the great northern: a coastal drive

Brookings to Newport. 5 hours. It poured down rain the whole drive. First stop up the coast- Bullards beach in Bandon.

I heard that there were cool stacks of rocks there to photograph. I didn't find them. It was super windy, so we left and continued up the coast. We stopped at Seal Cave, but it was raining so hard that all the seals were hiding- not worth the $20 entry fee. The wind blew our umbrella inside out as we were running across the puddle that was supposed to be the street.

Next stop was Newport. We stayed at the La Quinta. It reeked of mildew, I made Danny take me to the store so I could buy some air freshener. It was there in our hotel room that we found out that a town in our state was on fire. 100 homes had been evacuated, some had started to burn. Some of our relatives live there- so we sent our love and hopes for the rain to go to them to help put it all out.

The next morning we went to Pirates Plunder- a pirate store and antique mall. It was so awesome! Look at what we found:

I also found a $5 vintage sewing machine (not antique, about 70's), a milk glass vintage juicer (wahoo!) and a teeny tiny blue mug.

Newport to Portland. 5 hours. On the way, we drove through Tillamook county- beautiful drive. We stopped to tour the cheese factory- they have wonderful squeeky cheese.

Next stop, Cannon beach.

Beautiful, foggy, rainy.

We found some bunnies, hopping around, eating grass. They were a cute little surprise.

On our walk back to the car, I found some flowers.

Next was Astoria, home to the Goonies. We were starving, so we grabbed a bite at the Blue Scorcher- an organic vegetarian bakery cafe. It was delicious. I wish we had more time in Astoria, it was a cool little town. We walked up the drive to the house, snapped some photos, got scratched by a cat.

Astoria is beautiful.

And that concludes the coast. Danny was a little bit irritated with me that I didn't ever mention that we were in fact driving the entire Oregon coast on this trip. I didn't realize it myself. Annnndd, I tried to show him the route I had planned many times before we left, but he said, "no thanks."

Did I mention that I can't drive stick?

Or that we took Danny's car?

That is not an automatic?

Hell, I'd be a little irritated too.

2 hours later, we arrived in Portland at the Jupiter Hotel. It was just perfect. See?

Picture an old motel completely remodeled with Ikea everything. Even the glasses and plates in the restaurant.

The next morning we ate at Pine State Biscuits. Delish.

Onto exploring the town. First we went to the Portland Japanese Garden. So tranquil and quiet. Beautiful.

And HUGE spiders in their webs everywhere. Euuughhhh.

The zen garden was amazing.

Then we went to the Museum of Contemporary Craft. I got inspired by an installation piece I saw there- all about that in a future post.

Then we went on to Powells bookstore- my favorite, where I pleaded like a 6th grader for some Halloween children's books and some used copies of my favorite books that I have lent out and never gotten back. We got "Goodnight Goon" and "The Runaway Mummy", parodies of "Goodnight Moon" and "The Runaway Bunny". Very cute!

I made Danny drive me to all kinds of fabric shops (can you believe it, I didn't find a thing! Of course none of them offered fat quarters) before we went to Podnah's pit BBQ for dinner. Danny ordered a 1/4 rack of ribs, and I got the pulled pork sandwich. I got what I ordered, but Danny got a full rack. He was very full when we left.

Oh yeah- and Danny bought me a new iPhone- but that's another post.

The next morning before heading out, we ate again at Pine State Biscuits. This time I had a egg and sausage sandwich- ohhhh so delicious! Danny just had a biscuit and jam- meat overload from the night before!