most of the day.
Lunch was at Blackboard Cafe in Wallace, ID. It was not worth a return visit... We asked what the soup of the day was - oh, they ran out already (it was 11:30 am). Someone else asked for a chocolate shake - oh, we're out of chocolate. What????
We started seeing patches of snow in the mountains after we crossed Lookout Pass into Montana.
We got to Butte about 5:30 and checked into our motel. It was very cold and windy.
We walked over to a Chinese place for dinner (located on the other side of the parking lot from the motel) to find that they're now closed on Tuesdays. So, back to the lobby to get a different recommendation. The new recommendation was a much better location.
Yes, we had to drive to it, but it was worth it. We drove up to old town Butte to a place called Sparky's Garage. By the time we got there, the light rain had changed to heavy hail! It then turned to sleet, followed by snow while we were eating - we could see it out of the windows.
Good food! Carl had the pulled pork dinner and I had chicken noodle soup with a green salad. Very little broth in that chicken noodle soup! And really good cornbread!
By the time we finished eating, the hail, sleet, and snow had all stopped and nothing else was falling from the sky... So, we drove back to motel for ice cream and cookies.
Now for showers and bed.
Wednesday, September 20, 2017
We slept in a little this morning as we don't have far to drive. We had a leisurely breakfast at the hotel, then packed up and headed east.
We only go as far as Billings today.
We met Kelly at the museum and had lunch at Raven's, the museum's cafe. Very good food there. Rick joined us for lunch.
Then we wandered the museum and saw the exhibits that had changed since last time. Kelly went back to work and we checked into our hotel.
Dinner was at The Divide (after playing with cats for a while at Kelly's apartment). Now for bed....
Thursday, September 21, 2017
We got up about 6 and had our usual breakfast here before packing up. We left about 7:45.
It was our normal drive home. Very little wind in Wyoming (for a change) until we hit Douglas.
We had lunch at a Burger King in Casper. I think the milkshakes may have given us both upset systems as we wound up hitting every rest area on the way to the Colorado border instead of every other one...
The person working the register also handled ice cream orders. She went from cleaning up an ice cream cone she dropped on floor, took a perfunctory swipe over her hands with hand sanitizer, worked the register again, then fixed our shakes. I couldn't verify she “sanitized” her hands any other time in there. She definitely didn't wash them....
We stopped by the grocery on our way to the house for the usual stuff (milk, bread, bananas, etc). We drove into the driveway about 5:30.
All is now unpacked. So, I took a minute and went in the backyard and picked tomatoes... We had soup and bread for dinner then crashed early....