Red Queen Theory

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We took off from Seattle last Friday morning and headed down south. Traffic conditions were good, so we arrived in Portland around noon, had a tolerable lunch at a downtown Thai place called Bangkok Palace, and went on a shopping spree. When we left Portland for the coast, it was 5PM and possibly the worst time to be on a highway in a major city. Traffic was so bad, the jam was so long, and the drive was so boring, that several times I felt like falling asleep. But eventually I made it onto US-20 at Albany, and from then on the scenery gradually got better.

It was too late to do any sightseeing when we got to Newport, so we headed straight towards food.




Cafe Mundo was a weird & awesome place. It harbored a multitude of exotic items from various cultures: a buddha head, a Japanese tumbler, paper lanterns, Indian sarees, photos of the coastline, African drums sets, Christmas lights, and....

colorfully-painted tables with colorfully-dressed old ladies:



....and a country music band:



....and night blooming cereus that happened to blossom precisely on the night we were there!





....and of course, me:



More specifically, a HUNGRY me:



That albacore burger was delicious. I'm usually not into seafood, but the fish was fresh, and they put wasabi mayonnaise in the burger, so it was really, really good~!


The next day we got up and was greeted with an overcast sky and chilling wind. We were unlucky with the weather :-(

I recently visited the Yaquina lighthouse and its nearby tide pool, but that was in March, and back then the weather was worse and there were no flowers.



This time there were also a ton more birds nesting on the rocks near the shore:



The rocks were stained white by the crazy amount of bird poo up there....yuck.

We went down to the tide pool and took shots of the mussel bed:



The mussels look gross when there's this many of them. It's almost like it's a garbage dump of mussels....but they're tasty if harvested fresh and immediately steamed with garlic and broth.....I know, cuz I had them in March. Wasn't from this tide pool though.



The starfish here are very fat. It must be because there's so much mussels for them to eat.



I don't know what that green tube-ish creature is, but that starfish had it between its legs (correct - its tentacles...?), and it almost looked like the starfish was going to do something embarrasing to it (ex: eat it?).



Not sure what these are....




The Yaquina lighthouse is open for touring at noon, and we of course took the chance to climb up the 104 stairs.



The keeper (or just the maintainer) explains how the light used to be ignited by burning lard. Lard was chosen as fuel because whale fat was too expensive.



Like the other lens from the nearby Cape Meares lighthouse (which I visited later), the keeper here said that the lens was made in Paris, France then shipped to Oregon. Couture lens?



Climbing back down....




After Yaquina, we had lunch at Wildflower Grill in Lincoln City. The restaurant is situated right next to a small pond, so the view was beautiful and calming:






And it was fun to observe two kittens crouching in the grass, their ears pricked and gazes fixed, as if they're preparing to pounce on some ducklings or birds.






After lunch, we took the scenic route to Cape Meares. There was another lighthouse there, but much, much smaller and less interesting. Things worthy of note here were the natural caves that you could observe from up above:



And a squirrel that was daring enough to eat dried cranberries out of my hand. I know it was wrong but it was fun....




We took a long walk on a beach near Oceanside (part of the Three Capes scenic route), and that pretty much took away my remaining desire to visit Cannon Beach (which I visited already in March). Coming out of the scenic route took us back to Tillamook, where we visited the Blue Heron French Cheese Company and Tillamook Cheese Factory. Then towards north on Hwy 101, to a restaurant that I had set my mind on for dinner.

The place was Cafe Drina, a Bosnian restaurant in Astoria, OR. It had a nice, elegant decor.





And a friendly waiter.



But nothing is more important for a restaurant than the food they served. And the food was great. Absolutely worth the drive. We had beef goulash and some sort of veggie cabbage rolls. The plate also came with side salad and a generous amount of fresh fruit.



Then, to make sure I wouldn't fall asleep on the drive back, I ordered Sarajevo-style Turkish coffee, and Baklava to go with it.



I've had Turkish coffee before, but this was the first time I've seen it served with sparkling mineral water. The waiter explained that in was customary in Sarajevo to have the coffee accompanied by mineral water. One sip of coffee, then one sip of water. Maybe to rinse the mouth?




After the satisfying dinner (which was not only delicious but also reasonably priced - the tab was approx. 40 USD), we took US-30 west to I-5, then all the way back to Seattle. And that was the end of our two-day journey in Oregon :) Short, but fun.