Unskilled Labor: 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*