Road Trip to the Coast

We pulled back the curtains on the hotel room at Cape Kiwanda this morning to find something very much like the picture above. It was a VERY sunny and nice day for January and so Rev. Shayla, Jason and I tore that coast to pieces:

1. Cape Kiwanda. Exploring the tidal pools! The timing worked out amazingly well and we got out just at low tide. The sea receded to reveal little pocket pools in the limestone rocks that had barnacles, starfish, little anemone looking things and fishes and crabs. After that we climbed the dunes to a outlook where we spotted a sea lion swimming around in the churn. It was so pretty that Jason asked if you could be too inundated with the sublime.

We also tried little bit o' beer at the Pelican Brewery near Cape Kiwanda, which supposedly has the best beer on the west coast? They had a lot of medals. And though we just had a taste, it seemed pretty darn good.

Lida Husik - Breeze

2. Oceanside. We found a cool tunnel through a bluff and crawled through it and wondered it if was the Cave of Time from the Choose-Your-Own-Adventure series and would lead us to the beach in 1997 when I did not have a job and George Bush hadn't ruined the country yet.

Richard Buckner - (A Year Ahead)... And a Light

3. Cape Meares. Visited the stubby little lighthouse there and the Octopus Tree. Its a gigantic sitka spruce that has split into 8 or so gigantic spruce tentacles up on a ridge above the ocean. Legend has it that the tree, which is called council tree by Native Americans, was shaped that way because a particular chief put his canoes on its branches when the tree was younger and that made the tree form that way. I don't know the truth, except that it was a cool tree. I bought a box of Good and Plentys at a little store nearby. We headed on down the Three Capes Scenic Route.

Tv on the Radio - Family Tree

4. Tillamook. With about 5000 residents, it's the biggest town for many miles around. I told a handful of Oregonian people that I was going to the coast this weekend. I was looking for tips and insights. And almost everyone asked me, with a shifty look in their eye, with their voices in a slightly higher register, if we would be stopping by the Tillamook Cheese factory. People from Oregon get downright funny about this place. Sweaty palms, maybe some running in place. They sell this cheese in the Portland Airport, such is the passion of the people who have to have it when they fly far away. So passing through Tillamook we felt compelled to visit the factory and see what all the commotion was about. It being a Saturday, the assembly line was not in full swing, but we did see some gigantic blocks of cheese getting shrink wrapped. Rev. Shayla bought everyone ice cream cones. I got Marionberry Pie ice cream because it seemed a very Oregon thing to do. We also tried to buy some fresh oysters in Tillamook from a place called the Pearl Point. It's in a very old decommissioned bank that just looks like you want to rob it on horseback. As for the shellfish, all the coolers were empty, and the oystermonger said sorry, we are sold out. Rats. And so we kept heading north on HWY 101.

Devendra Banhart - Seahorse

5. Giarbaldi. This is a working class fishing village where we got up close with crab rings. Which are the regional name for crab pots. Which the rest of us call crab traps. We didn't eat any crabs. We were full of ice cream. And so we drove on a crazy winding logging road away from the coast back to fair Portland.

The Gris Gris - Winter Weather

Baconlash

For every action, there is an adverse reaction. And so we have an all-out anti-bacon reactionary frenzy.

Skatetastic!

Was it in 6th grade the last time I had roller skates on? Something like that. Tonight I went to this fabulous throw-back amusement park called Oaks Park and roller skated for several hours with a pack of scenesters. Though my legs may be sore tomorrow, tonight I feel like the belle of the Starlight Express. After a few sketchy turns around the vast wooden floor, I was able to skate more or less as well as I did in 6th grade (undistinguished) and I did not fall down. Still can't skate backwards. Or reliably steer, for that matter. I very much wish I had worn a better outfit. Maybe a tasteful gold sequin cape and pink satin stretch pants. The occasion to reclaim my skating career was brought about by Ethan Rose, a composer of eerie electronica. He recorded his last record, called Oaks, using the massive Wurlitzer organ that is suspended above the skate rink. Tonight, he performed some of those compositions live, while we swirled and swirled around under the lights.

Ethan Rose - On Wheels Rotating

Purple Rhinestone Eagle

I was in Seattle this weekend to see the friends. I happily stumbled upon a flyer for a Purple Rhinestone Eagle show and was very pleased to convince pals to come along. Purple Rhinestone Eagle is a Portland band but last night they rocked the paint off the walls at The Wild Rose, a women's bar institution right in the middle of Capitol Hill. They make self-described "rock-n-roll-pyschedelic-garage-stoner fury." They are the antidote to Ani. They made me very happy and I bought the t-shirt and the CD. They make me want to hang out in a basement under a black light and practice pentatonic guitar scales. I can't believe I don't have a basement or a black light. What has become of me?

Stand by Your Sam

So the mayor screwed up and told a pack of unsavory lies about how he didn't get it on with an 18 y.o.. Turns out he did. Oh well. I don't really care. I don't think lying about your personal life should disqualify you from public office. I stopped by city hall last night and saw a bunch of awesome Portlanders lined up for a pro-Sam rally.

Unfaithful Correspondent

I know. I've been bad about writing. There's the bacon story to tell, and a death defying stunt in a windstorm, and some other details too. Give me a minute.

Windy Bacon Catch Up

1. 105 mph gusts! What provoked the daring heroines to drive to the top of Columbia Gorge on the windiest day ever? The wind was so strong, I thought it would yank the car door off. The wind was so strong, it felt like we would get blown off the edge to our utter doom. The wind was so strong, the waterfalls blew sideways and left the hill sides all icy. The wind was so strong, it could yank eyeglasses RIGHT OFF YOUR FACE. This happened, and yet, the glasses were miraculously recovered some 100 yards and down an embankment. Lesson: people are tiny and nature is big. The wind at Crown Point was scary, but the thing that really freaked me out was seeing all the giant fir trees getting yanked around. We drove down a tiny curvy road, covered in debris from the storm, and huge trees had fallen right across the roadways. If we were in the wrong place when one of those suckers came down, that would have been it. We said the headline would read (assuming there are still newspapers being printed these days): IDIOTS DIE IN GORGE WINDSTORM. But it was really spectacular and since we didn't die, I'm so glad we went. And then fearless Greta got onto a plane in that wind and went back to LA.


2. The bacon master challenge? It was AWESOME. It went down at this big new bar near Chinatown called the Davis Street Tavern. There were two big rooms full of bacon oddities: Bacon and peanut butter icecream sandwiches, bacon wonton pockets, bacon and bourbon brownies, bacon refried beans, bacon cinnamon rolls, bacon smores. What did we make? Imagine a glazed donut, sliced in two like a sandwich. Therein, find BACON! and stone mustard and mascarpone cheese and a little maple syrup. Can you believe we didn't win??? Me neither. But the winner's dish was truly delicious and awesome. it was a little salad cup made of bacon with lettuce and a cherry tomato and blue cheese. tasty.