A wee bit of hooky for me...

I went on a trip last week to the coast.  Husband and I worked out how to give Mom a belated Mother's Day present.  A friend of ours has a place on the coast, and Husband was offered use of it.  After some back and forth, Husband and friend were able to get organized, that Mom and I could go and spend a couple nights.  I, with permission, skipped work the day before we went.  Figured I would do my blog from my phone.

I forgot two items when I went over.  Binoculars, and my password to get into my blog.

AHEM.

Soooo, I will now get back to bloggy stuff... 

It was a nice trip, we went to Newport, and had a nice place to stay.  The first night was just stay in and rest.  Mom loves the chicken soup I make, so I brought a container, and I had made a loaf of Stupid Bread* to go with it.  It's a bit of a drive, so I was sort of glad we didn't go out and make an evening of it. 

I just enjoy most of the activities on the coast, so I told Mom this was stuff she wanted to do.  We ended up going to Yaquina Head Lighthouse, as she'd not seen it before.  I meant to take her to Cobble Beach nearby, but forgot.  It's a bit of a walk to get to, but it sounds like applause when you listen to the waves on the rocks!  We also went to the interpretive center, I enjoy looking at all the "educational and historical" stuff.  Obviously, there was someone who didn't.  I didn't see the girl, but Mom said that there was a teenager that was walking behind the family, nose glued to her phone.  I told Mom, that might be for the good, at least she wasn't ruining the rest of the family's time... 😞 

I pointed out to Mom one of the "Easter Eggs" they have.  From the first lighthouse keeper to the early sixties, there was a book exchange.  They would have X number of books, and then the next time they were supplied, the books would be put in a big box, there would be new ones given, and then the old books would go to the next lighthouse.  Well, they had samples of the books in a crate.  Victor Hugo, Dickens, Bronte... Star Wars...  (I noticed it right off, the docent told me it's to have the kids notice so they will pay more attention, they have sort of a scavenger hunt thing... She also said I was one of the few adults that that noticed. SIGH...)

We also went to a majorly talked about restaurant.  I won't eat the clam chowder there, as it made me sick!  But I found out they have many, many other things to eat, so I told her, if she wanted to go, I would have something else.  I ended up having a cod burger.  Mom had a cup of chowder, and... Something with shrimp?  Anyway, we finished up, and she was okay with it, but said the hype, was hype, it was okay. Not great...  My cod burger, on the other hand, was perfect, and HUMONGOUS.  I was VERY full. 

The next day, we went to Depoe Bay, and went to the Whale watching center.  I guess there was a small whale that had spouted, but I was borrowing the one of many sets of binoculars, to watch boats, and missed it!  Mom saw it, I think.  The ranger was quite sure.  The people that were all glued to the windows, not so much... Oh, well, it was still an interesting stop.

We then went to lunch, at a place we've eaten at for years.  They have changed the menu, and had breakfast until 11:30.  Erk.  We were there at 11:10.  We asked if they were serving lunch yet.  No, the only thing they have ready is clam chowder.  We both laughed, that's exactly what we'd come in for!  So, we had clam chowder.  Quite good, too.  The only oddball thing, I kept getting a whiff of maple syrup.  Turns out, the gent behind me had a stack of pancakes, and was drenching them accordingly.  Fortune would have it, it didn't bother me, just was odd to smell maple, and eat clam...

We then drove home.  WHOA BOY, do people seem to want to drive fast.  I set the cruise to 55, the speed limit on the road home, and I was needing to pull over quite often, as there were lots of people late for pole position at Indy wanting to go considerably faster.  I don't fight it, I just figure, if there's a safe spot, or I can get to the passing lane, let the stinkers by.  I was just sooooo happy we didn't go on a weekend.  We were going HOME on a Friday.  The road going in was bumper to bumper to bumper to bumper...

If I can later, I will see if I can get a picture up.  Being immodest here, but I think I took a very good picture of the ocean... I hope to maybe make it into a poster or some such.

But for now, back to the home stuff!

* I called it Stupid Bread because it was so incredibly dense.  I was making it, and the bread machine tried to commit suicide by leaping off the counter onto the floor.  After cleaning up the dough, (i.e. cutting off the stuff that had managed to actually HIT the floor, eeeewwwww... )  The dough that was still intact was set to bake.  I thought. 

Husband reset it, and it went through the whole process of raise, beat down, raise, beat down, all over again.  It tasted fine, but soft and fluffy it weren't!