I Missed The Whine Festival.
Well, I really didn't GO to Newport to see the wine festival, it just happened to be occuring during part of my spontaneous get-out-of-town time. Damn good thing too, coz if I HAD been attending smack dab in the middle of the wine festival, I couldn't have gotten my bootiful room with the ocean view. I like to travel in the winter, and other off times because I have first pick of everything. And if you didn't schedule months ahead, you did not have a room for said whine festival.
The whine festival was to be set up over by the docks, on the South Beach side like. It was a bad sign when we noticed that they really didn't have any extra parking, and all the surrounding businesses had signs out that said "no whine festival parking". Unfriendly bastards. Other signs said "no drinking outside". Oh, so they expected trouble too. Great. Think we might skip this one.
We departed from our driving around to get a hotel room. We stayed at the Shilo Inn this time. Not at the main building but in the side building. We picked this section out for really no good reason at all. The view was nice enough, especially on the balcony/deck part. The rooms were a little older, little more run down than we expected, compared to other Shilo Inns, but the managers and desk people were especially nice and the rooms were very clean and cozy.
We drove up to Lincoln City and hit a few of the outlet malls. I bought a pile of shirts for the ever growing Derek. Silicone cooky sheets. A new spatula. We mistakenly ate lunch at what once was called something like "The Newport Inn". They had motels right next to the establishment. They used to be a slightly older but good greasy spoon family restaurant. Well, they have now changed it into a Mexican food restaurant. The place was pretty clean and our waitress really nice. But the place was empty. For a reason. The tortilla chip snacks were fried in old, rancid oil. The salsa was like .. and I shit you not about this, 4 small pieces of tomato and one piece of onion in pure water. It really, truly sucked ASS. The food was insufficient in quantity. The rice tasted burnt, the beans were too many. All in all, not a fun deal. And the place was kind of weird or something too. I couldn't wait to leave.
We walked a bit on the beach and picked up many chinese hats. We went shopping for chips and hippy juice. We went back to the hotel and played with all the appliances, jumped on the bed, and watched the waves. Then we perdied up for dinner and walked up to the lounge. Where of course they have a most breathtaking view of the waves. I drank a couple of coffee nudges, Mr. Wyrd stuck to bourbon and cokes. Mr. Wyrd gave Mr BlackJack 20 bucks. Then we had dinner at a window/oceanside table. Mr. Wyrd had a bowl of clam chowder (good but too cold), and a dinner salad, which was amazingly yummy looking and huge. I had a Monte Cristo, because I was feeling adventurous, which was a hot deep fried sandwich with various meats and swiss cheese in it with french fries. I couldn't eat it all. Yeah, I dressed up, went to a fancy smancy place and ordered a sandwich. I know. I'm cool like that.
Next morning we lollygagged about in our hotel room. fFipping channels, drinking coffee, eating cookies and wave watching. We finally left at about 10 a.m. It was colder than the bad place. Windy, biting cold. We went to an estate sale which was professionally run and way over priced. I bought a pile of post cards from Moscow. I like Russians. It snowed on us while we were leaving. NOT HAPPY.
We meandered slowly in the direction of home, south. We stopped at every Fred Meyers there was. We don't know why. I was looking for winter coats because my best cold weather one is a ratty piece of crap. They had none that were functional, all were just cute. I have cute. I need warm dammit. Anyway. The Fred Meyer's in Florence was by far the superior one, to any we had been to up north, or even, perhaps especially, the one we have in Coos Bay. I bought a pair of fuzzy black converse on sale for 20 bucks. Mr. Wyrd bought a shirt and something. We asked the lady there where a good place to eat was. She sent us to some little tiny place in the plaza / mall thing. We pulled up. Saw no people. Looked like a bathroom.
We left and went back to this little green house thing we had seen. Benny's international breakfast and lunch place. OH. MY. GOD. Wonderful place. Clean, and cute and warm and cuddly. I mean, REALLY clean and cute. A very extensive menu, breakfasts, sandwiches, soups, seafood and chicken strip baskets. Thai and vegan wrap meals. Pasta dishes. I can't even remember it all. Mr Wyrd had a shrimp basket or lunch thing. It consisted of eight split shrimp pieces. Fries, soup and salad. We had coffee, which was good, and they were constantly coming around with fresh coffee and soda pitchers to refill drinks. The place was packed, and the service was excellent still. I had a denver omelette with sour cream. The omelette was packed with ham, fresh green and red sweet peppers, and onions. The potatoes were home fried seasoned red potatoes. They could have fried them a minute more. My only bitch. AND I GOT A FRESH BISCUIT. And when you payed, they asked you how you liked it. Imagine that! They actually gave a shit. I believe the business is owned by yet another mexican family, with mom cooking in the kitchen with a few more helpers. I would drive just to go to this place to eat again. Really! Finding a decent place to eat somewhere is always an event.
Our winter vacation was short, but great. Peaceful dinking around together. Derek was at a Forensic meet, (I know it sounds like some dissecting of dead bodies event, but it's what they call the new speech / debate class), so Mr. Wyrd and I stole away for a quiet couple of days of alone time. I highly recommend it.
