My Trip to Oregon-Insta Style.

As most of you know, I was out most of last week due to being away in Oregon taking a vacation.  A vacation that went by much too quickly I should add.  Vacations often seem to go by fast, but this one felt like it was over in the blink of an eye, and it left me feeling a bit melancholy in it's wake... The minute my plane landed in Salt Lake City I came down with a case of depression that still hasn't fully lifted.  I'm glad I went through, it was so much fun!

On the first day my old pal Mr.Bingo picked me up at the airport and we stopped for a quick bite before making the long trip back to Coos Bay where he just bought his new house.  The house is nice, but his yard is to die for.  I'm not kidding, I want to live in the yard forever-it's like a magical secret garden, or a forest all to himself.  Here's a little walking tour I took:

The next day we went down to the High Tide Cafe for lunch.  I decided to try their clam chowder (which was absolutely to die for) and their grilled shrimp and cheese sandwich, which wasn't as good.  It was a cute little restaurant with a lovely view of the bay though!

Then we went for a nice little hike out to try and find the lighthouse.  After winding through the forest and finding the coast, we couldn't see a way to even get over to the lighthouse, so when we got back to the house I looked up the information and found out that it was decommissioned in 2006, and the bridge going out to it was removed in November of 2012 when they turned the island the Cape Arago Lighthouse sits on back over to the Coos tribe.  The site says a condition of turning it over to the Coos tribe was that they have to eventually open it back up to the public, but there was no time frame and the removed the bridge to prevent access until then.

One of my favorite things while I was there was cooking with fresh seafood.  We went to Chucks Seafood in Charleston and got some fresh Salmon (which Mr. Bingo actually grilled with lemon and terriyaki and I watched and learned-so tasty!) and some fresh clams-which I turned into Linguini and Clams that night.  I also attempted (and failed at due to not having Baking Soda and forgetting the egg-whoops!) Cinnamon Roll Pancakes, and we made pretty good Peanut Butter Chicken Mole (I think our version still needs some perfecting though) which we ate with chips.  And of course, it was required that I make my homemade Guacamole while I was there.

One thing I didn't mind, my view while cooking.  To. Die. For.

On Friday we mostly just stayed in and watched movies and cooked due to feeling lazy, but on Saturday we went to the Charleston Oyster Festival and it was tasty, then we went hiking again and up along the coast to the Shore Acres Botanical Garden.  Also Mr. Bingo has a cat (the last owners just left it with the house because they couldn't catch it) and I convinced him to start listening to Neil Gaiman books on tape.

I hate flying, but got a pretty shot of the clouds from above them while leaving Oregon.  It was depressing being back home in my own bed, but Shawn made it better by taking me to lunch the next day!  Pho makes things better!