We Could Live Here

Well, we made it to Salt Lake City and got squeezed into our spot at the Mountain Shadows RV Park in Draper, Utah. But we left in such a rush for Los Cucos that we forgot to take a camera or even a phone so there are no photos of our happy reunion with great Tex-Mex. Instead, we’ll show you some examples of the interesting things we saw along the way, thanks to Karen’s drive-by shooting.

This is what we came to the Oregon coast for. We’ve driven along the coast, visited all three capes on the Three Cape Scenic Drive, hiked to Munson Creek Falls (the tallest waterfall on the Oregon coast), sampled a couple of local breweries in Pacific City and Lincoln City, taken walks on the beach right out our door and even came upon a classic car show.  But most of all, we’ve enjoyed just sitting at home and looking at this fabulous view out the front window!

We only had a 30-minute drive down Hwy 101 to our next RV park in Rockaway Beach so we weren’t in any hurry to leave so as not to arrive too early. Things really slowed way down after I checked the air in the tires and discovered no air in the passenger rear inside tire. Huge problem! After triple-checking again with three different gauges, I called Coach Net (like AAA for RVs) and made arrangements for a new tire. Luckily, there is a Les Schwab tire center just up the road in Seaside and they had a used tire our size in stock and would be there at 3pm (which turned into 4pm) but they did show up and changed the tire and we were finally on our way.

Our new park is right on the beach and we arrived in plenty of time to enjoy a beautiful, and chilly, sunset.

Taking a third vacation day this week, we drove down to Tillamook and over to Oceanside to see the sights and have lunch at Roseana’s Cafe. The food was good although it didn’t exactly match up to the rave reviews we saw on Yelp, but the view of the beach and cliffs and rocks from our table on this beautiful day sure made it worthwhile.
After lunch we continued on the Three Capes Scenic Drive to Cape Meares State Park. Here we made a couple of short hikes to see the Cape Meares Lighthouse and the famous Octopus Tree. Looks like we’ll have two more capes to drive on another day.

We got back to Tillamook and visited the Tillamook Cheese factory. They have a huge parking lot and visitors center to accommodate the huge crowds. Frankly, I do not understand the draw. It is not that exciting. We did get to sample their cheeses and buy their ice cream. I guess most people just like crowds. I don’t get it. The highlight of the visit was seeing their semi-fake VW bus mascot, Baby Loaf.

After three weeks at a lovely RV park in Fairview

we drove through Portland,

crossed over a bridge,

under some houses,

through the woods,

to Cannon Beach,

and another lovely RV park.

We’ll be here for just a few nights while exploring the northern Oregon coast and then work our way down the coast while enjoying the highs in the mid-sixties!

Oregon sure has it’s share of great places to eat and the number of opportunities for another new craft beer is staggering. We wanted to try out Full Sail Brewing and the pizza at Double Mountain Brew Pub in Hood River. The pizza was as good as it gets but the beer was a bit lacking. So on to Full Sail where they have a great view of the Columbia River Gorge but the brew was just okay. We knew we had an ace in the hole at Everybody’s Brewing across the river in White Salmon but we weren’t ready to play that card yet so we decided to take the scenic drive on the Hood River County Fruit Loop. There are tons of orchards, vineyards and farms here in the largest pear-growing region in the country, all in the shadow of the incredibly scenic Mount Hood. We stopped at one fruit stand and bought some peaches that Karen turned into a most-wonderful cobbler yesterday! Another discovery we made on this drive is the existence of another snow-capped mountain – Mount Adams. Ah-ha, that’s why it’s called Double Mountain. As many times as we’ve driven through the Gorge we never saw Mount Adams because it’s obscured from the interstate.

We must be getting just a little homesick because the next day we took a big risk and went to Podnah’s Pit Barbecue in Portland. To add to the risk we ordered chips and salsa to start. We figured out what took so long once they arrived – they cook the chips to order! The salsa isn’t exactly what we get at home but it was very good and we could have eaten a lot more of it if not for the brisket, ribs and hot links still to come! Neither of us cared much for the sausage and think they could use some help with their sauce but the brisket and ribs were smokey and delicious and didn’t need any ol’ sauce!

Laurelwood Public House & Brewery could easily qualify for favorite pub status if we stayed here long enough to run out of new places to try. It was hard to choose among the four samples we had; the red, brown, porter and stout. Not only that, but their happy hour menu had fish tacos in corn tortillas – nobody outside of Texas does that (it seems) and that’s the only way we want them! We shared one order of two tacos since this place is right next to Der Rheinlander where we wanted another shot at the wiener schnitzel that we enjoyed there last year. The schnitzel was good but the experience would have been better if our waiter was as attentive as he was enthusiastic.

One of the many cookbooks in Karen’s collection is this one, Mother’s Best: Comfort Food That Takes You Home Again. The author’s restaurant is Mother’s Bistro in downtown Portland so we had to go there. We got off to a great start with a parking space right in front of their door. Then things improved when the ladies seated next to us recommended the cream of corn soup. Wow, that was good! Karen ordered the chicken and dumplings because she knows that recipe is in her book and I ordered the macaroni and cheese du jour – proscuitto, roasted garlic and parmesan. Mine was good but Karen’s was better. Since she has the recipe she’s going to have to make it at home!