Two

I spent the weekend at the beach. Newport, Oregon to be exact. Chad and I left 80 degree, sunny Portland at 1pm on Friday and rolled into Newport at 4. The skies had gradually begun to cloud over on the drive, but we still held out hope that it would burn off. It didn't, but we had a great time at the beach anyway. We stayed at the Shilo Inn, and I can nearly hear the hissing from the crowd - as I've been alerted, the owner of the Shilo Inn is as right wing a conservative democrats dream-killer as he can get, it was put to me that anything I have, he wants to take away. I remembered hearing these things from an ONA member years ago, but when shopping for a last minute 'nice' place to use our travel points for my birthday - the options were slim - the Shilo being the nicest hotel available.

So we checked in and enjoyed our free cookies and coffee in the lobby, then we entered our room. It was a first floor room with a king bed - looking out over the ocean. No balcony, but 2 casement windows that let in the breeze, and were large enough for Chad or I to escape from if the need arose (but no, the need did not present itself). The bed was nice enough, thought the pillows were hard, but all in all, we were satisfied with our 'free' accommodation for the weekend.

We spent our first evening in Newport walking along the beach, and checking out the Nye Beach shops. An entire building has gone up in the year since our last visit - and we toured a neat little gallery in a spot we'd previously parked our car! It was great to see that Newport was getting new businesses in, though beside the gallery were 2 or 3 vacant shop fronts that were being finished out. Hopefully we'll see further development on subsequent visits. We ate too much fried food at the Chowder Bowl, and headed back to the room, with a quick stop to the lobby for more cookies.

Saturday found us walking a few blocks to Quimbys, a gem of a breakfast place. While we waited for our meals to arrive, the waitress brought a basket of house made pastries, still warm from the oven. It was a veritable cornucopia of sweet breads. With scones, a muffin, and a fruit bread of some sort, we kept ourselves busy while we viewed the pacific and waited for our meal to arrive. When it did, I enjoyed a vegetable omelet, while Chad had a scramble of some sort. Then we headed back to our room to read and enjoy our view of the ocean. Despite the narrow window openings, we pulled our chairs up to the bays and sat with our feet perched on the sill, reading and enjoying the sounds of the beach. To break the sedentary morning, we drove to the bay side of town and pulled over to check out a music store on Hwy 101 right in the middle of town. To Chad's delight, and my feigned chagrin, the store had a wide variety of mandolins, including a used fender that Chad picked up and started to play. When Chad discovered the mandolin was electric, his eyes shone, and he plugged right in. The shop keeper, his friend, and I enjoyed a jam session courtesy of Chad, and when he quoted $150 for the price, I knew it was coming home with us. It's a great little instrument that Chad has, even tonight, used to serenaded me while I pulled a few weeds.

Our purpose for going down to the bay was to check out a little art shop we'd visited before. We'd purchased our first piece of art together at that store. It was a mountain landscape seen between a foreground of deciduous trees in the fall. The colors were a little pastel for our taste, but the painting was beautifully done, and it was captivating to look at. Some parts of the painting are so thick with oil that it protrudes into the room. If you look up from under the piece, you can see the topography of the bushes and trees as if it were mountains on a map.

We went back to this shop, and I realize I don't even know it's name, hoping to find a treasure for our bedroom. We looked through stacks of paintings, from the awful to the sublime. Some of these artists had considerable talent, and you could even see who their influences were in some of their paintings. After about 45 minutes in the shop, we found 3 paintings we liked. Each was full of vibrant color, one in greens and purples, and two in reds and yellows. They all depicted a vineyard or valley with a house in the distance, and each was quite large - 36 x 48 inches. After careful deliberation, we agreed on the piece we liked, and Chad sat down to haggle with the shop keep. We ended up bringing home this masterpiece:

When we got home, Chad hung it at the wall facing our bed. We laid in bed last night, staring into this beautiful vista, dreaming about a visit to Italy. The painting is a third window into our bedroom. The first two are always covered with mini blinds and drapes to maintain our privacy. This third window is an outlet to a soft summer day in a foreign land. I am looking forward to going to bed tonight so I can spend some time staring at and daydreaming on this particular window.

And to add a little icing to the cake, here is a smaller canvas we picked up on our way out of town, to grace another wall in our house. When we move out of our little place, we'll be able to take these pieces, and the memories they hold, with us.