Flying Zombies: IOM and Éire, pt 1

Bend and Portland, Oregon, airports
April 14-15, 2014

This trip did not sneak up on us. We've been planning this for almost three years, and we've had a good idea when it was going to happen for more than a year and a half. Our accommodations and flights were booked four or five months ago. We've been collecting supplies for weeks. So how was it that Sunday night, just over 24 hours before our flight from Portland, showed up with us still having so much to do? I think the short answer is that the world just likes to keep us humble. 

The longer answer is that we just have too much we want to do, even if we're about to go do a whole bunch of adventurous things. We wanted to make sure to see some friends, spend time with our families (we had Charlotte over on Saturday and my Dad and Heidi over on Sunday), celebrate my mother's birthday (I had to work so this was just Griff), get

We parked next to this pink 
van when we went to 
Costco to get Griff's new 
glasses. I like it.

more supplies for the trip (actually this part was only picking up Griff's new glasses and grabbing an extra adapter on the way out of town. We did a really good job acquiring stuff in advance), clean the house, update our Adventure Book (volume 4!), and endless other things. Oh, and pack at some point.

Griff's new glasses!

We'd planned to get up early Monday morning so we could spend the day in Portland--go to the Japanese Gardens, go to Powell's and see Jason and Jyl. Then we were supposed to go to bed really early so we could get some sleep before our 6 am flight. By Sunday night it was pretty clear that plan was out the window.  It was a good thing we'd allowed ourselves so much time to get to Portland, because we ended up basically needing the whole day for doing things. *sigh* Maybe we can go to the Japanese Gardens when we come back...

The drive was smooth and uneventful, and we met up with Jason and Jyl at Powell's. They were going to take care of LaFawnda (Griff's car) for us while we were in Europe. We spent a little bit of time hanging out in the bookstore, but Shannon and I were exhausted and we really needed to get to our hotel. We caravanned over (the GPS took us over one of the most confusing routes I've ever seen--to the point that Jason actually called me to make sure he was still following us. We could have just taken the highway. *headdesk*) and said our good-nights. Moose and Mouse collapsed in our bed and slept like the dead. (We stayed in the Airport Red Lion because it was the only hotel that was reasonably priced and advertised a 24 hour shuttle. I wasn't sure what to think when we pulled up and as we were wandering the halls looking for our room--it seemed a little rundown. Our room was a pleasant surprise though. While small, the space was used effectively, it was nice and it was clean. The bathroom was very spacious too.)

Too early--3 am--our alarm went off. Yuck. We zombied our way through our morning preparations and shuffled our way onto the airport shuttle. Only then did I begin to wake up enough to really take in some of my surroundings. The driver was friendly, but most of the people in the bus looked very haughty. Then there were the two passengers in front of us. There was a thin, older-middle-age man who looked more awake than the rest of us combined, and his wife (I assume) who was probably about as large as three of him. The man talked incessantly about nothing in particular. I don't recall a single word he said, but he seemed convinced that everyone in the bus was listening to him. His wife never said a word, and seemed quite put out about it. I was so tired that they were amplified into dream characters. They seemed almost to be avatars of pointless chatter and sullen silence. Very strange. (Heh. I don't remember what he looked like but the snooty guy at the front was talking about some luggage he'd found in the parking lot. Apparently it was sitting out there, alone, for more than half an hour. Why he chose to report this to the bus driver instead of at the front desk, I don't know. He also told the story in the most confusing and roundabout way possible so we all had to listen to him talk for 10 minutes instead of 1.)

I was interrupted in my musings by the driver making a sudden stop in the middle of the road. Some drunk driver had knocked down a road sign, and our driver jumped out and pulled it to the side of the road. The Avatar of Pointless Chatter narrated, and made suggestions, never moving a muscle himself. A snooty lady in the back said how nice it was to have strong men around. An old lady said that he was "Such a nice young man." I'm still not certain how much of this was a dream. (I don't remember the ladies' comments or too much chattering from that one guy, but it was nice of the driver to move the sign that had been knocked over.)

We arrived at the airport with plenty of time. We checked our bags and then we tried to print our boarding passes. The machine printed three. Griff got two. I got one. We got a person's attention and had her check what was up. Apparently I "didn't have an assigned seat" for our flight out of Chicago. Which was weird because my confirmation email listed one. She said to check in at the gate desk in Chicago. I decided to try not to worry about it for the moment. 

We zipped through security and decided to grab some breakfast. We picked Laurelwood Brewery because they were open and actually serving real food instead of just coffee and pastries. It was okay, but overpriced for what we got. Memorable quote of the meal: Shannon said "I like making it look like I murdered the potatoes!" (i.e. I use ketchup on my potatoes.)

We found our gate and sat down to wait. This little girl saw the little stuffed panda, Pippin, sticking out of Griff's bag and wandered over to grab it. Her dad tried to call her back, but she ignored him. When he realized what the little girl was looking at, he apologized and said she probably thought the panda was Griff's "baby" because she had a "baby" (teddy bear) too. She noticed Beorn (travel pillow/stuffed bear) sticking out of my bag and she came over to grab at him too. Then she decided it would be a fun game to smack Beorn in the face. She tried to go back and smack Griff's panda, but he wouldn't let her (I was trying to convince her that it would be better to pet the panda instead of hitting it. I love my pandas and she should be nice to them.). It was odd because after her dad had determined that we weren't dangerous (how bad can we be if we have two stuffed animals?), he vanished. We weren't sure that the lady sitting in the same row of chairs was the girl's mom because she was tapping away on her phone the entire time. She never even looked up. Eventually they announced that boarding was going to start so we got up and said 'bye to the little girl. The lady, who was indeed her mom, didn't look up at her for several more minutes. Not very impressive parenting, lady.

We slept most of the way to Chicago, and felt a bit better for it. We landed early so our layover went from 3 and a half hours to almost 4 hours. We weren't in any hurry (though I hadn't forgotten about my lack of a boarding pass), so when we got off the plane and saw a dinosaur skeleton, I knew I could stop to take pictures. 

Dinosaur! : D

Then we found a departures board and started trying to find gate T5 (we came out at B1). The signs around us weren't particularly helpful so we headed towards the C gates--figuring that we were supposed to keep going down the alphabet. To get to the Cs we had to go down some stairs and along this long hallway. On the ceiling of the hallway there were rainbow neon lights that lit up to the tinkly music that was playing. It was really fun to look at. Apparently it was designed by some artist especially for the United section of the Chicago airport. 

Rainbow ceiling! 

At the other end of the hallway, the signs weren't anymore enlightening so we asked for help. The lady at the information desk directed us back the way we had come. We headed back along the hallway until we realized that there was more hallway behind the stairs we had come down. Unsure where we were supposed to go, we investigated this extra hallway bit and found...more stairs! We started up them only to realize they led out of security so we turned around sharpish and took the original stairs (luckily the security desks were unmanned so we just walked back through). 

We found another person to ask for help and they told us we needed to get to Terminal 5. We were in Terminal 1. It turns out that Terminal 5 is the international terminal and that to get to it you have to leave security and take a train. On our way to the train Griff goes, in a musing sort of way, "I wonder if they'll transfer your bag since you're not checked into the next flight." Great way to induce panic, that. Suddenly 3 hours was feeling a lot less generous. We found the train and rode until Terminal 5 (it's way the heck out there). We located the Aer Lingus desk and the lady there got me a boarding pass. My seat was even the one I was supposed to have according to my original reservation. She also said my bag would be transferred. Phew. Crisis averted. We never did find out why I didn't get my pass in the first place though... 

We got back through security and found our gate. Wandering through the international terminal was really interesting. It felt a little more upscale than the terminal we arrived in (though every single time I go through the Chicago airport, it looks different. Now that I have a better idea how big it is this makes more sense) and like it was aimed at non-English speakers. For example, the coffee place was called Kofe (though after looking it up just now, I can see that it's actually based in Chicago), instead of Starbucks or Coffee Bean or whatever. The shops were all internationally known designer brands like Armani and Swatch. I guess whoever designed the place assumes you have a lot of money if you're flying internationally... 

Griff and our mostly empty gate area. (Two
people wandered in just as I was taking this...)

Our gate was curiously empty (there were maybe two people in the entire two gate area when we showed up) so we staked out our space and then I ventured out to get some medicine. (I wasn't feeling very good--my eyes, mouth and nose have been really itchy and we were worried I might have a fever.) Then I sat down to finish my letter to Aly and compose a quick email to Dot (the lady who runs the B&B in Peel) while Griff investigated his street passes (my 3DS game system talks to other 3DSs while it's sleeping. It's called "Street Pass." If another one comes into range they basically say "hello" to each other and it tells me about it next time I turn it on. I also get to find out where the other person is from. It's fun to see the results, especially when traveling). Slowly, the time passed. 

When it came time to board, they announced that they were going to load the plane from back to front. This is so logical! How come American airlines don't do this? Is it really worth it to the Platinum Gold Gajillion Dollar Members to be first on the plane if it means being jostled by literally everyone else on the flight as we all try to squeeze past them? When Griff and I got on we found out that our two seats were along the outside edge of the plane and in a row all by themselves! Yay! No climbing over strangers to get out of my seat! (Climbing over people is one of my absolute least favorite things about flying, along with men who insist upon sitting with their legs wide open--and therefore in my space. [And yes, it is only men who do this.]) I think I should win something for getting us those seats. Plus, they were more comfortable for someone of my height. The ones in American airlines are shaped all wrong because I'm too short for them and so my back and neck are always really sore after flying much. 

Griff and I on the tarmac in Chicago

From Chicago we flew straight to Dublin. They fed us very well (the meals were quite large--I couldn't finish them--and they actually tasted okay), and it was one of the more comfortable flights I've ever been on. I think I like flying internationally better than locally. Much more care taken to make the passengers feel valued. And to top it off, the cabin manager on the flight was named Patrick Duffy. That just made everything better. (^_^)

They gave Griff two tiny ginger ales--that actually tasted like ginger--instead of a wimpy cup full.

I got the beef stew for dinner. It was okay. The salad was a little sad looking. I was surprised and pleased to see the cheese was Tillamook though. : )

Welcome 2.0

Hey everybody,

Shannon (Mouse) here! Griff (Moose) and I wanted to officially welcome you to our adventure/travel/whatever blog/blag thing. Thanks for taking the time to stop by!

A little more explanation about how things will (probably) work around here. Usually, Griff will write the posts. So when the writing is black, that's his normal narration. (If I'm writing the post for some reason, I will say so at the beginning, like I did above.) After Griff writes a post, I go through and edit, fact check and add comments in blue. If Griff has a rebuttal, or we just want you to more easily be able to tell who wrote what, he will use purple.

I also take, edit and caption the pictures. 

Forgive us our growing pains as we figure out the best ways to add sound, space the pictures, pick a font, etc. We will do our best to get the kinks worked out as quickly as possible. : )

Again, thanks for stopping by and don't forget to take a look at our (very small but still existent) archives! 

Brian Regan

The Historic Elsinore Theatre in Salem, Oregon

March 15th and 16th

Shannon found out that Brian Regan, one of our favorite comedians, was going to be performing at the Elsinore Theatre in Salem! Of course we had to go. It was in the middle of Shannon’s week though (I have a strange work schedule), so we had to do it in just two days. That was a shame, because we really wanted to visit Sharon and Dave (our adoptive parents. Sharon was also our boss when we worked for the Elsinore) for a while. I messed up that part even more, though, because my parents invited me to see an author talk (Cheryl Strayed) in Bend the next day, so this really became an over-and-back kind of trip. 

Shannon left work early that day so we could make it to the performance. We left Bend as soon as we could get ourselves together. The drive over was pretty smooth and uneventful (the best kind). We got to Salem and went straight to the Elsinore. We were early so the theatre wasn't open yet. Sharon wasn't answering her phone, so we snuck in through a secret door that I guessed would be unlocked. None of the volunteers or staff questioned us (a few of them stared a bit though). I guess we look like we belong. We asked around a bit and eventually found Sharon in the basement kitchen cutting fruit for Brian. We said our hellos, got our tickets, then got quickly out of the way so we wouldn’t bother the Reganites. Didn’t need to be making Sharon’s job harder, after all. 

We changed and found our seats. Sharon came and gave us snacks and water and then had to take care of something. Dave appeared and sat down, and then Sharon came back, but within 5 minutes they had both disappeared. They didn't get to come back until the last 10 minutes or so. I think they were running concessions. It’s too bad they didn’t get to see the show. I hope they could at least hear some of it. 

The show was fantastic. Mostly stuff I hadn't heard before, too. (This is impressive because Griff listens to comedy on Pandora all the time.) I've only ever seen videos of him early in his career, though, and he’s aged a lot. I know that seems kind of silly to say; of course he’s aged, everyone does; but it was a lot more surprising than it should have been. He made a joke about it, though. He’s getting grey on the sides of his head but not on the top, so he said that he’s turning into a raccoon. ^_^ It made me laugh a lot. (Me too.)

Sharon and I after the show. (I know it's not a great picture, I
was shooting quickly in low light and the front camera on
my phone is crappy any way.)

After the performance Shannon was hoping that Brian would come out so she could get him to pose with her "Know It All" button. ("Know It All" is a marketing slogan the library I work at uses. They gave us all buttons with the slogan on them and recently one of my co-workers and friends had the idea to have the buttons travel around with staff when they go on vacation. We're supposed to take interesting pictures of the buttons' adventures. The "Know It All" button will probably be a pretty consistent character on this blog actually...) Unfortunately Brian didn't come out to greet the crowd. (It's kind of a toss up whether the performers will come out and say hi or not. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't.) She did a photo shoot with the button in the theatre instead. I think the pictures turned out really well.

Griff holding the Know It All button up in front of the theatre.

Whee, sparkles! I was playing with the effects on my camera. I
like this one. ^_^

The Know It All button and the Macbeth wall...

...and the Know It All button and the Romeo and Juliet wall. 

Once Shannon was done taking pictures, we met up with Sharon and Dave for dinner at Denny’s. All of us except Dave had breakfast food. We got to spend some time just relaxing and talking with them, which was a nice change. Usually we’re all so busy that we’re always doing something when we’re spending time together. 

Then we all headed to their house so we could go to bed. Shannon and I were staying in their trailer. (Which we really appreciate them letting us use!) We beat Sharon and Dave to their house which meant that, while we could get into the trailer, we couldn't get to the bathroom in the house to brush teeth and get ready for bed. We ended up just sitting in the car discussing the history of engagement rings. (I kid you not. This is really what we were talking about.) When Sharon and Dave got there, we followed them inside. Shannon and Sharon ended up chatting about Sharon's jewelry and Younique Makeup business. It sounds like a really good company, but we spent a VERY long time talking about it. (Poor Griff. Makeup and jewelry aren't his favorite topics for some strange reason... :P) It was quite late by the time we actually headed for bed. 

The next morning we woke just in time to see Sharon headed off to work. (Dave left early for a poker tournament.) We said our goodbyes, packed up, went to Pita Pit for breakfast (we don't have one in Bend so it's kind of a treat now...), got some gas for the car, and headed back to Bend. I made it just in time to go to Cheryl Strayed's talk with my parents.

We're Bad At Relaxing

Lincoln City, Newport and Salem, Oregon

March 4-5, 2014

Yesterday I decided I wanted to go to the aquarium in Newport. Our friend Aly (mentioned in the last post) was also supposed to meet us in the afternoon or early evening in Lincoln City so we could see her one more time before she left for Arizona. Which meant we had to get up in the morning. Seeing as we stayed up too late the night before (I was making CDs for Aly for her drive! It was for a good cause!), that was going to be a bit painful.

However, we did manage to get up. Griff was kind enough to take the first shower and then go in search of food while I took my turn. We didn’t want to repeat ourselves with breakfast though, so we decided to try something new--Shannon found a highly rated Hawaiian restaurant on Yelp that happened to serve breakfast, and that we decided to try out.

Finding stuff while traveling is always an adventure. Particularly when GPS systems are involved. We'd had some trouble with the map app on our phones the day before. It wasn't lack of signal, it was that the GPS kept trying to send us to the wrong location, but only by a few blocks and maybe the opposite side of the street. Griff figured out that Lincoln City's address system had been programmed into the map wrong. So I had some trouble finding the place, and spent the better part of 40 minutes doing a 10-minute drive.

Eventually, though, I did find it. It’s called “Oceans Apart”, and I can't recommend it highly enough. I had some kind of teriyaki hamburger patty on rice with the most wonderful gravy, Shannon had a kind of shrimp fried rice dish. Both were delicious, plus they were reasonably priced. I've never had anything like it, and I definitely want to go back (Me too!).

We had fun with the sunglasses
at Fred Meyer though. ^_^

Shannon realized she had forgotten a belt so our first stop in Newport was Fred Meyers. As It turned out they had about seven women’s belts in the entire store, and they were all sized for dolls (I am inconveniently not doll-sized :P). I think I could have worn one for a rather tight necklace. We had better luck at Walmart.

Now that we could be sure to avoid wardrobe malfunctions, we finally headed to the Oregon Coast Aquarium. 

I saw what I believe to be my first live seahorse (as well as my second, third, and eighth), and attempted (with almost no success) to photograph one. In case anyone reading this doesn't know, I suck at photography.

I got a good seahorse pic! :D

It is a constant lament of Shannon’s that I can’t take good pictures (not really constant, only occasionally :P), so she never has good pictures of herself from our trips (this part does make me a bit sad though). Although in my defense there was another fish that kept photobombing my shots. I think he was on fish cocaine.

It's true. This fish did seem to enjoy photobombing. And swimming in frenetic circles. 

We got to see the sea otters being fed, which was adorable, some enormous Japanese Spider crabs, which were terrifying, a very tired octopus (it wouldn't come out! I wanted to take its picture. :c), and a bunch of very loud sea lions. 

Sea otter eating! : )

Our favorite, though, were the seals. One in particular. He was swimming upside down, very slowly and sedately, as if he hadn't a care in the world. I said that he was probably singing to himself. This is the Seal Song.

I know it's not a great picture, but you can kinda see that he's upside down. He was so cute! 

Griff imitating a very grumpy looking fish. 

Eel! 

This fish is creepy looking. o_O

Sea nettles

Ahhhh! Shark! This guy was one of the biggest sharks in the shark tunnel thingy. They were all so hard to photograph,
this is one of the best shots I got. : /

By this time we were starving, and decided we wanted pizza. Shannon’s favorite pizza place is Papa Johns, and the one in Bend has inexplicably closed, so we first tried to find one of those. But the closest Papa John’s was in Salem (1 hour from Lincoln City :c). So we decided to try a local place in Lincoln City instead.

Griff playing pool in Humble Pie

The place we decided on is called Humble Pie. I liked the name because of a funny song I ran across on Pandora--King of Spain by Moxy Fruvous. Humble Pie was pretty cool. They have a pool table-- which Shannon and I used while we waited for our pizza--kites on the ceiling, and a very colorful tie-dye style decor. Hundreds (thousands?) of people have written on the walls. I spent almost as much time reading the walls as I did playing pool. The guy behind the counter was kind of scary-looking, but he was nice enough and he made a great pizza. We drove back to the Surftides to enjoy it and watch some Rizzoli and Isles. I made it through an episode and a half before I fell asleep. We never did meet up with Aly because she decided to delay leaving Oregon for another day.

The next day we had to head home, but our only time limit was being home early enough to get ready for our Victorian Dance Class party (it's a really fun class. Daisy and Amy, the teachers, are very nice. You can find more info here). We decided to make the best of the time we still had. We went to the beach early, so we could still use the showers in our room afterwards. It was raining and REALLY cold and windy. I had trouble seeing after only a few minutes because the salt in the wind was building up on my glasses. Shannon wanted to take pictures of her “Know it all” button in the surf. 

La la la ♫

*sense of foreboding*

Oh no!

Auugghh... *blub blub*

Me, soaked and cold, but happy

Once she got some good ones she had me take her camera back into the room for protection, and by the time I’d done that and come back she was freezing (soaked) and ready to go back to the warm shower. I was already soaked to the skin through two layers, so I didn't mind. I’m really glad we spent some time on the beach, though. Even if it’s freezing cold there’s still something inspiring and moving about the ocean. I don’t realize I miss it until I’m back. I can almost see what the stories mean when they talk about the sea calling the sailors back.

We got cleaned up (and warmed up), and checked out of the hotel. It was sad to leave, but I know we’ll be back when we can. We still hadn't had breakfast, so we decided to try out the local doughnut shop, Lighthouse Doughnuts. They were good, but unremarkable.

Since we hadn't managed to meet up with Aly the day before, we arranged to meet her for lunch in Salem. Since she didn't know the city and had no GPS, we decided to meet at an unmistakable landmark: the Capitol building.

But of course, all did not quite go as planned. Aly was still exhausted so she got out of Bend late. Then there was an accident somewhere along the way that she got stuck behind. Griff accidentally took a wrong turn and didn't realize it until he'd gone quite a ways in the wrong direction. (I'm still not sure how he made the wrong turn in the first place. We've done this drive several times before...) It took us about 40 minutes to get back on track. We almost ran out of gas because we hadn't planned to drive so far before filling up. 

We still arrived a bit before Aly, so Shannon decided to do a little exploring. We found a little boutique specializing in vintage clothing called Then Again Classic Fashions. The owner was really friendly. We found some really interesting things there, like a couple pairs of nice dancing gloves for Shannon (in the eras our Victorian Dance class covers, one did not dance without gloves. Since I found some that fit, I jumped on them) and a horrible yellow pimp suit that Shannon thought I should buy (well, he usually has two girls with him. It would have been really funny ^_^). It even had a hat and everything. There were plenty of other silly hats to try on, too. And now I know where to go if I ever need a very specific tie. They have over a thousand.

This was on the wall in Then Again Classic Fashions

Griff the pimp

This was my favorite. He looks like a minister of some ridiculous
little country.

Sometimes I try on silly hats too

Aly let us know she'd made it to Salem while Shannon was buying her gloves, so we set out for the Capitol building. We looked around for a while, but didn’t see her anywhere. A couple of texts later we realized we were on opposite sides of the building. Shannon and I crossed through the Capitol, and I've never gotten such dirty looks for wearing casual clothes before. You’d have thought we were naked. It was ridiculous.

We found this in the Capitol Building.  It's the fanciest "wet floor" sign I've ever seen.
Your tax dollars at work? 

Once we finally found Aly, we decided to go to O'Sushi. While it was really good to see her, it was also a touch melancholy. She’d been back in Bend for a year, and we had barely spent any time with each other because we were all so busy. But we got to share stories, catch up and just spend some time together over food, and that was really nice. I was sorry to see her go, but I’m glad that she’s going to go back where she was happy.

Griff, me and Aly after sushi and right before Aly left for Arizona. <3 us.

We left Salem a bit later than we had meant to, and had to hoof it back to Bend. We ended up being a bit tardy to the dance party, but it turned out fine and we had a lot of fun.

Attempted R&R

Lincoln City, Oregon

March 2-3, 2014

Shannon and I weren't able to go on a Valentine's Day trip this year, so we decided to take a romantic trip in the beginning of March instead.

As it turned out, we really needed a vacation in the beginning of March. Especially Shannon. As everyone who's reading this probably knows, Shannon isn’t very good at sleeping (it’s not that I’m not good at it. It’s that I’m too busy). She tends to push herself so hard all the time that she usually doesn’t get more than five or six hours of sleep. We'd both been stressing out--working super hard getting ready for Europe, cleaning things, making my car work, dealing with bad weather, and just generally being adults. So we booked three nights at the Surftides, our favorite seaside hotel in Lincoln City.

The plan was to pick Shannon up from work at 5pm, come home, quickly make/eat dinner, finish packing and leave as soon as we could in order to avoid as many bad road conditions as possible. We managed to leave by 7pm, which was better than we expected (more like a record…). The drive over went fairly well. There was a ton of rain, which made it kind of hard to see the road, but there was almost no ice and we managed to make it over with no incident (thank goodness!). 

We arrived at the Surftides around 11:30pm and got checked in. (We tried to be cheap and get a partial view room but…) The only problem was that we couldn't see the ocean (at all! D:) and our room was a lot smaller than we were expecting. We like the Surftides because the rooms are nice, big, and clean, and the hotel is right on the beach. And it has a wonderful view of the ocean. So we were really disappointed. However, I actually managed to solve that problem. I went to the front desk and asked if it would be possible to upgrade our room. The lady working was really, really nice and upgraded us to a room with a panoramic view for free (granted, the hotel was practically empty…). It was awesome. Our room is beautiful. And much bigger. 

Of course, before we went to sleep, we had to dip our toes in the ocean (more like I had to. Griff probably could’ve done without freezing his feet off). Then it was straight to bed (he didn’t even have to make me go :P).

I (Mouse) was playing with
the different modes on my
camera while we chatted and
relaxed. 

The next morning we slept late and I went to get us coffee (meaning a decaf mocha for Shannon, a hot chocolate for me, and a couple of breakfast sandwiches). I found this cute little coffee shop called Beachtown Coffee about six blocks away (all uphill). I jogged over (which really impressed the coffee shop lady) and had a nice chat with the lady tending the counter. I think I’ll make a habit of going back whenever we’re in town (this is news to me… o_O). She made the best hot chocolate I’ve ever had (it was good. He let me taste it). It tasted like liquid Milano cookies, in a good way. When I got back we spent a while just sitting on our little balcony (another perk of our free upgrade) talking and watching the ocean.

The bridge

At about 2 we decided it was time to start moving and drove around to explore the town for a while. We found a bowling alley (it was closed and kind of creepy looking. The promised “arcade” was exactly five games which all looked dumb) and stopped to look at the movies playing in the tiny theater. We drove past some antique stores, the local branch of the Oregon Coast Community College (ONE building?!), and dozens of saltwater taffy stores. Then we took a short walk on the beach and took some pictures. Actually I made Griff stop at this bridge so I could take some pictures of these tiny islands with windblown trees on them. We ended up staying and wandering around at the edge of the incoming water so I could take pictures of the Know It All button and the graffiti under the bridge. Also, I found a cool stick!

The island with the windswept trees that I wanted to photograph. 

The beach we wandered around on.

The graffiti I found under the bridge. It's... kind of weird. The faded pink along the bottom says, "Peace Love 4 Ever No Hate Give Hugs."

I snuck a picture of this pretty glass
covered desk at the glass studio. 

By that point it was about 5 pm, which we normally regard as not-even-close-to-dinner time (mostly because I am usually still at work and Griff is still sleeping), but seeing that Lincoln City is a beach town, we knew everything was about to start closing. And we were hungry. We actually didn't go straight to food though. We stopped at Jennifer L. Sears' Glass Studio to poke around a bit first. Apparently they'll let you blow your own glass. (We're totally doing that next time!) We decided to try a new place for dinner, and ended up at J’s Fish and Chips. It was a little bit unfriendly (largely because the other patrons stared at us and didn’t talk. The staff was fine), but the food was wonderful (I thought it was okay. The chowder was good but had too much pepper in it. I liked the fish and chips, but of course it just isn’t McDonagh’s).

S'mores! : 

Once we were fed, we went to Safeway to get s’mores supplies, and came back to the hotel. We went swimming for a couple of hours, then used the hotel fire pits to roast marshmallows (they turned one back on just for us). It was a really nice night. We ended up staying up way too late, though. Shannon’s been working on making CDs for her friend, Aly (who is lame and moving back to Arizona to be happy. Psh.) and I’ve been playing Monster Hunter. And writing this blog post. Tomorrow might be kind of rough. We actually have stuff planned. I guess we’ll see how it goes.