Wild Coastal Charm: Visiting Newport, Oregon

Every year, Dan and I try to take a week-long vacation as a couple.  For our 2017 trip, we decided to take a road trip through parts of Oregon and Washington!

During our trip to the Pacific Northwest, we spent two nights in Newport, Oregon.  It was late May, so the weather wasn't your stereotypical summer beach temperature, but it didn't detract at all from the wild, natural beauty of the shore!

We stayed at the Hallmark Resort, where every room as a true ocean view.  It also has an adjoining restaurant, Georgie’s Beachside Grill, which even offers room service!  We dined in the restaurant for dinner, and it was absolutely packed with people.  Luckily, we were able to call ahead from our room.  For dinner, we had the "diablo" tenderloin bites to start, and I had a gorgeous and delicious blackberry barbeque salmon salad.  We loved the food at Georgie's so much, we ordered their breakfast for room service the next day.  I ate it so wholeheartedly, I didn't even snap a photo!

Georgie's wasn't the only tasty spot in town.  We had amazing blueberry pancakes, literally bigger than your face, at The Coffee House.  Just a little spot along the water, it was absolutely packed for breakfast.  It's always a good sign when you pick the restaurant that's full of people, right?  I had to snag a table while Dan placed our order.  We could have shared a single pancake between us!

Dan loves aquariums, and I've grown fond of them as well.  The Oregon Coast Aquarium was definitely on our list, as we like to make sure to visit AZA-accredited zoos and aquariums.  This one was definitely a good one to visit if you're in the area.  It's hard to visit smaller aquariums after visiting some like Georgia Aquarium or Aquarium of the Smokies, but I loved the indoor and outdoor components of this one!  Those seals and otters were fun to see, and we loved the tunnel where we could see a bunch of sharks and fish.  I recommend buying your ticket in advance to save time in line.

We also walked along the bay front near Rogue Ales and the aquarium, which was absolutely beautiful once the sun peeked out from behind the clouds!

The natural beauty of the area just can't be ignored!  We drove up to the Yaquina Head Outstanding Natural Area, parking near their lighthouse to see the view and tidepools.  You do have to pay admission, but I think it's well worth it to help maintain such a pretty spot.

It was so lush and green, I felt like I was in another country, maybe Ireland?  We could see birds and seals in the distance.  There were a lot of people about, but it didn't take away from the experience as we explored.  It would be great for families who have curious older kids interested in kelp, sea anemones, tides, etc.

I loved the sound on the rocks as we walked to the tide pools.  Dan was like a kid, looking for sea anemones and pointing out mussels and fish to me.  Nerd marriages are the best!

We also drove down to another cove in the park, which had lovely views too!  We could see more seals or sea lions (hard to tell, bring binoculars!) chilling out.  We could see surfers from our vantage point too.

Our last stop was a sort of natural wonder, Devils Punchbowl State Natural Area.  This one was a little pit stop, and free too.  One theory is that the hollowed rock formation was caused by a cave ceiling collapse.  People hiked down into the bowl, and you hear some fantastic water echoes!  There's a picnic area nearby too.

Newport was full of natural beauty and things to see!  I think you can experience pretty much everything you'd like in a weekend, and add things like whale watching or sailboats and surfing.  It was nice to hear the ocean roar.  I miss the view of the sea from our balcony!

Have you added Newport to your travel wishlist yet?

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Beer From Ground to Glass: Rogue Ales & Spirits

Every year, Dan and I try to take a week-long vacation as a couple.  For our 2017 trip, we decided to take a road trip through parts of Oregon and Washington!

When you're married to a craft brewer, every vacation includes a taste of beer.  On our Pacific Northwest adventure, after flying into Portland, we started the trip off with a pit stop in Independence, Oregon, to visit Rogue Farms, where they grow hops and other ingredients for Rogue Ales recipes. 

Rogue also has spirits to call its own too, so it's come a long way from its basement beer operations in 1987!  It was listed as #30 in 2016's Top 50 Craft Brewing Companies by size, so you've likely seen it in your local bottle shop.

As most farms are, this one is out in the country!  There's ample parking, but no air conditioning.  But there's cold beer on tap, and you can bring a picnic if you want.  Tons of outdoor seatings and clean portajohns for your convenience.

If you come at the right time, there's a free tour.  You can see the lay of the farm as well as the hops harvesting and processing facilities.  We've toured a zillion breweries before, but this was the first hops operation we'd visited!  I was surprised to learn that the U.S. produces much of the hops for the globe, not just our own country, and the Pacific Northwest is where most of it is grown.

I wish we'd been there during the right timing to see the hop cones on the vines, or to see the harvest.  Those would be fantastic things to experience at Rogue Farms!  But I still loved that happy feeling of having a cold beer amongst the hop vines in Oregon.

As we continued our journey, we reached our first overnight stop, in Newport.  This also happens to be the home of Rogue's brewery.  You have FOUR Rogue options in Newport.  The Rogue Ales Public House is on Bay Blvd., and the Bed 'n' Beer is above it.  Yes, you can stay overnight above the bar!  There's also Rogue House of Spirits, if liquor is your preference.

We decided to visit Rogue's Brewers on the Bay, their two-story brewpub by the Marina near the aquarium.  You can take tours of the brewery and distillery, and pick up bottles and merch too.  In fact, to get to the brewpub and sales room, you walk through part of the brewery itself!

There's almost always going to be a wait, as it's a popular destination in town, but we found that having our party be 21+ in age meant we could be seated in the bar and not just the brewpub.  Score!

We tasted a number of their beers, which had some really great flavors!  They usually have 40 beers on tap.  We each got a full beer, which we ate with our tasty burgers, as well as some tasters to sample together.  That's the nice thing about traveling with my husband: we get to share samplers!  I think the only one that wasn't my speed was the chipotle ale.  Smoky flavors in a beer aren't my thing; but they had hazelnut and chocolate flavors in others that I loved!

There are even collaborative beers with my favorite Iron Chef, Morimoto.  I think that's pretty cool!  And you can even peek into the brewery from many of the tables within the brewpub.

We definitely enjoyed visiting both sides of Rogue Ales, from ground to glass!

Hipsters Are The New Amish in Lancaster, PA

I travel to Carlisle, Pennsylvania, for work sometimes, in the past flying into Harrisburg.  More recently, having switched my loyalties to Southwest, I decided to try flying into Baltimore and driving up.  I took a detour this time to Lancaster city, to reconnect with an old friend as a pit stop.

I think that I was expecting a cow town filled with Amish tourist attractions and buggies, but the city itself is very much... a city.  But given its long history, it's full of old architecture.  And hipsters.  Lots of art students and hipsters.  It seems like the place is going through a bit of a revival since around 2010, with a vibrant art school and business popping up.  I did notice a pretty visible contingent of homeless persons, but I felt safe and enjoyed the old buildings.

Since it was a work day, and I had some time to kill before dinner with my friend, I settled into a coffee shop with my trusty laptop to get #girlboss things done.  The Prince Street Cafe was full of students, and it was very welcoming and cute!

For lunch, I had a rice bowl with chicken, and a chai latte later for some caffeine.  It was tasty, and I definitely need to make this as a meal more at home.

For dinner, my friend and I ate at a beautiful restaurant called Aussie and the Fox.  I'd read reviews on Yelp that it was good, and I fell in love!  Lancaster seems to be full of local spots like these, but I don't know how many are as beautiful!  This one served an interesting hybrid of Australian and American upscale cuisine.

I kind of want to have an entire house decorated like this place.  The beautiful booths, mirrors, exposed brick... call me basic, but I love restaurants decorated like this.

One of my favorite things was their cocktail menu.  There were so many drinks I wanted to try!  I even snapped a picture of the menu, so I could try to get Dan to create some similar ones at home.  Mine was the Pink Paper Daisy, with tequila, lemon juice, Solerno, house-made grenadine, lemon juice, and orange bitters.  Uh, hello, gorgeous!  I like my alcohol to sneak up on me (hence, I'm not a whiskey drinker), and the server had great recommendations.  I narrowed it down to a few, and she helped me decide.

My dinner was phenomenal, y'all.   There were so many choices, and I definitely got a great one!  I chose the Australian pie, which reminded me of a cottage pie of sorts, but it was roasted chicken, mashed potato, onion jus, and tomato jam.  I Googled to see if this is a thing, and meat pies are definitely an Australian dish, but this one was definitely skewing fancy and more gourmet than what the interwebz was showing me.  Boy, I'd love to eat this on a chilly day in front of a fire.  Yum.  Definitely worth trying.

So in a way, I came to Lancaster for the Amish vibe, but I left delighted with what I found nonetheless.  I would love to come back and try more spots, because it's just such a neat place!