day 38

Coos Bay to Trinidad

Took another morning beach walk. It was much smellier than the previous day as tons of seaweed had washed up on the shore over night, but still a perfect way to start the day. Had some yogurt, showered, got things packed up, and started heading south towards California.

My friend Carlos had been telling me for a long time about Secret Beach on the coast of Oregon, and we made sure to stop there. The trailhead starts at a random pull off in Brookings along the 101. The trail goes down, down, down to one of the most beautiful beaches I’ve ever seen. The last portion of the trail to get to the beach was a steep scramble down a rock. I was totally content not going down there but Jared cheered me on and convinced me to be brave and climb down. I am so so happy he did. There were just a few other people there, Vin was loving running around, the views were incomparable, and the water felt amazing on my feet - a real highlight of the whole trip.

Climbing back up the rock was a doozy! Jared somehow did it carrying Vinny at the same time (what), and I made it up but was full of anxiety, heavily breathing the whole time. At one point I had to look at my feet to find a good foothold and saw how high up I was and almost heckin’ lost it. But we all made it up in once piece, moseyed back up to the car feeling pretty dang good.

Pulled into Trinidad, picked up some things at the store, and dropped our stuff off at our AirBnb - a giant dome with an incredible outdoor shower. We were going to do dehydrated dinner and bag salad again but couldn’t pass up the opportunity for herbed waffle cones full of mashed potatoes and brisket at the Lighthouse Grill. After eating we went for a sunset walk around town, returned to the Lighthouse Grill for some French Toast ice cream (yum), then back to the dome to get cozy.

day 37

A whole heckin’ day in Coos Bay

Woke up before Jared and took a Vin on a walk down to the beach and around the property. Bay Point Landing airstreams and cabins available to book as well as some well-designed shared spaces: a small store, a couple of lounges, a kids room with a sit down Pacman game, and a gem of an indoor pool.

Spent the afternoon relaxing before driving to the South Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve for a 3ish mile hike through the forest and estuary. Portions of the trail were on wooden docks that passed over marshy areas that were absolutely covered in what a google search has me thinking is skunk cabbage? Whatever these plants were the leaves were massive, making for a very prehistoric vibe.

After returning back to our airstream and changing, we went to the 7 Devils Waterfront Alehouse for dinner. Our server was a bit icy, but the food was pretty good, we had a window seat with a view, and we laughed a lot.

day 36

Portland to Coos Bay

Woke up a lil early and drove to George Rogers Park in the Lake Oswego area for a nice morning walk and chilly plunge in the water.

We then headed over to Cornell Farm Cafe for brunch. We had to wait a while for a table, it being Labor Day and all, but the wait was well worth it. Plus the restaurant was in the middle of a large nursery full of beautiful trees, plants, and a chicken coop so plenty to walk around and look at. I got the blackberry grilled cheese (holy wow) : sourdough, a blend of Fontina, Gouda, and Gruyère, blackberry basil Jam and arugula.

Jared and I got the car packed up, said our “see you soons” to Val, Anthony, and Rocco, and headed south to our Airstream in Bay Point Landing. We got a late start so we kept it simple eating some dehydrated dinner and bag salad while watching some freakin’ Family Feud.

day 35

A whole heckin’ day in Portland

Woke up and had morning coffee talk with Val and Anthony. Once everyone was up and ready to go, we headed over to the Hawthorne area. First stop: Fried Egg I’m in Love for some yummy music punny breakfast sandwiches. We then did some good ‘ol Portland shopping! Portland is chock-full of great shopping and void of sales tax so it’s one of my favorite places to shop. I snagged some things, most notably three statement rings. I was hoping to find a great silver ring in New Mexico but it just wasn’t in the cards for me. No matter - Portland fucking delivered. Made a stop at Seven Virtues Coffee for a pick me up, did a little more shopping, and headed home for a nap.

Woke up from our naps and got ready for dinner at my favorite restaurant in Portland - LUCE. I love love love this restaurant because A everything is delicious, and B you can get half orders of almost everything so you can try 14 things. We went a bit early expecting to wait as Luce is a small restaurant that doesn’t take reservations and it was Sunday. The restaurant gods were shining upon us, we got parking right away and got seated outside after waiting only 5 minutes or so. I always mark down what to order and keep the menu so (no surprise here) I know exactly what we got…

ANTIPASTI
marinated carrots
sweet & sour peppers
radicchio & gorgonzola suppli
farro & parmesan pie (x2 cuz i’m not an idiot)
fried stuffed olives
salt focaccia

SALAD
mixed greens with herbs,
arugula with lemon & parmesan

PASTA
tagliatelle with beef & pork ragu
fusili with pistachio pesto
rigatoni with red pepper & cream
spaghetti with garlic & chili (the star of the pastas)

DESSERT
buttermilk panna cotta with pine bud syrup (the star of the whole show)
flourless chocolate cake
plum custard crostata
ricotta cheesecake

This restaurant is special. The food was amazing, the weather perfect, the company unparalleled. A 10/10 night.

day 34

Seattle to Portland

Woke up, got Bubbs around the block, and went to Lost Lake for brunch. Jared got a country biscuit benedict and I got a breakfast quesadilla with avocado - yum. On the way to the car we happened upon a vintage sportswear store called Throwbacks Northwest. We didn’t get anything but certainly liked a lot of what we saw and had some good conversation with the crew that worked there.

We headed back to the house, and caught up a bit with our hosting friends before driving to Portland. We definitely left later than we had anticipated so we met Val and Anthony at Hat Yai in Portland. We snagged a table where we could have both our dogs and put an order in, but were promptly booted out by a surly server on behalf of a bunch of ding dongs so we took it back to the house. We spent dinner catching up and gossiping before heading to bed.