Oregon coast – Riveted

Sun! We’ve got sun!!

Laura Domela — Fri, 17 Mar 2017 01:22:27 +0000

Woke up this morning to a clear blue sky and this hot bright thing poking through the blinds! Such a nice surprise. Similar to yesterday, we did a bunch of work in the morning, and then headed out for a late breakfast and a little exploring.

Today’s destination was the town of Seaside.

It’s been ages since we’ve been to Seaside. We grabbed some food at the Firehouse Grill (where “late breakfast” didn’t turn into lunch because they serve breakfast until 3!) and then walked down to the beach.

We decided to check out the Seaside Aquarium today. The Seaside Aquarium has been open (in this same spot) since 1937.

The building was constructed in 1924, and was originally a saltwater bath house and swimming pool called the “Seaside Baths Natatorium”. The natatorium closed in the early 1930s, underwent major renovations, and in 1937 opened as the Seaside Aquarium. Here’s an early pic of the building:

The aquarium experience was better than we’d expected. As you enter the building, there’s a pool off to your left where maybe a dozen harbor seals hang out waiting to splash water onto the guests be fed by the guests from small trays of herring pieces. For two bucks you can get your own tray of herring (comes in a red/white checked take-out dish, very similar to what you get fish & chips in, for example, so pay attention). Anyway, I thought the whole “seal feeding” gimmick was going to be obnoxious, and it was…a little bit. But it was also kinda fun. The seals work hard to get your attention and are pretty good at clapping, barking, splashing, and looking cute so that you’ll throw some fish their way.

One seal got an eensy bit impatient, however, and could pull some pretty big water with those flippers…throwing it directly at the guests, right through the fence (no glass). Kinda makes you NOT want to give that particular seal a treat, but hey, it apparently works for him.

Anyway, there are a bunch of tanks with cool fish and anemones and eels and other neat things in ’em. Here’s a closeup of grumpy wolf eel:

This octopus was my favorite though:

Its eyes were closed and you could watch (close up in this open, no-touch tank) its breathing. We could look straight down into its gills as they opened and closed, and as water pushed out of the funnel/siphon (the tube on the left, near the “neck” of the octopus in the photo). It was super cool. (Would have been cooler had the octopus been awake and climbing around the tank, but we’ll take what we can get!)

Still sunny outside!

Walking back through town:

From the bridge that crosses over the river at Broadway Street, we could see a bunch of pedal boats shaped like giant swans…which was quite a fantastic image (just google it, you’ll see what I mean). They were all clumped together at the dock, but I had only my wide wide lens with me, we were too far away, and I apparently didn’t want the photo badly enough (but now I wish I’d made the effort).

On our drive back down to Nehalem, we pulled over and got a couple of nice shots back toward town.

Our campground is down there somewhere, hidden behind the dunes:

We got back to camp and took off on our bikes for a nice ride out to the boat launch and beach…a little over 5 miles. And guess what? It’s still sunny!!!

A Rainy Day in Astoria

Laura Domela — Thu, 16 Mar 2017 16:55:42 +0000

Yesterday, after some work in the morning (oh, and more rain…did I mention it’s been raining out here?) we drove north up 101 to Astoria for some late breakfast that turned into lunch at the Bridgewater Bistro. The Bridgewater Bistro is in a 100 year old cannery building, just to the left of where I’m standing to take the above photo.

We had a salmon BLT and some fish and chips…both were great! After lunch (still raining) we went over to the Columbia River Maritime Museum. It’s been a few years since we last visited, and it seems like they’ve really increased the scope and quality of the exhibits since then.

We spent some time reminding ourselves why we don’t really want to cross the Columbia Bar in Airship:

This abalone and sea urchin fishing boat was swept out to sea during the 2011 Japanese tsunami. Two years and 5,000 miles at sea later, it washed ashore at Cape Disappointment in Washington. The boat’s owner, Katuo Saito, 72, was found and contacted, and though grateful his boat had been found, he did not wish for it to be returned to him:

Ships in a line, anchored, waiting to cross the bar. (We counted eight of them.)

The 20 minute movie at the museum right now is a 3D film about hurricanes and had some fantastic “How’d they do that?” footage! Afterwards, we went and toured the lightship Columbia. This lightship was basically a floating lighthouse, stationed about 6 miles off the entrance to the Columbia River, and served as a major navigational aid where it wasn’t feasible to build a lighthouse. Lightship No. 604/Columbia, left her station in November of 1979 after being replaced by an automated navigational buoy. She’s now part of the maritime museum and your entry fee to the museum includes a self guided tour of the Columbia.

I was trying to get a shot of Columbia’s pilothouse, but the reflection was a little much. Instead, I got this cool photo of ghosty Kevin with pilothouse and portholes.

We saw a 4:20pm screening of Jordan Peele’s film “Get Out” (good article about it here, without spoilers), which we both enjoyed quite a bit. As we left the theater we noticed it was not raining, so we drove south and out to Ecola State Park for a little walk and some gorgeous views:

Haystack Rock in Cannon Beach, taken from the car window:

Hope this non-rain trend continues for a few days!

We Took the Airstream to the Oregon Coast

Laura Domela — Mon, 13 Mar 2017 19:22:07 +0000

We’re at the Oregon Coast in the Airstream this week. (That shot above is looking back toward Cannon Beach and Haystack Rock.) Remember the Airstream? It’s been so long, but we seem to have retained the skills necessary for hooking the trailer to the truck for towing, running all our systems, and remembering where things are.

We got settled in our campsite yesterday afternoon (arrived around 4pm) and then got out our bikes for a nice bike ride. It was right around 60 degrees F and we rode for an hour or so (without jackets, even!) There’s a nice loop that takes you around the airport and out to the beach…

So pretty!

Last night it started raining and hasn’t quit since (it’s after noon on Monday now). Accuweather shows nothing but rain rain and more rain today (well, and also tomorrow, and maybe Wednesday too), and we’ve got a nice moat developing around the Airstream. Upside? We’re getting a ton of work done here.

Tomorrow is the 20th anniversary of the day we got married! On March 14, 1997, we drove downtown to pick up our judge, brought him back to our house, and got married in our living room in front of a fire, with our good friends Jake and Patti as official witnesses and Larra and Christy (daughters from Kevin’s previous marriage, then 8 and 10) as unofficial witnesses. We poured champagne, went to lunch downtown after delivering our judge back to his office, and then had a fantastic trip to Costa Rica. Seems like just yesterday, and seems like forever ago. Best 20 years ever!

The nice restaurant in town wasn’t open tomorrow, so we’re having dinner there tonight. Tomorrow I’ve got a massage scheduled, and if it stops raining, Kevin’s going to fly his new Mavic on the beach for some drone photos. I think we’ll cook dinner for ourselves and open a good bottle of champagne and maybe play some scrabble or something.

Coastal Living Magazine – April 2014

Laura Domela — Mon, 17 Mar 2014 13:15:00 +0000

Remember last May when we told you we were being interviewed and photographed for an article on Airstreaming for Coastal Living Magazine (along with Kristiana Spaulding and Deke & Tiffani Waters)? Well here it is!

Coastal Living April 2014 is available on newsstands now. I haven't found a copy yet (here, at the COAST!), but you can definitely download the April issue to your iPad if you can't find one and don't wanna wait. This is what the cover looks like:

Great writing by Barry Yeoman and super cool photos by Brown Cannon III. It was great fun working with these folks!

Here's a shot of our shoot location, over at the Bob Creek wayside, just up 101 a bit from where we were staying at Sea Perch RV Resort (where we happen to be staying again right now):

What bench?

When the Regulars Take Control

Laura Domela — Sun, 16 Mar 2014 20:29:35 +0000

We left Portland late on Saturday (close to 7pm) and headed for the coast. We didn't have a reservation (or a plan really, other than we knew we wanted to be in Eugene to get our bikes by Tuesday). We figured we'd start at Devil's Lake State Park in Lincoln City and see if we could get a spot (Saturday night) and if not, try the next place down the coast. Devil's Lake had plenty of spots so there we stayed.

We unhooked and headed out to find some food and ended up at a place a little south on 101 called Macadangdang's. According to Yelp it had good reviews and was open until midnight. We were the only ones there (uh oh). We ordered some fish tacos and a burger to share, plus a couple of Monkey Face Porters, and everything was great: food, service, and oh yes, the ambiance.

The soundtrack to our meal: Foreigner, Journey, Heart, Bon Jovi, Fleetwood Mac, and some Tears for Fears and Prince thrown in for currency. We could have been in any beach town in the 80s (at 10pm on a Monday night) for sure.

It rained most of the night, and this morning we got up and headed out to get some breakfast and some groceries before continuing south. We ended up at another Yelp-reviewed spot in Lincoln City called Corner Cafe. The place was packed and busy (every table occupied), filled with happy couples and families with kids, and the breakfast was great. I had an omelette with spinach, mushrooms, bacon, and cheese, and Kevin had crab benedict.

Above the empy counter seating to my left there was a television up high, tuned to CNN with information streaming about the missing Malaysian aircraft (super-interesting, and one of the few times Kevin and I actually watched the television in a restaurant). About half-way through our meal a large gentleman lumbered into the dining room through what I thought was the kitchen (turns out they have another section of seating through that door), and sat himself down at the counter. Clearly a regular, he ordered some coffee and some food and made it a point to remind his server that he wanted regular tabasco, green tabasco, A-1 steak sauce, AND ketchup with his order.

Kevin and I kept eating and chatting, and I looked up once to see the man at the counter holding the television remote, pointing it up at the television, readying to change channels. Oh, the regulars. I glanced at the screen (above all the children's crayon-colored menu pages taped to the wall) and highlighted, just one click away from filling the big screen in this bustling cheerful family diner: Busty Coeds.

Noooooooo!! I looked at Kevin, eyes wide, as I imagined the scenario.

Luckily he continued on through the pages, passing by Shark vs. Dyson – The Real Truth, Miley Cyrus Takeover, Dallas Buyer's Club, eventually sticking on Fox Sports/NASCAR.

Oh, regulars.

Gray Morning at Sea Perch

Laura Domela — Tue, 28 Jan 2014 13:09:06 +0000

All that incredible sunny weather at the coast and wouldn't you know the day we're heading back into Portland it's all gray and drizzly?? Perfect! We used it all up!

We waited for the high tide to recede a bit and then went for a walk on the beach before leaving our lovely spot at Sea Perch RV Park.

Interesting colors in the sand this morning:

I thought this impromptu rock lineup that the tide just uncovered was nice:

Next stop: Bike Friday in Eugene to check out some upgraded folding bikes.

From the Airstream Kitchen: Crab Enchiladas

Laura Domela — Mon, 27 Jan 2014 19:00:00 +0000

I took a quick photo of our dinner last night to post with this recipe, but the photo is really terrible. iPhone photos at night of food just really aren't very appetizing, so I'm going to borrow this photo from allrecipes.com where I looked up the basic ingredients people used to make seafood enchiladas with white sauce. This is just whey they looked like (without the black olives):

Here's my version:

Fresh Oregon Dungeness Crab Enchiladas

Ingredients:

Crab meat from two whole crabs, with some held back for our omelettes in the morning
6 good tortillas of your choice
About a cup of shredded pepper jack cheese
The leftover cream cheese/cheddar cheese/jack cheese/chorizo mixture we stuffed the jalapeno poppers with (cooked crumbled chorizo, grated cheddar, jack, and some light cream cheese to make it spreadable)
1 cup half and half
1/2 cup light sour cream
1/4 cup melted butter
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
1/8 cup chopped Italian parsley
2-3 tsp. roasted garlic powder
1 8 oz can of salsa verde enchilada sauce
1 cup or more of chopped spinach

Preheat oven to 350.

Shell all the crabmeat. You might wanna start this first, and start the oven preheating after the first crab.

Lay out your tortillas and spread the jalapeno popper leftover filling mix equally among them…I had about 1Tbsp per tortilla (these were large enchiladas). Then put a bunch of crab meat in there, some chopped spinach, and some grated pepper jack. Roll the tortillas up and place cozily in a rectangular baking dish.

For the sauce: in a saucepan over medium/low heat add half and half, sour cream, and butter, and melt together slowly over low heat until just warm. Add chopped cilantro, parsley, garlic powder, and salsa verda enchilada sauce. Stir to combine, then pour over enchiladas. Sauce should come to the tops of the enchiladas, and if it doesn't, mash them down a bit with a big spatula. Top with extra grated pepper jack and cook for about 45 minutes at 350.

Garnish with chopped green onions and sliced avocado and serve. These enchiladas were quite possibly the best enchiladas I've ever had. Honestly.

Here's a shot of the stuffed jalapenos before the brown sugar had completely melted. They look kinda nasty, but they were fabulous. We cooked 'em on the Traeger for about two and a half hours at 225. They were smoky and super tasty!

I think next time we'll try brushing them with a little of our bourbon-barrel-aged maple syrup.

Sea Perch at Yachats, OR

Laura Domela — Sun, 26 Jan 2014 22:58:48 +0000

We stopped in Florence on our way north to visit with my great aunt Zelma (101 years old) and her daughter, Dolores (my second cousin). It was a short but very nice visit. At 101 years of age, I really need to get in all the visits I can with Zelma!

Now we're making stuffed (bacon-wrapped) jalapenos on the Traeger, and crab enchiladas for dinner, listening to the sound of the waves, and about to be sipping a martini. We're parked oceanside at one of our favorite spots on the Oregon Coast: Sea Perch RV Resort, just south of Yachats. The last time we were here was last May, doing a story with Coastal Living magazine (which I think is scheduled to publish in April 2014!)

Southern Oregon Coast

Laura Domela — Sun, 26 Jan 2014 00:13:38 +0000

Wanna know how much stuff we just packed into our last day here at the bottom of the Oregon Coast?

1. Drove down towards Brookings, OR and stopped to check out the campground at Harris Beach. This campground looks amazing and it's now on our list of places to stay next time we come through. This is Harris Beach:

2. Then, a 1.5 mile hike in the northernmost coastal redwoods near Alfred Loeb State Park:

This place is like a fairy tale, with the occasional huge, old growth redwood.

3. Then we headed into the Port of Brookings to find some lunch. The fish & chips place was closed (what??). I consulted Yelp for the next highest rated place and found a spot called Zola's Pizzeria, so we caved and had pizza for lunch on the Oregon Coast. But it was some fantastic pizza!

While we were eating our pizza, two ladies were at the register ordering their lunch. They each said they wanted a glass of Chardonnay with their lunch. The cashier asked, "House chardonnay, or Coppola?" The ladies answered "Coppola. Could you put a couple of ice cubes in please?" Ummm, so why bother getting anything other than house chardonnay if you're just gonna put ice cubes in it? That's my question.

4. Oh and guess what else was going on down at the port today? CRABFEST!

We wandered around a bit, bought some local homemade salsa, watched the crab races (crab races!!!), and then picked up a couple of cooked crabs.

Crab will be for dinner tomorrow night because we're both too full from pizza to eat dinner tonight.

5. Before we left the port we drove around along the river (the Chetco River) over where it meets the ocean, and we noticed a couple hundred people hanging out on the jetty watching something.

Turns out a fishing boat went aground (or sank?) coming into port last night around 8pm. Nothing was happening…the boat was just sitting there, but it caused a huge town gathering.

6. Next we headed North from Brookings toward our next hiking destination, and pulled over along the way to check out the "highest bridge in Oregon" — the Thomas Creek Bridge, which is 345 feet high. There's a big brown National Park-like sign advertising a viewpoint for the bridge, so we pulled into the huge parking area they've set aside and walked toward the bridge. Huh. Not a very great "viewpoint" in my opinion:

Not really worth all that nice signage. Here's a shot through the cyclone and barbed wire (but still):

7. Next stop/next hike: Natural Bridges Cove in the Samuel H. Boardman State Park and Scenic Corridor. We parked at the trailhead and headed out along the Oregon Coast Trail (another mile and a half or so).

View of one of the Natural Bridges from a bridge on the trail:

We hiked along the trail for a bit, turned around, and on our way back took the trail down to Natural Bridge Cove. Whoa.

This is some gorgeous bit of coastline down here. The hike was beautiful, and steep (especially down toward the bridges) and it gets a little hairy out over the bridges (totally gave me that squeemy feeling), but here we are (picture that open arch of water below us, and steep steep cliffs on either side of us, leading down about 100 feet to the aggressively churning ocean):

I might look calm here, but in reality I can't wait to get back up to the gnarly tree path were there are things to hold onto.

Neither of those above photos shows the certain death you'd face if you so much as slipped. Oh lordy. Kevin just showed me a photo he took while he was standing out there. Aaaaauuuugh.

But the views from up here: stunning.

I think that time we were in Bodega Bay and hiking the Bodega Head trail regularly for a week or so, when that one guy who was with his friends fell from the rugged cliffs into the rocky ocean below and was never found again…and we watched the search and rescue helicopters searching for him from our table at Gourmet au Bay…I think that really freaked me out.

8. Next, we headed to Myers Creek beach for some beach hiking at sunset. This is a gorgeous beach with big rock formations as far as you can see.

Kevin picked a good rock to jump up onto as an unexpected wave snuck up on us:

Nice sand texture:

A whole sand dollar!

This rock has a tunnel through it:

We walked another couple miles on Myers Creek beach and left just before sunset.

Number 9 will be hot tubbing at our campsite later this evening. Yay!

Hey look! It’s Turtle Rock!

Laura Domela — Fri, 24 Jan 2014 22:18:48 +0000

We went for a nice beach hike this evening. I Lucy'd out on the rocks (not too badly though…I counted only nine small ones I'd pocketed, and one of them might even be an agate. I need to learn what an agate looks like.)

Good sea foam:

When we got back to the Airstream I was standing outside the door with my camera and noticed this through the viewfinder. Snap. Airstream porch abstract.