Oregon Coast Post Number 2 and Portland

South of Cannon Beach

We made a very good decision the next morning by taking the long way to Portland heading south to Tillamook before turning inland.    We stopped at  Hug Point State Park and had an iconic walk holding hands on the beach.  Still in love after all these years  J.  The coast starting at Ecola State Park and south is more accessible and pretty than north.

Farther south we did the tourist thing and toured the Tilamook cheese factory.   The assembly line engineering is fascinating, especially while eating Tilamook ice cream.   Linda makes fun of me, but I really think it needed to be creamier. After the cheese tour, we were out of time, so we bought some crackers and Tilamook cheese and headed inland to Portland.  We checked in to the hotel and explored the  area starting with the famous 4 story Powell’s books.  Even in this technologic day and age there is something fabulous about a good book store.

It turns out that John has had conversations with a guy named Robert Easton who has a business similar to ours renting timeshares in Cabo.   He lives just outside Portland, so we arranged to have drinks with Robert and his wife Sue.  The conversation was enjoyable and we  had a lot in common and so we decided to have dinner as well.  The hotel concierge performed some magic and got us into a place called Andinas.  It is a top restaurant in Portland specializing in Peruvian food.     It is a trendy upscale place .  Bob and Sue ordered raw oysters to start.  Linda tried one, I decided I had had enough oysters for this decade, having had the Wapala Bay oysters in Astoria .   I did try the sashimi tuna.  Don’t get what the big attraction is,however the mixure of herbs and  other crunchy stuff  with it was really good.  The traditional Peruvian beef stir fry dish was also very good.

All in all, it was a fun meal and that finished up the day for us.

Next morning, we asked the same concierge about breakfast and he suggested “Tasty n Alder” without hesitating.  That was good enough to convince us.  An 8 or 10 block walk brought us to probably the most unique breakfast place we have ever been.   My only regret is that I couldn’t talk Linda into trying the dish with kimchi with me.   Oh and Water Street coffee is not my thing.  Any  time people use the word bright or citrus in the same sentece with coffee, I’m out.  Everything else was unique and …… Tasty.