*it’s late, or very early depending on how you look at it. don’t hold the grammar and/or spelling and/or sentence fragments against me.*
Holly and I went to Oregon for a break from the daily grind. I believe that sort of thing is called a “vacation”. We started on our little adventure back on February 27th.
I hadn’t been on a real vacation in years. It felt great to get away from it all. It felt great to get to spend so much time with Holly.
We were staying with her parents at their timeshare in Newport. It was pretty much a house. Two bedrooms, two and half bathrooms, and the rest of the normal rooms. Considering how the weather was it was great to being staying somewhere warm and dry.
Tuesday
On the first night that we arrived I was introduced to Izzy’s. I don’t normally do buffets, but come on, a pizza bar! How can you go wrong with that? After my first trip there I have to say that apparently you can’t go wrong with that. The pizza was great, and all you can eat. The only downside was that they stopped bringing out the pepperoni pizza and ventured off into a most unwelcome direction; everything had black olives or pineapple on it and some even had both. That freed me up for chicken and dessert though.
Holly and her parents were more focused on things other than pizza. I think most of them had shrimp (which in my opinion is just gross…) and the chicken was popular.
Just after we had made our move to the buffet bar a bus load of kids showed up and took over the place. You see, kids don’t have manners, they just grab. I simply adapted my strategy to match theirs, and I grabbed too.
Wednesday
We got up and hit the beach, for about five minutes. The sun was out and the sky was blue, but the tide was in and the beach was rocky. That one picture with the blue sky was taken at that beach. We bailed on the idea of a walk on the beach and continued on with our day.
Eventually we wound up at the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport. The Sea Otters were amazing. Especially old Grandpa Sea Otter. He just puttered about amusing himself as everyone looked on.
The seals were pretty cool to see. They mostly just hung out under the water swimming around. There were all kinds of them there; spotted, sea lions, grey, white, etc. I’m not sure how many of them there are. I managed to snag a rare picture of Holly at the underwater window to the seal area.
The Sea Bird Aviary was pretty cool as well. Especially when we found the underwater window where you could see them diving underwater for food. That particular section was filled with brilliant purple sea anemones. In retrospect, I wish I’d taken a picture of them.
The Passages of the Deep was quite an experience as well. It’s a section where you walk through a tube of glass/plastic/something clear and all around you there is water. Above you, beside you below you. Everywhere. One of the areas was surrounded by sharks. I have never seen so many sharks in one place in my life; not even on TV. We were just standing there and bigger and bigger sharks kept zooming past us, just an arm’s reach or two away from us. There were also some rays swimming in the exhibit.
For our dinner adventure we went to a local Mexican restaurant. It was pretty good. The beer was great. As much as I liked it I think I mostly prefer the North American version of Mexican food that I grew up with. Although the refried beans were the best I’ve ever had.
That second night was the night that we introduced Holly’s parents to the Nintendo Wii. Holly made Mii’s for each of them and in no time at all they kicked our butts in Wii Bowling. They both seemed to really enjoy the system.
Thursday
We went to the Sea Lion Caves. The cave was pretty cool. You go down 208 feet from the entrance to the cave. You have to take an elevator. While we were down there I started talking to the Sea Lions. I yelled at them to sing for me, and sure enough they started singing. It was loud!
I tried to take a picture of the Sea Lions down in there cave, but it didn’t turn out. I can’t even really describe how many of them were there. I can throw out a number like 150, but without seeing it, it can’t really be understood. Hearing 150 sea lions barking (singing…) is an interesting experience.
On the way out of the cave I noticed a sign that said not to yell at the sea lions… whoops.
We also took a little trip to the lookout that was built for the sand dunes. It was pretty cool to see the sand dunes and the evergreen trees side by side. That was something I didn’t even think could really exist. We didn’t stay too long at the sand dunes since it was cold and wet, but they were still wonderful.
On our travels through Yachats we discovered the small town marvel that is the Green Salmon Coffee Shop. We stopped for a cup of cocoa and a quick bite. The cocoa was simply perfect.
Holly went with a Mayan cocoa and I went with a Bolognese cocoa. The Mayan one was a touch spicy, which was really nice. The Bolognese had hints of orange and vanilla flavour mixed in with the chocolate and was very creamy. We both loved them.
Holly had a slice of turkey sausage pizza that tasted very good. I had a croissant stuffed with chocolate chips. Everything there was wonderful. It was far cheaper than a Starbucks and a hundred times better.
They had all kinds of crazy flavours and mixes for coffee, tea and cocoa. The place was solar powered. They also had fresh baked bread that we bought to take home. We got a whole garlic and mozzarella bread.
If you ever go to Oregon, you must go to the Green Salmon Coffee Shop!
For dinner that night we went to a place called Mo’s, which is famous for its clam chowder. Needless to say, I didn’t have any clam chowder? Who needs that gritty sea stew? Apparently the rest of the world does… I ordered the halibut fish and chips. Which was quite tasty indeed 
I’m sure everyone thought it was funny when I got a salad with my meal and I was absolutely shocked when it was covered with shrimp. I didn’t even think for a moment that I’d get a seafood salad. I was expecting a pile of lettuce with some bad dressing on it.
Friday
With the coming of Friday morning it meant that it was time to checkout and start heading home.
The highlight of the day had to be the visit to Tillamook Cheese. The cheese sampling was yummy. The ice cream was amazing. Getting to see the whole cheese process at work through a viewing area in the factory helps fill you with confidence in the cheese itself.
I think I’ll stick to buying Tillamook products when I’m shopping south of the border.
We ended up in a Best Western in Astoria, ordered in some pizza and called it a night. I was so exhausted that day for some reason.
Saturday
It was time for the last leg of the journey home. We set out mid-morning and headed for Seattle. There was no way we were going past Seattle without stopping at Racha Thai again. I simply can’t put into words how amazing their Tom Ka with Chicken Breast soup is. I tried once before when I did a review for Racha Thai. All I can say is that the soup was even better this time.
The Catfish was calling to Holly and I decided to try the Golden Halibut. It was marvellously cut and deep friend in a way that even though it was one solid hunk of halibut, it broke away in nice even chunks. The sweet and sour sauce it was served on was incredibly hot! I honestly thought by the end of the meal that my tongue was turning to liquid in my mouth as it melted.
Of course my tongue didn’t really melt, but I swear it really did feel like it was. It was still an amazing treat for my taste buds. I’m pretty sure the next time that we go to Racha Thai I’ll be ordering the Golden Halibut again.
Just a few more hours and we finally made it home.
* * *
After that great break from the working world it was hard to get up and go to work today. After I did get to work I got to read a bunch of e-mails about how this and that was broken. I don’t think I got to even touch a piece of code until just about noon by the time I updated my build and caught up on e-mail.
I celebrated my first day back at work with a solid 11 hour day… yay… In the end one of the big problems that popped up while I was gone did get fixed though. For some reason they left it for me to fix, which I found sort of funny because until it was fixed it meant you couldn’t play through a game anymore.
Still, in spite of it being nearly a 12 hour first day back, it felt good to fix something that has such an impact.
