It's Not the Beach, it's the Coast!

Here in Oregon I've often heard that you don't "Go to the Beach," you "Drive to the Coast!" And now it all makes sense... While there's a little sand here and there, there's definitely not what I'd call any Beaches! I know this because yesterday we (Kris, Jonathan & Nadia - you have been following along, haven't you?) took a drive "to the Coast."

From Salem it's about 60 miles or so, in the opposite direction from Bend, and again - THROUGH THE TREES. Trees all the way to the shore line. Trees, trees, trees...

We got a bit of a late start waiting for the Kidz, who sort of made a last minute change of plans so they could go along, and wound up arriving in Lincoln City just about mid-day. Conveniently located on the bluffs overlooking the (chilly) Pacific Ocean - is the CHINOOK WINDS CASINO where we stopped for the all-you-can-eat buffet (what else with a growing 19 year old young man).

Lunch was pretty good, a lot of choices anyway. From there we headed down the Coast to Newport where we actually went down to the water after crossing a great Bridge. Good golly, there's bridges and light houses everywhere.

And just like that our time was up, and we had to head back to Salem, as we were meeting Friend's of Kris' (Rev. Joel Brauer and wife Diane), her Pastor from Redeemer Lutheran Church, for dinner back in Portland. So after a quick change, we were off again. Imagine that - in Salem, the Capitol of Oregon with over 100,000 population, we have to go 40 miles to Portland to find a decent restaurant. Well, not exactly, as I found out later in the evening Joel & Diane actually live in (or near) Portland, so it made a little more sense. Of course here on the Mainland, everybody seems to think nothing of driving 30~40 miles for whatever reason.

But, I have to say the drive was worthwhile as we met at SERRATTO'S, a mostly Italian place with an excellent menu of which between us we had pretty much everything, from Pizza, to seared Scallops, to Boar's Head Pasta, to roast Duck and several extras. I don't think there was anything that wasn't savored to the max.

And so after an evening of lively conversation and being overly stuffed we headed back to Salem. Wednesday's going to be a "lay day" with nothing much to do but a few "chores" and a late afternoon lunch & Movie - we're going to see "Alice" (what else?) Clear skies and fairly "warm" (well, it was over 50 OK) so the weather's still been great.

"Don't worry about the world coming to an end today. It's already tomorrow in Australia." - Charles Schultz