Touring and Learning - continued

Sorry for the blog tease earlier in the week.  This is the real post - the second and final.  Thanks for suffering through more of our vacations pictures!

Day 5 - We took a lazy day on Sunday after leaving Eugene and leisurely made our way up the Oregon coast. Our first stop was a few more wineries in the Wilamette Valley - LaVelle Vineyards and Sweet Cheeks Winery. These were my two favorite wineries of the trip, and we were given a little tour of Sweet Cheeks because they weren't busy.

 Yes, please.

Sea lions!

 

Heceta Head Lighthouse

We stayed in Newport at Nye Beach that night at the Sylvia Beach Hotel. We found this in the 1,000 Places to Visit book and also read about it online. It is the book lovers' paradise - no tvs or phones, only common areas filled with books and board games. Each room is named after an author - we stayed in the F. Scott Fitzgerald room on the 3rd floor. A restaurant in the basement, called Table of Content, served a big breakfast each morning. It sounds pretty cool, right? That's what we I thought...but honestly, it was just a little weird.

There were two big cats who lived in the inn, and the first thing you noticed upon walking in the front door was the smell of their kitty litter setting in the corner of the "lobby". (Not that I don't like cats, Emily! :) Just wouldn't put their litter by the front door of my business.) The rooms themselves were kind of dirty, and walking by the common bathrooms while people were showering just made me feel like I was in a college dorm again...with weird strangers.

The most hilarious thing about this experience was Brent's reaction. He was pretty hesitant about the no TV/no phone thing (especially since it was the first Sunday of NFL games), but it was around the time I made him do a jigsaw puzzle with me all evening that he was really suffering. And while we were doing said puzzle, these really weird people sat down at the table with us and asked a million questions, and made weird comments like "We're staying in the Charles Manson room". It was also during this time that a woman corrected me on the identification of a bug - I guess they are not called Giant Mosquitoes, but rather should be properly identified as Crane Flies.

What, we're leaving so soon??? 

 After we left the next morning, I realized that the guests of the inn were all 50-60 year-old women, Brent, and that German exchange student we ate breakfast with who had just hitch-hiked his way across Canada. An interesting experience to say the least, but one we probably won't do again. We like our Hiltons...ya always know what you're gonna get.

I digress.

Day 6 - The Oregon Coast and Astoria.  We had about 200 more miles to go before we made it all the way up the coast, so it was another day filled with driving and stopping, driving and stopping.  We hit the Tilamook Cheese Factory and took in some sites in Astoria, the oldest town in the west.  Or something like that...I'm too lazy tonight to look it up. 

I like cheese.

Cannon Beach

A house in Astoria - the name is escaping me right now.  It was the home of a successful merchant...he made his money in the import/export business.  And his name wasn't Art Van de Lay.

Bridge from Astoria to Washington.  It's the longest bridge in North America...or something like that.  At this point in the trip we were maybe just touring and not learning... 

We stayed in the cutest B&B in St. Helens, Oregon on Monday night.  It's called the Nob Hill Riverview B&B, and there are only three rooms.  We were the only guests and stayed upstairs in the Paris Apartment.  So nice...we loved this place.  The owner made us a yummy breakfast and served us these delightful little bear claws and sticky buns from Damma's Pastry Shop.  They were so good we drove over there and bought more on our way out of town.

Day 7 - Mt. Hood and Portland.  This was our last day of the trip and we really couldn't decide what to do.  We ended up briefly stopping at the Public Gardens in Portland and then driving an hour out to Mt. Hood for some hiking.  I'll confess - I wasn't a very good hiking sport.  I just wasn't into it...and needless to say we didn't last very long.  After another stop at a winery we went back to our hotel to just relax and pack for our flight home.

Mount Hood

Thanks for touring and learning with us!  If you ever get the chance to go to Washington/Oregon, do it!  Gorgeous.