More Vacation

After our aquarium visit, we went to the delightfully named Yaquina Head Outstanding Natural Area. It was indeed outstanding. Also very windy.




Next we headed up the coast to Shaun's folks house. Shaun suggested we stop in at the Pelican Pub and Brewery in Pacific City. Do look at the photo at the link to see how it is the most amazingly situated place to drink beer. Or to eat or drink anything, for that matter. Somehow I had never heard of it.

Shaun and I split the oyster po' boy, and I'm not really sure what I was thinking. Sometimes I get clams and oysters confused. This is half of the sandwich. The batter was perfect, and I could handle the bites that had oyster parts I could chew. But the creamy center of a golf ball-sized oyster is not for me. I thought I was going to have bad dreams about it later, but I haven't so far. Maybe now I will.

This is our view from inside. Haystack Rock is right around the corner of the building. The patio just extends right out onto the beach. I wanted to take a seat and sit there for the rest of my life.

After our meal, we played on the beach a bit. Willem said, "Look at that goose raise its leg!" and Shaun said, "That's a seagull." We live way too far from the coast.

And, so, after a very full 24 hours, we headed to our home away from home for the next two nights. This is where Shaun sat with his book. If you need some peaceful downtime between jobs, it's hard to imagine a better setting for getting it than this.

And then we pried Shaun out of his chair (he really didn't want to leave) and off he went to his new job, where he just finished his second week. The office culture there is so much healthier and suited to his personality than where he came from, that it almost sounds too good to be true. (i.e. the boss cooks pancakes on Fridays, the office fridge is stocked with groceries for employees to use, and in lieu of a company picnic they will be walking across the bridge to Waterfront Park for the Oregon Brewer's Festival.)

I half expect Shaun to have a Bluebeard's wife moment and open up a storage closet only to discover a pile of dismembered junior programmers, lulled into complacency by the promise of microbrews and the smell of fried bacon from Olympic Provisions wafting throughout the hallways. But mostly I think it's great and I'm really happy for him.