On the Road Again: South Beach Fish Market (Newport, OR)

Alright, one last road post and then you're safe for a bit.  This isn't really the road trip time of year, after all.

After a somewhat disappointing hike around Cape Perpetua (Thor's Well wasn't being very impressive even at high tide, and the youngest member of our entourage tripped on a downhill trail and shredded both her knees), we dropped Miss Golden Rule back at the hotel to relax and listen to the Ocean.  Meanwhile, her kid and I went in search of sustenance.  After a quick stop at Walgreens for first aid supplies, of course.  Across the Yaquina Bay Bridge from Newport is a little unincorporated area known as South Beach, which is where you can find the South Beach Fish Market.  Don't kill yourself plugging it into your GPS, the signage makes it very hard to miss.

Bonefish Grill

One of the things you have to get used to living in a landlocked area is that there's generally not a truly superb seafood restaurant.  Oh, you can find fish and chips and other fried stuff.  Plenty of salmon to go around, too.  Lots of stuff drowning in sauces.  Crab cakes.  Shellfish.  But nothing like you'll find a relatively short drive Northwest.  Still, you make do with what you have, and one of the things we do have is Bonefish Grill.

Treats and Tragedies on the Road: Oregon Coast Weekend Day 2 (La Maison, Tillamook Creamery Cafe, Local Ocean Seafoods)

Deja freaking vu.  I spent two hours on this post the other day, and when I went to publish it my browser crashed.  Apparently whatever the glitch was that caused the crash was also preventing the auto-save from working, so the entire thing went *poof*.  I guess I could have started over right then when it was fresh in my mind, but I went and bought a bottle of gin instead.  So, this probably won't be as eloquent or verbose as the first time I wrote it since I'm feeling a little impatient at the moment, but then again it's going to be a long post anyway so maybe that's a good thing.  We now return you to my normal blathering.

I go out for breakfast less than any other meal, which is surprising when you consider how much I love breakfast foods.  Of course you can get them at places like IHOP or your friendly neighborhood truck stop all day and all night, but it's just not the same.  Unfortunately I'm just not a morning person...except on vacation, when I tend to rise with the Sun.  There was no debate about where we would be having breakfast; a mutual friend told us we NEEDED to go to a particular place.  That's how it was worded, "you guys need to go".  And I wasn't about to argue with her, because she's taller than me and would just bop me on the head.

Treats and Tragedies on the Road: Valentine's Weekend in Seattle, Day 3 (Pike Place Market Grill, Nordstrom Grill, Beecher's SeaTac Cafe)

Last day (well, half day) in Seattle.  Everyone was raring to get out of the hotel and cram in some last-chance fun.

Well, everyone except Cousin It...

Okay, I'm exaggerating a bit.  After two straight days of constant walking, we were feeling a little sore, tired, blistery, etc.  Mentally though, we were still mostly excited.  Mostly.  Luckily mind prevailed over matter, so we put ourselves together, checked out of the hotel after once again having our bags thrown into the storage closet, and headed to...where else...Pike Place Market again.

Treats and Tragedies on the Road: Valentine's Weekend in Seattle, Day 1 A.M. (Pike Place Market)

The roommate and I rarely see eye to eye on the subject of music.  It's impressive enough when we find a song we both like, but an artist?  That's almost unheard of.  Hozier is such an artist, and when we found out he was going to be playing in Seattle (a city we also both love) on Valentine's Day, going was a no-brainer.  Since it was thisclose to the older kid's birthday, we would obviously have to bring her along, and since the younger child didn't get to come on last year's Seattle adventure we brought her as well. Both the kids love Hozier much as we adults do, and it would be the younger one's first concert!  We debated over what time of day to leave for a bit; it would be cheaper to take a later flight and we'd get there closer to check-in time at the hotel, so that was my initial vote.  The roommate pointed out that taking the earliest possible flight meant we could do breakfast at Pike Place Market.

This was an evening picture, it was light out when we arrived.  Mostly.

Memorial Day Weekend 2014: Day 3 - Newport, Tualatin, and back to Portland (Fishtails Cafe, Panera Bread, and more Voodoo Doughnut)

My alarm went off at 6 am.  Not exactly the most sensible thing for someone spending a single, relaxing night by the ocean, but I didn't know if the morning crowds were as bad as the evening ones at the local restaurants.  I love breakfast food, and don't go out for it anywhere near as often as I would like because, well, I loathe getting up early.  Yet here I was, doing it on my vacation, and all because someone on my Facebook page happened to mention an eatery that I had already been kind of interested in while I was griping about my disappointing dinner the previous night.

Welcome to South Beach...

Memorial Day Weekend 2014: Day 2 - Portland and Newport (HK Café, Ocean Bleu at Gino's, Nana's Irish Pub)

Sunday morning was kind of a blur.  We got up, got ourselves together, went to look around the awesome Safeway Sis and I had spotted the day before (yes, I get geeky about nice grocery stores), get some coffee, then we checked out of the hotel and headed off to break my three year dim sum fast (I'm not counting the handful of selections available here or the occasional Asian market freezer purchases).

On my first trip to Portland as an adult back in 2010, I did a lot of research on the available dim sum places.  The big contenders at that time were Wong's King and Ocean City.  I ended up choosing Wong's King, loved the experience, went back again the following year, and it would have made sense to go back there on this trip as well.  But of course, I'm me.

Saint Lawrence Gridiron 2: Gridiron Harder

Food trucks making the jump to "brick and mortar" restaurants has become something of a trend lately.  I can think of four so far this year.  Unfortunately, about half the time they seem to junk the trucks when the restaurant opens, which surprises and saddens me.  I mean things are just starting to get more interesting for the truck scene, and we're losing some of the better trucks!  Still, there was one that I've known for a while now would not survive; the limitations of truck cooking were simply too confining for the imagination and ambition of the man running the show.  Since the title of the post kind of gives away who I'm talking about, let's just get on with it, eh?

Lucky Fins (Meridian)

Seafood in the Treasure Valley is kind of hit and miss, which results in a lot of imported, previously frozen fish on local menus.  Now I love fish and chips and sushi as much as the next guy, but I love a good piece of simply prepared fish just as much.  So, when I heard all the buzz about Lucky Fins, I put them on my to-do list.  Not to overuse a phrase, but my experience was kind of hit and miss as well.

Stan's Char-Broiled Hot Dogs (CLOSED)

I am an Idaho native.  Born and raised.  I've been able to do some limited traveling, but I've only really lived one other place.  In my early 20's, I lived in Buffalo for about two years.  Even after that, I never did understand the Buffalo wing craze (and I still don't), but there were a few other food items that I became fond of.  In 2007, about five years after I returned to Idaho, Stan's Char-Broiled Hot Dogs opened up in the Vista Village shopping center in Boise.  Suddenly I was able to get most of the things I missed about Buffalo, right here at home.

I've been eating at Stan's for years, and I have no excuse for not writing them up sooner.  I never seem to have enough time to write, and there are always a few places I've visited queued up, and every once in a while I just don't get around to actually doing the review.  Eventually I find myself looking through my pictures and realize that it's too late.  Too much time has passed, the chef has changed, I don't remember what the food tasted like...but that's not the entire issue with Stan's.  I think that sometimes I am reluctant to write up a place, because that means on to the next one.  As long as I haven't cranked out a review, I can always go back and try one more dish, take slightly better pictures, blah blah blah.  It's a lame excuse, I know, but that doesn't make it any less true.  And apparently it's a habit I need to break myself of, because it seems like lately places I've visited are closing before I get around to writing the reviews.  Stan's played a little nicer, announcing last week that they'll be shutting their doors at their current location for good on 9/1.  I'll repeat that one more time, because it's important:  STAN'S CHAR-BROILED HOT DOGS WILL BE CLOSING THEIR RESTAURANT IN LESS THAN FOUR WEEKS.  If you've been wanting to check them out but you've been dragging your feet, you might want to get off your keister.  If you're on the fence, let's see what I can do to motivate you.