Oregon Coast Wet and Windy

We decided to take a break from things around Molalla and working on house things and ran away from home to the Oregon Coast.  We left the Fiver in Molalla and loaded up the VW Passat for the 113 miles over the Coast Range and down into Cannon Beach.  We saw lots of snow on the pass and a bit of slush, but no problems.

We arrived around 1430 and had lunch at Mo's Chowder House and had a great lunch.  We learned of another place in Newport that is supposed to have chowder better than Mo's, but we are not going that far south this trip, but will make sure to check it out later this year.

Mo's is right next door to the Tolovana Inn, where we are staying two nights.  We  have an ocean view room, and can see Haystack Rock from the veranda.  It is blowing and raining, but we knew that coming in.  Earlier this week, they got six inches of snow and it blew about eighty miles per hour here.  It is going to be above freezing, and we are here to chill--not to go on any forced marches.

We did some reading and napping in the late afternoon and went into Cannon Beach for dinner at the Driftwood Restaurant.  We had a great meal, but ate too much to try their desserts this time.  We came back to the room and Pamela beat Neil in cribbage (by three points!) and we retired to our laptops to do some blog and house related work.  We are using our Verizon 4G MiFi card, which will give us a high speed internet connection from just about anywhere.  It is nice to have it, and we are writing this blog at 4G speeds here on the Oregon Coast.

Things are coming along well with the house.  We are still hoping to sign the papers on March 22, and get into the house on March 25--the sale has to be recorded the day after signing, so that means we have to wait until the next Monday.  We are arranging painters to paint several rooms, have scheduled a cleaning of the air ducts, and will have all the utilities changed over to us on that Monday.  Next week, we do a final walk through to make sure all of the repairs have been done.

We are definitely ready to move in.  The Fiver has been great, but a real house will feel like heaven to us.  Over the past few weeks, we celebrated Pamela's Milestone Birthday at the Portland Grill at the top of the US Bank Tower in downtown Portland with Seth and Cathy Finney.  It was a great dinner and fun time.

Pamela's Milestone Birthday Celebration at Portland Grill

Earlier this week, Molalla got (what we hope is) the last winter storm and snow that left several inches of snow at the Finney Homestead.  It did not last long, and we are thankful that we don't have to go anywhere in it.  Here are a couple of pictures:

Trees with a Winter Coating at Rear of Finney's

Several Inches of Snow Left by Mid Morning and Gone by Afternoon

We have also had enough sunny breaks over the past couple of weeks for us to be thankful, including a stop at the Willamette Falls overlook where we took this picture.

An iPhone Self Portrait at Willamette Falls

We will be visiting Seaside, Oregon where Neil's Mom and Dad lived after WWII when he was teaching school and where his older brother Bruce was born tomorrow or Friday, and we hope to get down to Tillamook Air Museum as well.  We may have to visit the Tillamook Ice Creamery as well.

We hope that this finds you in good health and spirits--thanks for visiting,

Neil and Pamela