Charis: The last few weeks had been pretty hectic, so we decided to take it easy and plumb in a rest day. After leaving Crescent City we ventured just over the state border to Brookings, where we found a lovely little brewery with a vegan food truck for lunch (and a lambic style sour beer that greatly impressed Derek) before continuing up to Jot’s Resort in Gold Beach.
Jot’s Resort had a hot tub and a balcony with beautiful views, so we decided to stay here for a ‘rest day’, allowing us to catch a breath and giving Derek a break from all the driving!
Our next stop was Bandon where we went to Bandon Cafe for brunch. We had a further mooch around the wharf and bought a fun pair of hippie trousers before heading up to Face Rock and looking at the beautiful remains of the drawings on the beach. Circles in the Sand is an art project now in it’s 10th year which sees locals and visitors rake very large winding labyrinths in the sand. We missed it by one day but high tide had not quite erased it all yet.
A little further north we stopped at Shore Acres State Park to look at all the sea lions on the Simpson Reef and listen to their barking! Also in this park is the restored formal gardens of an estate house built by a timber baron and shipbuilder. We did a quick stop in for a soup and cookie at the Tin Thistle in Coos Bay.
Our home for the night was The Drift Inn in Yachets, where we stayed in the fabulously painted Mermaid Haven room. We were treated to some live music during dinner downstairs. Just next door Whale Park provided another bit of whimsy with it’s fountain erupting every minute or two.
Dinner was followed by a sunset walk on Yachats beach where we saw our first bald eagle! The next morning we stopped by Thor’s Well – a nearby natural phenomenon which threw sea-water through a hole in the rocks with a boom and a rainbow!
We had further a further brief stop at the expansive Wakonda Beach, 6 miles of uninterrupted sand with not a person from horizon to horizon. A cool wind was blowing, making pretty patterns in the sand and freezing us so we moved on pretty quickly.
Then on to Newport (haha) which even had a Nye Beach! Here we saw more sea lions up close before heading on to The Devil’s Punchbowl – a lovely enclosed bay for some warm sunbathing, and turned inland to Portland.
We arrived in Portland and I could feel the end of the roadtrip almost reaching it’s end (for now). We had three nights of hotel booked, the longest since leaving Burney, giving us two full days to explore.
Two of our random finds while wandering the streets were 1927 S’mores Company and Mox Boarding House. 1927 serves hot chocolate and smores! What a business. Sadly they were out of vegan marshmallows but it certainly started setting the vibe for the city. Mox is a board, card, and table-top gaming store and restaurant. We enjoyed the sesame horchata and cold brew coffee so much while keeping Kim Joys Magic Bakery customers happy that we forgot to take any photos.
We sought out Food Fight! Grocery, a fully vegan grocery store. It was exciting to browse, but mostly expensive, so we stuck with the soft serve ice cream which Derek said was as good as any he’d had as a kid.
Derek: Powell’s is the world’s largest bookstore in the world with over a million new and used books. We spent an hour and a half browsing and only the weight of our bags kept us from buying a dozen each. We do have e-readers with us and left with long wish-lists. Charis particularly enjoyed the collection of quilts celebrating pride month.
Continuing our search for live music we had some tasty lunch at Veggie Grill and caught the Noon Tunes performance by the Crooked Corner Band in Pioneer Square. We had breakfast one morning at Harlow and Charis had a chance to try American biscuits and gravy. The gravy had a complex and scrumptious tempeh base! My pesto garden “scramble” included a whole variety of root vegetables and kale, we were well pleased with everything.
I wanted to do a really local activity and see some of the weirder side of Portland, something they’re quite proud of an eager to preserve as the city absorbs many more people, and found the Secret Roller Disco. We rented skates, took a quick safety lesson, and joined a crowd of happy people doing laps around a high school playground with a DJ providing the tunes.
Charis found that the Lan Su Chinese Garden was hosting the Bu-Tai-Tian Dessert Night on the Friday evening. We went along and were treated to tastings of ~13 local restaurants’ small dessert options, as well as a rogue wine and beer offering. The garden was opened in 2000 as a collaboration with Suzhou, Portland’s sister city in China’s Jiangsu province. I was very impressed by its architecture and landscaping.
Our next stop is Port Angeles in Washington state, but I couldn’t help but add a short (hour and a half…) stop in at the VintageTek museum at the Tektronix headquarters just outside Portland. Dave Brown, employee for 35 years and President of the museum, and I worked our way through nearly every oscilloscope and signal analyzer in the place! It turns out Tektronix was awarded several Emmys for their work on video equipment.
And now, on to two weeks living on a boat in Port Angeles!