tinycann adventures: Oregonian Gastronomical Anniversary

March 28th, 2010 was Bob and I's 6th wedding anniversary. Having been planning a trip for months, we got snuffed out of the majority of options due to a nasty winter storm hitting all sides of Port Townsend. climbing in Cascades, nixed. camping in San Juans, nixed. skiing in Mazama, nixed. So, we decided to expect a shit ton of rain and headed to the Oregon coast for 5 days. The photo above and below are of our recent purchase of a restaurant grade espresso machine. Appropriately branded the Astoria....

bob and i look forward to removing the metal paneling and repainting this puppy

with super high gloss enamel in some other color.

i think Bob told me that year 6 is metal, although we don't adhere to those rules. evident ally he did this time with not only an espresso machine, but a new external hard drive for my photos. (please don't be offended by our sweet talk "f-cking anniversary")

we left PT on friday around 5 pm. we hoped to get to South Bend, WA by the evening. Having never been there, we had no idea what to expect short of what we had read on a NY Times review for Chester Tavern that my sister Meghan had sent me years ago. It was the sole purpose of going here, to get world famous oysters in a small town setting.

Set on the bay, South Bend was an odd mash up of a multitude of benches dedicated to dead people, run down buildings, some war memorabilia and Chester Tavern...an old pub with even older regulars.

worth the drive

Bob tries to make due with choices such as: Herbie Hancock, The Temptations, Allman Brothers and bad country.

this was the utter highlight of the night. Bob and I strolled into what you can imagine a bar with maybe 6 people. all heads turned and we were literally accosted with friendliness from these South Bend lifers. Above is a "certificate" from the town park ranger Mike Kidd. Upon hearing we were looking for a place to throw our tent up in the dark, he just happened to be the park ranger and although the park on the bay was closed, he gave us this personally hand drawn ticket to put in our window and permission to camp there. hilarious, and yes, a perfect place to nest for the night at Brucepoint Campground.

Saturday was supposed to be the only nice day of the trip, so we stretched out towards the Wa coast and landed on Long Beach, home of Leadbetter Point (insert Pearl Jam nostalgia)

Long Beach was vast, with many access points. Most folks seemed happier to drive their SUV'S along the beach, i'm not sure yet how i feel about that...kind of ruins the magic.

From Long Beach, we drove south through Aberdeen and into Oregon via Astoria. Here is the famous Astoria Bridge taken from the Oregon side

adorable fish & chips stand in an old tug boat, Astoria

trying to get good photos of Cannon Beach and Haystack rock seemed impossible. It's hard to wrap into a photo the beauty of these monolithic rocks jetting out of the ocean.

oh yes, you are seeing this correctly. i was adamant about stopping in Tillamook Oregon to visit the Tillamook Cheese Factory. This place was insane, like a carnival where you immediately feel nervous you are missing out on something. So in a frazzled state we cruised about, eating grilled cheeses with pickles, buying awesome cheese, ice cream, samples, touring the facility....AMAZING.

Just south of Tillamook we veered back towards the coast, just north of Pacific City. This was a really awesome Nature Reserve with dunes as far as the eye could see. Unfortunately ATV's were allowed at the open campground, so we skipped further down and found a campground that was closed. We waited until all day users were gone and set up camp as the forceful coastal winds came howling in. Finding a calm spot to set up the tent just off the water was hard, but low and behold we did and no sooner did 2 other young couples are age pull up hoping to find some shelter for the night. We all felt safety in numbers and ducked into whatever trees we could to shield us from the wind.

sunday morning we headed into Pacific City for some more beach time and to watch people sledding down the dunes.

weather has officially changed for the worse.

the drive from Astoria down to Newport along the Oregon Coast is defanitely one of the most beautiful ventures i have made by car. Each mile seems filled with cliffs, roaring waves, rock face and endless beach.

We wanted to visit Rogue Brewery in Newport for a little lunch and beers before heading inland. Rogue was a salty dog of a distillery and brewery, with great service and a cozy feel right on the marina. A plethora of taps....

sample of the day, Double Mocha Porter

Lindsay's choice of the day, twice...the Yellow Snow IPA

oh yea, that's our frisbee...welcome to Rogue Nation!

McMinnville Manhattan with Basil Haydens

cauliflower and nettle gratin at Nick's Italian Cafe, McMinnville Oregon in the Willamette Valley

Ever since I read an article in Savuer Magazine over 7 years ago, i have wanted to go to Nick's. This Cafe was featured for having an amazing crab and pine nut lasagna, beautiful wine list from mostly the region that surrounds it...Pinot's from Willamette Valley. We purposefully planned to land in McMinnville on sunday afternoon to indulge in a hotel room to dry out our camp gear and to have a wonderful dinner on our exact anniversary at Nick's. All i can say to any one reading this...make this visit. McMinnville is a quiant, tidy and restful stop...i can't wait to go back.

monday morning at the Red Fox Bakery, a barista with a sinister mood makes us skulls with a vibrant smile.

our 99 cent roadtrip mugs from the goodwill in Lincoln City, Oregon where i also found a few more treasures.

what do you get when you cross fast food with wholesome ingredients, local ingredients, all compostable packaging and vegetarian options?

BURGERVILLE! and this isn't the only time we swung in...in Portland we enjoyed some sweet burgerville lunch before heading back to small towns.

ALAS! Hood River Oregon, a hill side town and home to some serious wind surfing on the Columbian Gorge. This town feels like a miniature Jackson Hole due to the fact that it is literally at the base of Mt. Hood. Full of breweries, cafes and more outfitters than possibly needed you get a youthfull and dirty hippy feel interspersed with wealthy yuppies and the home of Tofurky and Full Sail! Above is Hop Lava at the Double Mountain Brewery.

I didn't take a lot of photos in Hood River because it was dumping. Literally the heaviest rain fall they had seen all year. We got nixed out of our "to be" campground because it was closed, so we were forced to camp off the highway and next to the train that ran all night - a horrible event as we got soaked (well, the outside of the tent did) and got little sleep...so sorry for the void of pics.

Tuesday was our last day, and we were a bit tired of driving on the interstate with heavy rainfall. So we ducked up onto the Washington side of Hood River and headed back home that way. I wanted to stop in Carson, an itty bitty dank town with an old school hot springs and mineral wrap spa. very rustic. right outside the spa was this itty bitty kitch coffee shop that was a glorified 3 season porch with it's own one pound roaster, old candy store register and other "pee-wee" hermanish perafinalia. awesome and up for sale...

you are right, i should have been taking pictures of the Panther Creek area we were hiking in and the wonderous waterfalls...but i was lazy, wet, cold and felt like taking photos of deer bones that were oddly dumped in the forest.