Raining? Get thee to a creperie!

David loves crepes.

Sweet crepes, savory crepes, he (as I found out) will travel a great distance for a good crepe.

So...  in our latest vein of trying to find stuff to keep us busy on rainy freezing days we decided to drive to Astoria over 2 hours away to visit an old crepe haunt of his. 


We packed up Delta who seems to be all recovered from her Salmon poisoning and left home, headed out on Hwy 26 over the coastal range.  Although rainy and in spots there was snow on the road it was a pretty drive.  We passed by Camp 18 Restaurant and Logging Museum and then headed first down to Cannon Beach.

I had never been there, and David lived there for several years.  Its a very pretty little town that I guess is absolutely boiling with people in the summer time. It was busy while we were there driving around and it was rainy and cold so I could just imagine what would happen on a beautiful warm sunny day.

Besides having a beautiful beach and a population that seems dedicated to keeping their town pretty and inviting... they have Haystack Rock which is a magnificent sight on it's own.  You may recognize it from postcards, posters, or even screen savers on your computer.

Of course I am sure the professional photographers don't leave in the wires, and poles and signs like I did.  It was too stormy to make our way down to the beach so this shot is right out of our moving vehicle.  Time was wasting!  We had crepes waiting for us!  

So we then turned around and then headed north along the coast, through rains and storms and high water and finally made it to Astoria and ...

 *taa daaa* 

The Columbian Cafe!

This was a small place and the Chef Uria is semi-retired.  David remembers him fondly.  David remembers that he was the kind of chef apparently that if someone came in and ordered the chef's special but then wanted to modify it or have him add something in particular he would stare at you (with something between irritation and disdain) and tell you "No! Order something else."  He was not there and comes in on only special times now but he has left the cafe in more than capable hands.   David ordered a 'Mercy Mercy"  on the hot side which was the chef's special... you get what he makes.  I ordered a Cilantro Pesto Crepe with tomatoes, avocado, and cheese.   Oh yes... I know.   

 

First they bring you home made bread that is toasted by hand along with a tray of a selection of jelly and relish.   There is a garlic jelly, jalapeno jelly, cayenne jelly, and then a sort of salsa/tomato relish.  

It is a small place so we were sitting right behind the chef while he made the dishes on the grill right in front of us.  

The ingredients were very fresh and sitting right there on the counter waiting to be used.

There is an art to crepes and not only did the chef not use a specialized pan or convenient crepe cooker contraption of some kind... he made the near paper thin crepe on the flat grill.  The chef used a little T-shaped stick thing to swirl and smooth it out very thin.  

You may note that I wrote crepe... singular.  Turns out while the chef's special when Uriah was cooking was ALWAYS some kind of crepe.... it was not so with this chef.  Oops!  David's "Mercy Mercy" order did not involve a crepe at all!  His dish was wonderful but I ended up almost giving him half of my crepe as this whole crepe adventure was his idea in the first place.   He was disappointed but not too badly.  He ate part of mine and he truly enjoyed his order even sans crepe. We wandered around town a bit and then headed home.  It was a long rainy day but we had a great time and it was a nice break from sitting stuck at the course waiting for a golfer to show up.  Good fun!

We have been doing some other things to keep busy during this rainy freezing time of year... one of which includes a little round ball.   The Miami Heat was in town so we went to the Blazers game to see them play. This was the second game we have gone to since the rains started... the first was the Blazers v. Orlando Magic....   I wanted to see Superman.  The arena is a nice size, and people participate in the different games and stuff that goes on during before and in between play.  

There is a Ford Blimp Car that floats around that someone steers remotely and it drops envelopes with money in it every once in awhile.  Our seats are actually up too high to play along with this game... if the car came up into where we are seated someone would grab it so it floats around over the lower seats and drops the cash.  We just get to watch people fight over it.

 

I am not real sure about who books the half time entertainment though.  The guy at the first game we went to was a contortionist who could dislocate joints and turn himself inside out in freaky ways.  People would hoot, and holler, moan and groan to watch him twist himself in unnatural directions.

Then the entertainment during this game was two bald guys painted gold wearing gold panties who very slowly did acrobatic stunts off of each other.  When they first started and the music started pulsing some guy behind us yelled, "THIS IS NOT EUROPE!"

Finally.... ever see what happens when a 

bald eagle meets a duck mid-air?

*POW*

Duck-by-products

That was all that was left after that mid-air collision.  

Looks like a down pillow exploded near the 8th green.

 

Holidays

I hope your holiday celebrations were filled with happiness, friends, and family. Our was very nice although David and I did not spend it together this year. I believe it is the first Christmas we have spent apart since we have been together... for geez... what is it now 7ish years or so?  Sumthin‘ like that.  We have the golf course right now and that is traditionally an active day on golf courses if the weather holds out.

People are off of work, out of school, and have family visiting.  So David could not leave it. 

 At the same time, I was so close to my family I could not pass up the trip to see them this holiday season since I have missed the last few years... and in particular I wanted to see my daughter and wily Grandson.

I had a wonderful visit with the family.  Everyone is doing great. As for the gift giving part of the celebration we draw names around Thanksgiving to narrow down our shopping lists and then exchanged our gifts Christmas morning.  

My brother-in-law Jeff drew my name and with a bit of detective work he found a necklace on Etsy that I had my eye on and that was his gift to me and I love it.









I had my Mom’s name and picked her up a few things and a book she has been waiting for... she was especially pleased with the book and has already finished it. 









There was almost an international incident as the Xmas tree tried two or three times to tumble over onto the party but Grandpa and Ave saved the day!  They just propped it back up and we simply laughed about it, and partied on.  TIMBER!

 Donovan is a busy bee.  He ran all over the house and is learning to bite. I know because he bit me... he has some pretty nice chompers that he uses on me... his Mama,  and of course on chocolate raisins.  He also climbed the Christmas decorating ladder and let us all know about it ...

and had a great time opening his presents even though his favorite toy was the wrapping paper tube! 


He got some full on Jedi Knight action with that thing until it fell apart and he started eating it. 

 His mother got him a little truck that plays music and/or honks when you push buttons on the top.  Best of all one of the button plays the song... “Funky Town”  and he REALLY enjoyed that and would do the baby dance whenever he could get it going good. The baby dance at this age consists of shifting and bouncing back and forth on his feet and then once in awhile throwing in a shoulder/back twist.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 The drives down to California, and back home again were (thank goodness) uneventful and I decided to travel down Hwy 101 instead of I-5 because of the snow in the mountains.  On the recommendation of my sister and brother-in-law Jeff I also decided to try a couple of audio books.  I downloaded one off of Amazon (via audible.com) and the other from the iTunes store and found I really enjoyed listening to them on the trips.  It was super simple. I downloaded them and then burned them onto discs. 

Then for the very first time I learned just WHO committed the Murder on the Orient Express as I was driving through the Emerald Triangle.  Very exciting!

I was very glad to be home... David missed me and I missed him.  He just about overdosed on frozen burritos and Delta was starting to not be interested in eating her food.

Turns out though, Delta was not moping.... we found out after the fact but she had snuck a dead salmon out of the creek.  In case you did not know... eating dead salmon can kill dogs and is a big issue here in the pacific northwest.  She got sicker and sicker and it was getting hard to get her to eat. We did not know what was wrong at first but when she just stopped eating all together we said enough... there is something really wrong.. and took her to the vet.  Turns out she had salmon poisoning.  Very treatable if caught in time... but if not 90% of dogs will die from it.  Apparently, domestic dogs are the only critters who have an issue with salmon poisoning. Not wolves, foxes, coyotes, cats, raccoons, bears... only domestic dogs and the story is that once they get it and if they are cured they supposedly won’t get it again. 

The salmon eat a snail, the snail has these fluke egg things in them... so the dog eats the salmon and the flukes hatch inside the dogs.  And she was pretty sick.  IV fluids, antibiotics, floppy like a rag doll sick.

It has taken a couple days and we have had to become tricky with her medicine  (hiding it in a spoonful of ice cream) but she is much better and is slowly starting to eat again.  It broke our hearts to see her so sick she is really a tender sweetheart of a girl.  She gives us a lot of love.

Beautiful artwork by Artist & Author Jackie Morris

We are so glad to have her back on track now and feeling better each day that is passes.

Just one more additional story that made the holidays... oh so special.  I went to go get some supplies from the store because we had a small tournament lined up for Jan 1.  The supplies included a few cases of beer.  I set them up on the counter and with my head down I was continuing to unload the cart.  The woman behind the counter grabbed the beer, scanned it, then said “I am going to have to see your...” and I turned my head to listen to what she was going to say.  She looked into my face and said, “oh... never mind.”

OUCH! 

I wailed, “OH MAN!  The timing of that!  You could have finished the sentence... Geez!”  She said “oh no.. no.. no... that's not what I meant.  Um... you just seemed to be in a hurry so I was not going to have you get your i.d. out.” 

Not a convincing recovery but I will take what I can get.