Day Two: April 21

We woke up at 8:30 AM, which isn't like us. Apparently, closing the wooden blinds doesn't shut out much light.  I noticed that we actually have curtains which close, but too late.  The breakfast is available between 8 and 10:30 AM, which suits our schedule. We enjoyed our breakfast of oatmeal or granola, berries, juice and coffee (bypassing the hard-boiled eggs, bagels and English muffins) while looking across the inlet at the pasture that was expecting the elk herd "any day now".  Well, that day was today!  You can't see them without binoculars, but this is where they were grazing (the view on the right is looking south across the inlet):

On the main street (which is actually the highway going through town, so we were happy we didn't have a front-of-the-building room), we visited a bead shop (run by the owners of the hotel), a fabric shop and an antique mall.  At the antique mall, we purchased Grimm's Fairy Tales (I love the TV series) and a rooster platter.  I saw a Barbie doll, wearing the strapless black evening gown (I think she's an anniversary edition of some sort); that took me back to when I was 12 and, when my younger sister and I asked for a Barbie doll, I was told "I was too old for dolls".

We planned our day around a drive to see the ocean. I enjoyed the tree growing little trees, on the right.

 We started by driving south to Tillamook, home of the Tillamook Cheese Factory, visited by the Fidgeons-minus-Matt some years ago. We passed it by so we could find some coffee and ended up at the Dragonfly Sisters (where we were taught where to park by someone sitting outside).   I saw a billboard advertising "fractional ownership"; interesting twist on "time share".

We stopped in Bay City because we saw a sign for $1 foot long pepperoni sticks, which we purchased along with jerky, nuts, after taking advantage of a multitude of free samples.  Luckily we did stop, since it closed at 5 PM.

I saw a sign for The Pancake House (voted the People's Choice Best Breakfast) so we went there for lunch. It seems the standard for best breakfast is somewhat low.  The weather, on the other hand, was wonderful: 70 degrees while we were eating.  We saw people in shorts and men with no shirts.

We then drove about 5 miles up-up-up to see a lighthouse at Mears, but it required hiking which I was not up for. Back to sea level, where we found a very rocky beach:

If I thought a hike was going to be hard, it was probably nothing compared to walking on those rocks.  I should have put my foot in the picture because the size of those rocks is not apparent.

By the time we got back to the Tillamook Cheese Factory, processing had stopped so we just saw them cleaning up.  We sent a Cheese Video for $1 (directed at the children) and ate small ice cream cones (strawberry and huckleberry).

 I bought a mug.

South to Pacific City to find more ocean.  We found a very sandy one, with $45 for 1/2 hour horse rides (which we did not do).  We had to walk over a big dune with very deep sand to get to the ocean, but we enjoyed meeting Riley the chihuahua.

We drove back to Tillamook for gas and on to Garibaldi for a seafood restaurant Matt had noticed. It turned out it was actually in Bay City so we drove south again to find the restaurant closed.  Back North to Rockaway Beach for dinner at Grumpy's Cafe, and ended up having a fried fish dinner.  No diet.  Back at the hotel, with lights out at 11 pm after a very busy and enjoyable day.

Day 3: April 22

I woke up at 8 am but I didn't want to get up so I gave Matt first turn in the shower. That tub is so deep I feel I could float in it. After we checked out, I took Matt back to the Antique Mall and rescued Barbie.  I can't believe it took me this long to finally get my own.

Leaving Wheeler at 11 am, we decided to go to Seaside for lunch and had a hard time finding a parking spot.  The tourist street was crawling with, well, tourists, so we found a spot on a side street.  We enjoyed a delicious seafood lunch and walked across the street to a donut shop that caught my eye (I know, diet).  Matt noticed a shaving kit in a leather shop next door so we went in to purchase that, along with a fake leather Betty Boop purse for the upcoming Austin trip. I saw a purse with a longhorn on it but thought that is the sort of thing you purchase in Texas.

 We stopped at Cannon Beach for more ocean. In the parking lot, there was an unusual site which caused us to long for the Caped Crusader.





We took a different route home, driving over the Astoria Bridge.  The view on the left is before we got on the bridge, and that on the right is at its highest point.

We drove 101 through Aberdeen, stopping north of Olympia for $1 sodas.  Since the view from Aberdeen to Olympia is trees, highway, more trees, no pictures were taken.  Matt commented that in Oregon, at least, there are small towns to break up the trees.  So, no more pictures until we got home at 5:53 pm.

Day One April. 20, 2012

This trip was given to us by our daughters, Anna and Katie, for our 30th anniversary. We received it in February but failed to call soon enough to get a king-bed room on the weekend of our choice. We were able to upgrade to a queen-bed room with a private bath down the hall (we had our own key) so we were happy. Anna felt we should not have had to pay extra for a worse room. Matt and I don't spend that much time in the room so we were happy. Plus, as Matt put it, it's nice to not have to deal with bathroom noise while in the room!

We took our first picture outside the car after we loaded it. Our plan was to leave about 10 AM (well, knowing us, 9:30 but we knew we would not make it) but found ourselves on the way to the Post Office at 10:59.  Matt said at least we are on our way before 11. We stopped for coffee to go at Starbuck's so we actually didn't reach the highway until 11:15.  As I was driving, I saw many cars with pink-tinted windshields but could never call them out soon enough for Matt to see them.  Matt pointed out a long string of rail cars (the kind that look like they hold container boxes) on the right side of I-5. They went on for miles and some had trees lying across them, and bushes growing close to them.

We stopped in Toledo for gas and a rest stop. In the mini-mart, I saw an insulated holder that looked like a 6 pack and a disposable grill - it lights with a match and is already loaded with charcoal. Hopefully, one waits for the fire to cool before throwing it out.

We had two route choices to get to Wheeler: one through Longview and one through Aberdeen.  Since they both were close in time and we wanted to get there without "touring", we chose Longview for the trip down.  That's where I got hungry but nothing looked very good after we left I-5.  We entered Oregon over the Lewis and Clark bridge, which is a new route for us.  We finally stopped in Clakskanie for lunch at Colvin's ("There's always something good cooking at Colvin's" according to their sign).  We were so hungry we deviated from our diet, with me having a chicken tender sandwich with tater tots (yum) and Matt choosing a club sandwith with potato salad. The servigs were so generous we took about half with us for dinner.  Matt bought a mug.

On the Oregon side, we passed a lot of open country, treees, cows, and shorn sheep.  We also saw wet spots on the road in various, odd places.  We could not explain how just one area of the highway was wet, with no runoff in sight. It was like a localized rainstorm hit just a small area of highway.  Plus, while we were driving downhill, we saw many, many signs that said "Yield center lane to uphill traffic". We only saw a couple of double lanes on our side when we hit an uphill section.  I wondered if that meant we would be driving uphill more than downhill when we came back.

When we reached Seaside, we recalled Katie having visited there when we saw the Pig 'N Pancake sign (we have a coffee cup with that written on it).  We texted her for suggestions about possibly eating there.  On to Nehalem and then Wheeler - population 350.

We passed the hotel but kept on driving since we are slaves to MapQuest.  It took us up a hill to another closed motel so we returned to the main street (still a highway) and the hotel. The entrance is a foyer with an elevator, and the hotel itself is upstairs. We received a nice tour of the premises. Our room is on the opposite end from the dining area but across from a sitting area.

It came with champagne and delicious chocolates! It had an electric fireplace! It had a TV that looked like a computer monitor!

   It came with bathrobes so we can walk the 12 steps to our private bathroom!  We were not sure how the bathroom separate from the bedroom situation would work out but Matt said it's better to not have it in the room since we weren't disturbed by any sounds.  Pity the people in the room next door to our bathroom, having to deal with theirs and ours!

 When we saw the dining area, we were told an elk herd should be arriving soon, to graze across the inlet. 

Breakfast is served 8:00 - 10:30 AM which suits our schedule.

We drove back to Seaside for dinner, on Katie's recommendation to eat at the Bigfoot Brew and Pub.  We drove into the main part of town first to look for a possible ice cream parlor dessert site.  Outside of the Bigfoot, we ran into this charming fellow: 

There was also a carving of Bigfoot I didn't notice him until after dinner.  Our meal was fantastic and I would recommend this restaurant to anyone going near Seaside.  We were able to split a 14 oz. Prime Rib, share a dinner salad and bread, and have our own starch and vegetables for just $3 more than the original Prime Rib dinner price.  I heard Matt make an unsolicited yummy sound while eating his portion of steak.  We drove back to the possible-ice-cream street but decided we were too full to stop and ended up picking up some soda and going back to the hotel, to our welcome room #6.