Saturday

Saturday, April 10

Last night, we fell asleep to the sound of the waves crashing on the shore and the smell of sea air. Ahhhhhh, yea, thats the stuff. :)

Woke up today at 730am, with a headache. Up and out by 830-ish. We set out to find breakfast. We forgot that there was no McDonalds in Gold Beach. Yeaaaahhhhh, no restaurant of any kind, let alone open for breakfast. We head down the road. 60 miles later, in Coos Bay, we score some breakfast. At 10am. Yea, hungry, and needing food for headache medicine, we quickly eat.

Last year, as we were driving up the coast, Chris, out of the corner of his eye, spied a road-side shack (literally) that had smoked salmon. He loves smoked salmon. I had never had it, so he gave me some to try .. and wow! It was so good, I was disappointed we did not have more. We were determined to find the place again and get some more. So we kept our eye out as we were driving. I thought I had found the place yesterday ... but no. We came around a corner today into Depoe Bay and Chris said, this looks familiar..... Chris and his crazy photographic memory. Not 2 seconds later, boom! Theres the place! I couldnt believe it. I was impressed, yet again, with his memory. Its almost freaky. Bah, not almost. It *is* freaky. LOL! So we get some smoked salmon and head on our way.

Our next destination today was Lincoln City. Every year, from Oct - May, the city of Lincoln City goes out and puts glass floats on the beach, equal to the current year. So this year, they are putting out 2010. That equals almost 10 per day for the eight months. I really wanted to go and search for one! Not a good idea, walking in sand is difficult, at best, for me. So we compromise and stop in at one of the official glass galleries to look for some glass floats. Ooooohhhh, so beautiful! I fell in love with three gorgeous floats. They are fragile, so I had them shipped to my house, to be waiting for me when I return. I will post pictures of the ones I actually got when I get them. In the meantime, you can check out the artist I purchased my floats from at http://www.kellyhowardglass.com/. A brief explaination of the glass floats ... years ago, Japanese fishing boats used glass floats in their fishing nets. These would come loose and float away, washing up on shores miles and miles away. Now, almost all fishing boats use plastic floats. Glass floats now are a decorative item. And some are very beautiful! I cant wait until I arrive back home to see the ones I purchased.

Our next destination was Tillamook. We were destined for the Tillamook cheese factory. Originally we planned to get some ice cream, but for lunch we had real ice cream shakes, so we did not have more ice cream. We picked up some chocolate covered sunflower seeds and squeeky cheese for Chris' sister and I got a 6-pack of jams that I had never tasted before and cannot get at home. Cant wait to try some!

Our last destination, and where we planned on staying for the night, was Seaside. We needed to pick up a hoodie for Chris' sister. I saw a sparkly one, and yea, I had to get it. Love the sparklies! Seaside was packed, it almost looked like summer time! We tried one hotel and they were sold out, so we headed on down the road. Several years ago, we stayed at a Red Lion in Astoria on the Columbia River. We headed there .... and were out of luck. They were closed for construction. So we chose a Best Western, also on the Columbia. We sort of have a river view. It works for the night!

No rain!