Day 22 - Pacific City, OR

The day starts with English muffins, frittata (eggs, bacon, potatoes, onions and cheese casserole), smoked sausage, homemade beer bread and fresh squeezed OJ. I love you, Craftsman B&B! During breakfast, I meet a group of pharmacy students from Seattle, and we discuss the problems of academic medicine. It turns out that in the pharmacy world, retail work (i.e., working at Walgreens) pays much better and has better hours than working at a hospital pharmacy, especially at an academic hospital. Hmmm, sounds familiar. They head back to Seattle, and I head to the laundrymat (sic). 

Soaking tub... yay!!!

The Mackintosh Room

Actually, it makes me a little homesick...

While washing my sleeping bag (why on earth does it smell so bad?!) I notice a shady character walk in. About 6ft 3’, maybe 40 yrs old, slicked back hair of indeterminable color, knock-off Gucci sunglasses, khaki hiking pants and tennis shoes. He’s not actually doing laundry, just scoping the place out. Obviously, a person to avoid. Unfortunately, I’m the only person there. He strikes up a conversation about his murdered mother in Alaska (since when is this a conversation starter??????) and invites me back to his trailer for “some killer bud and some Percocet”. Ummmm, no thanks. Seriously. Appreciate the offer, but that sounds like a terrible idea. 

Laundry (and drying of the rain fly, tent and sleeping bag) complete, I head up the Three Capes Loop to the Tillamook Cheese Factory. Unfortunately, there are only family sized blocks of cheese and hordes of people at the factory, so I have some ice cream and drive down to the road to the Blue Heron Cheese Factory. Lovely! It’s missing the intense tourism of Tillamook, and has cheese tastings (free!) and wine tasting ($2). Perfect! At the wine bar, I  chat with a couple from Idaho (they recommend visiting a place I’ve never heard of called Craters of the Moon National Monument), and another couple originally from Ohio (They start yelling O-H!!!!!). I inform them that I am a Michigan fan (which I’m sure sours their day, but one must have standards) and chat with the bartender (sommelier?) about Olympic National Park, my next destination. “Don’t go there, you’ll get soaked with rain! Go to the San Juan Islands instead. Orcas Island, Moran State Park!” I purchase some wine, French bread, homemade prosciutto, buttermilk bleu cheese and head back to the B&B to eat my lunch.

Views along the 3 Capes Loop

More views

Orcas Island. Hmmm. Don’t like to camp in the rain. Skip Olympic and head to the San Juans? Too many decisions. Need to finish bottle of sparkling Riesling. First glass sooooo good. Second glass better. Third glass, where are my socks????? Fourth glass YUMMYYYYYY! Fifth glass SO SLEEEEEEEPPPPYYY!!!! HAPPPPPPEEEE!!!! And take a LOOOONNNNGGGG nap.

Dinner – most places on the Oregon Coast are closed on Monday and Tuesday. My only option is the Sportsman Pub and Grub downtown. It looks like Clintonville Tavern from the outside (and from the inside, come to think of it). I order the last of the fried oysters (caught off of Netarts just up the road… BTW, does one CATCH an oyster? It’s not like they run away or anything). I ask the bartender about the upcoming tsunami drill tomorrow. Turns out that this is a sore subject amongst the people at the bar.

They forgot to include the trail of feces streaming from the person running up the hill.

 “Yeah, when they had that whole Japan thing, the whole town walked up the hill just to see nothing” replies a mulleted, Beer-labeled ball cap guy. 

“Well, wouldn’t you rather see nothing than something?” I ask

“Well, they give us a 15 minute siren, and it takes me fifteen minutes for me to walk from my house over to here”, replies another man (sporting one of the heaviest beards I have ever seen. He looks like a demented Santa Claus). 

“But if your life was on the line, I’m sure you could make it in less than 15 minutes?” I ask.

“Naw, wouldn’t want to spill my beer.” Laughter all around.

OK. I drink another Mirror Pond while they continue to argue about which parts of town would flood in a tsunami and how high the waves would have to be to get above the dunes. Good times. And the oysters… delicious.