Vacation - Oregon Coast, Gleneden Beach

First let me express that having a new job sure makes vacation much more enjoyable. I checked my email and I was done with it in less than 10 minutes. Now I probably should not have checked in the first place - old habits die hard. Tee hee.

We left Seattle Saturday morning and drove to the Worldmark resort at Gleneden Beach. We stopped briefly at the Tillamook Cheese Factory and of course the Tillamook Fred Meyer prior to unloading our packages at Gleneden Beach. Gleneden Beach for those who are unfamilar with the Oregon Coast is approximately 6 miles south of Lincoln City and 10 miles north of Newport. It is a small quaint area that feels more RV-park friendly than many other places along 101. The last 2 days we have done a lot of picture taking along the pull-offs areas from 101 including Otter Loop Drive, Yaquina Bay Lighthouse, and Devil's Churn. As I type we are relaxing from all of our hiking around and the big chinese dinner we ate at Kam Meng. In pure Oregon Coast fashion, it was nice and sunny and then...the rain came. I am sitting next to Chris at the dining table, Karen and Grandma are in and out of REM cycles, and there are a bunch of snacks all around us.

I have no idea what the rest of the week will bring, but I'm sure it will be exciting.

Delicious!

We are enjoying some crepes with strawberry sauce. Delicious! I give all of the credit to Heidi's Cottage Cheese Pancake mix (if that link doesn't work for you, try this https://ssl2.ilinkadv.com/heidispancakes/index.html). All you do is add eggs and milk, whisk, let it sit for 5 minutes, then cook. Fabulous. I cut up some strawberries earlier and the ones that were super ripe almost over-ripe (think soft and almost squishy) I put in a sauce pan with a little water, some sugar, vanilla, lemon juice, salt, and a dash of corn syrup. So some homemade strawberry sauce and insta-crepes.

All the same that isn't the only thing that is delicious. My new job - I love it so far. It is still feeling "new" to me even though I'm in my third week, but so far everyone is so nice and genuinely appreciative of the potential I bring. It is nice working in an environment, hold on...it is WONDERFUL to work in an environment where they care so much about you as an employee, not only the free drinks and snacks, but the atmosphere is so refreshing.

This past weekend we went to Yakima for the Yakima Enological Society's Platinum event. We had 19 wines, 5 courses plus appetizers...wow a lot of booze and food. It too was all delicious. We were also invited to brunch with the Sukos. Delicious. We were treated to some self-caught wild salmon from Alaska that had been smoked. Yum!