They're Here!

Name the movie that quote is from! I could picture the scene it was from, but not the movie title. I must confess I had to look it up. Anyway, we are here--back from our precious few days in Oregon. OMG.

Not that we don't love the Phoenix area, because we do; but, Oregon was literally a breath of fresh air at this time of year. It was 25-45 degrees cooler, depending on where we were--wine country or coast. We loved them both. We will go back. I'm thinking next year around my birthday again. Gary is thinking next month. He needed that getaway. Badly. And he is ready to do it again. Like now. :^)

I understand that the reason Oregon is so green is the tremendous amount of rain that falls there. But, out of our four and a half days there, we had just a little drizzle on one of them. I was told that, after July 4th, rain doesn't fall so much in the summer. Perfect. And the little drizzle was a bit of a novelty.

We landed in the afternoon on my birthday and drove out to the coast, where we were staying. On our way we stopped at Farm to Fork in Dundee and had yummy wine and sandwiches. We arrived at Salishan Resort--not as new or fancy as it looked in the photos, btw--and had dinner in their Sun Room restaurant. We each had a salad with crab meat. Quite tasty!

On our first full day in Oregon we went south of our resort at Gleneden Beach to Newport. On the bay there we had some great seafood (mussels, clams, crab, and shrimp) at Saffron Salmon. Did a little shopping, took some photos. You know, the touristy things. We paid good money for a bad experience at the underwater sea aquarium. I swear those fish were begging me to let them back out into the sea. They looked so miserable. We did do a lot of walking, which meant going uphill and downhill. I got shin splints that day, but bravely soldiered on. Yay, me.  Anyway, we finished the day at a great little restaurant at Depoe Bay--the Tidal Raves. OMG. Super view right on the bay, wonderful service and fabulous food. We both had the fresh-caught Oregon halibut--WOW! We loved it so much we made reservations for another night.

The second day we went inland to Dundee and visited five wineries. Had some delicious wines. Yum! We even joined a two wine clubs and bought wine from two others. There was only one winery that we were not impressed with. And we found that, by sharing our wine tasting, we didn't get tipsy. So that was good, as we did a lot of driving. Actually, Gary did a lot of driving and I did a lot of riding. (And resting my shin splints). We had a great smoked salmon pizza at the farmer's market for dinner.

On our third day we went north on the coast to Cannon Beach. Ate some more great crab at a tiny place called Sweet Basil's cafe. Then we took a walk along the beach, as the air was perfect for it--just a gentle breeze. Not  the face-scouring wind we had the first day on Nye Beach. And I still braved the walk with my shin splints. (Are you sensing that I am out of shape?)  We also visited a great little wine and cheese shop, the Blue Heron in Tillamook. Wonderful blue cheese there. We are going to order some to go with some wines we ordered! (Which won't be delivered until it cools down here, which will be the twelfth of never, or until Hell freezes over). Oh, yeah, we also went to the Tillamook cheese factory and watched them package cheese. You couldn't really see them make it, as it was contained in huge stainless tanks, but it was still interesting to visit. And we managed to visit a myrtlewood factory store. I can remember when my parents bought a myrtlewood salad bowl and tongs during the drive through Oregon. That, folks, was in 1961. What a memory huh? Like a steel trap. Or not. Then we finished up our day at the Tidal Raves again. Funny thing--we met a couple at a Dundee winery and recommended this restaurant on the bay to them. We told them how great the ambiance and food were, so they tried it. Loved it. Ate there two nights in a row. They told us this as they were leaving the restaurant and we were coming in to it. Small world, huh? :^)

Our last day was spent in wine country, again resting my shin splints. I had a hard time leaving the coast. Sigh. Heavy, heavy sigh. But then we did enjoy some more delicious wines in the Carlton area. Even bought some there that will be shipped when the weather cools. I could be 80 years old by then.

Btw, my bucket list includes seeing whales. And I am 62 now, so I'd best get that in pretty soon. There were whale sightings along the coast and in Depoe Bay while we were there, but do you think I saw any?  Not so much. However, that does give me an excuse to go back to Oregon and try again, don't you think?

What was up with that naboob while we were gone? We thought we had a day of tremendous wind on the coast, while there was an even fiercer one here in the Valley of the Sun. So glad we missed that. Of course, my car (parked at the airport) got naboobed, as Gary put it. And so did our house. The exterior was covered with dust, and the interior has a fine film of it on all the windowsills. Guess I need to clean that off, huh? All in good time, like maybe when I get my wine from Oregon.

Have a birthday party to attend for granddaughter Kelsey today. She is now 9, (and yes, we did remember to call her on her actual birthday), and I can't wait to give her the card I made in the CMC class! :^)

I'll leave you with a couple of photos from our trip. We each took a camera, but usually used the pocket-sized one that Gary had hooked to his belt. Much more convenient that dragging mine out of the camera bag, kwim? Merrilyn, kwim means "know what I mean". Fyi.  ;^) Here's wishing everyone everywhere a wonderful Monday!