Originally Posted By Lisann22 As most of you know, we have a group of Bay Area LPers with a few out of staters sprinkled in that have begun to travel more and more together to places other than just Disneyland. Last August SuzieQ and I (T&L Travel and Adventures – The Toughest Vacation You’ll Ever Love) started researching ocean front home rentals in the SoCal area for our little group of travelers to spend time together. We wanted to find a place that would allow us walks on the beach, a big kitchen, plenty of bedrooms and be with 30 or so minutes from DL. Well between schedules, school, jobs and the cost; pulling it off was getting bleak. The talks eventually turned to the Oregon Coast because goodgirl has rented homes up there before. With the cost being less than half of a rental anywhere in California, the trip suddenly was back on. We decided to make it a “girls†trip when we realized we just could not coordinate the whole group on this particular adventure. It was originally intended to be goodgirl, Pixie Glitter, quincytoo, SuzieQ, Wendebird and myself. PGlitter had to cancel out due to family life scheduling. So it was down to five of us twelve. Sad but we pressed on with the planning. goodgirl started our google Excel spreadsheet and off it took. We found us a house in Lincoln City – The Heathergate. 5 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, full living room and kitchen ON the beach. Heaven, I tell ya. We were all excited and in need of a relaxing vacation. Stress levels were at or had been at a very high level for the majority of us. This would be a nice getaway. As some would know, we all LOVE to cook. So our vacation in the planning stages started to turn into the LP/Women’s version of the Iron Chef. We each took a night that we would be responsible for cooking. We had a lot of fun planning our menus. The majority of us also appreciate a good bottle of wine so there was much debate over what types and which brands to bring. On Wednesday, April 11th our adventure began. I got off work, dashed home, packed up my truck in Livermore and headed to SuzieQ’s house in Antioch. From there we got on the road around 7pm and headed up to Redding to Wendebird’s house. We got there around 10pm after a gourmet meal in a freezing cold Taco Bell. I believe it’s been about 15 or so years since I’ve eaten at the Bell. I believe it’ll be another 15 or so years before I do it again. The birdettes were so cute, giving up their bedrooms for their guests. We both had flowers and candies at our bedside as we settled in for a good nights sleep. Wendebird has a great house full of learning, love and the Lord. ;> Thursday morning, April 12th, we woke up and were on the road after dropping off the Birdette’s at their sitters at 8:40am. We had a 7 hour drive ahead of us. We began to play Beach House Road Rally. Emailing with our group back home of where we were, how fast we were going, funny sights along the way and other nonsense. It really helped make the long drive fun. In the meantime, quincytoo was flying from Victoria, B.C. to Portland. goodgirl was picking her up at the airport and then headed off on their 2 hour drive to the Beach house. We had bets on whether we’d beat them or not; “The safety conscious, speed rules following goodgirl?†Or the “Road Warrioring, we don’t need no stinkin’ speed limit crazed Californians?†It was a crazy drive. Snow over Mt. Ashland, rain pelts between Eugene and Salem, passing the town of Talent – we couldn’t stop we have none to the crazy mapquest directions for 99/5/22/18. Aye yi yi. The weird guest service at the Jack In The Crack in Salem. We pulled into the Heathergate at 3:40pm, exactly 3 stops and 7 hours later. Unfortunately, we lost the race. goodgirl and quincytoo were there. The positives of that was we did not have to unload goodgirl’s rented Expedition. Good grief. LOL! We immediately all grabbed our cameras and began to shoot pictures of the house. It was fantastic. A combination of old and new. I was most impressed with the cleanliness. The place was immaculant. A lot of times renting homes and cabins can be a real crapshoot. The furniture was new, the rug was spotless and bathrooms were well maintained. We were thrilled. After unpacking and settling in, we all congregated on the deck overlooking the ocean. It was a gorgeous afternoon. goodgirl was responsible for the first nights dinner. She made us some cheese fondue, opened a bottle of wine, sliced some sourdough bread and kicked us all out of the kitchen. We really fought her <rolling eyes>. 5 bottles of wine later at around 8:40pm we were all sitting around the table of our ocean home like the lone Pirate with the pigs in Disneyland on Pirates. ;> Our first nights dinner was homemade clam chowder, a wonderful salad that had oranges, almonds, avacado, cucumbers, lettuce and I don’t know what else but it was dang tasty with some of the best cheese bread I’ve ever had. The stuff was like crack, we could not get enough. goodgirl in keeping with the theme of our Golden Dreams vacation in March of 2006 had been sending us postcards in the mail with mysterious clues and sayings. There were six in all. Some of us had only received three or four of them. So she made us play a game. She had polled the rest of our group with questions about eachother, our likes and dislikes. We did much better at answering the questions than the group did last March – sheesh! Our prizes were Things Made in Oregon gift baskets. Wonderful jam, bath salts, teas, a cookbook, lip balm, candy and assorted other goodies were packed in. Very cool! We settled into our “spots†on the couches and recliners to talk until about 11pm. We all headed for bed after a long day of travel, good food and lots of wine. ;> Here are some pictures to “tide†you over! ;> Please keep in mind there wasn’t much getting dressed on this vacation other than from one pair of pjs or sweats to another. Not a lot of make up or hair brushing. This is T&L Travel unplugged! <a href="http://www1.snapfish.com/share/p=216131176504269800/l=259850570/g=72006034/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB" target="_blank">http://www1.snapfish.com/share /p=216131176504269800/l=259850570/g=72006034/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB</a>
Originally Posted By SuzieQ GREAT report, Lisann22! I had so much fun on the trip. I loved, loved, loved my ocean view bedroom.
Originally Posted By peeaanuut sounds like you guys had a great time. Its refreshing to read stuff from LPers other than Disney reports.
Originally Posted By Lisann22 Friday we woke up to sunshine and goodgirl cooking us breakfast. We had a chili egg puff casserole with bacon and bagels. Good stuff once again. We talked and talked and talked. Finally Wendebird and goodgirl settled in to do a Captain Jack Sparrow puzzle. SuzieQ and quincytoo went out for a long walk on the beach. I was feeling kinda weird. Feverish and a horrible headache so I sat down in the living room. It ended up being a 48 hour bug of some sort. During the morning we had Drop Dead Fred our evil pet seagull arrive. quincytoo almost killed Fred with an oversized bagel for breakfast. From that point on his mood soured. It was almost like we were being held hostage. Between Fred and the black crows we were frightened to step onto the deck. goodgirl made us our grocery list and we headed for the local Safeway. It was like a scavenger’s hunt, 5 women, 3 baskets later we were done shopping. I had to get all the fixings for my dinner I was cooking tonight and finish rounding up some supplies for making tamales later in the week. We got back home and whew boy I was burning up. I got motivated to make us our dinner; sun-dried tomato and galri pesto with penne, a big cesar salad with some cherry tomatoes and green onions mixed in and sourdough bread. With wine of course. We stuffed ourselves once again. We were set to play cards on this night but ended up talking most of the night away. Some watching a bit of TV, while others reported in on email to the gang back home. I made us an old italian family recipe french vanilla ice cream sandwiched between two sliced of toasted pound cake, smothered with blackberry jam that was mixed with some amaretto and covered in roasted almonds. Mmm, mmm! Everyone was in bed around 11:30pm, well all but the night owls: Wendebird and I. That was our exciting Day 2 at the Beach house.
Originally Posted By SuzieQ ROFL! If you look at the pictures, you'll see why PixieGlitter sent in the Coast Guard. I'm not in a single one. I also didn't check in via email for several days. Pixie is convinced I was locked in a closet for the duration of the trip. (actually, I took the pictures, and emails were being read aloud, so I didn't see the need to log-on. I just sat with my glass of wine and told everyone else what to say for me)
Originally Posted By Pixie Glitter I was worried sick, sick I say. SuzieQ, God bless her pea-pickin' little heart, is not the most, um, reticent of souls, so when I didn't hear from her for days, naturally I became quite alarmed. And when I expressed this alarm to the rest of those jackals, all I got was evil laughter and vague mentions of letting her out eventually as they'd need her to drive them all home. Clearly I had no choice but to call the Coast Guard.
Originally Posted By SuzieQ If Jodi hadn't tried to kill Fred, he might have delivered my message. Alas, seagulls do not make good carrier pigeons!
Originally Posted By SuzieQ btw, my mom got the photo emails from Lisann22 and wondered why I wasn't in any pictures, too, lol I supposed we could have taken a picture of the big bruise from where I slipped on the stairs and caused an earthquake, but due to said bruises position, I don't think it would meet Community Guidelines. Wait a minute.... no pictures of me; no emails from me; when I slipped and fell down the stairs I was wearing socks that were a vacation gift from Lisann22..... I'm starting to get the picture now!
Originally Posted By Lisann22 Pixie tried but the birds were just to fierce! <a href="http://www1.snapfish.com/viewsharedphoto/p=110181176925683691/l=259996703/g=72006034/otsc=SYE/otsi=SPIC" target="_blank">http://www1.snapfish.com/views haredphoto/p=110181176925683691/l=259996703/g=72006034/otsc=SYE/otsi=SPIC</a>
Originally Posted By Tiggirl I had to stop and say... I LOVE Lincoln City! Ok... back to reading the trip report. Fun! ~Beth
Originally Posted By Lisann22 Saturday was another gorgeous day. It did turn cloudy and rained a bit. I decided to get up and head for a walk. I think this morning Wendebird made us waffles, that might have been Sunday, I cannot remember. I took off by myself. I wanted to walk to the point. The tide was low. I searched for seashell or interesting rocks. I got as far as the turn where I was walking on nothing but huge rocks and boulders and then the tide came in. I had on sweatpants and tennis shoes. The water started to reach my knees each time it came in. It was a strong current. I was concerned I might loose my footing, so I made my way back. The water wasn't really as cold as I expected. The colors in the sand were gorgeous browns, reds, and blues. Just beautiful. I had to change clothing when I got in. I put my sneakers out to dry, at the end of the trip I decided to just chuck them. LOL! We did more talking, eating leisurely lunches and goofying around. In the afternoon, the sun was very brilliant out, so the group minus me went out to the tide pools at the point I was trying to reach. By then my headache and fever were back. I laid down for about an hour. It helped a lot. I'm not one to take a lot of meds but I popped 2 Advil, 2 Tylenol and 1 Claritin to try to get rid of whatever I had. Wendebird made us an outstanding dinner of mushroom gravy beef over egg noodles, fresh green beans in garlic and butter and wonderful homemade bread by quincytoo. Wine too, of course. :> After dinner we played a hysterical game of Pop 5, it's a clever version of Cranium revolving around pop culture. We did some hilarious imitations and drawings. Then we played Tripoley till around 12:30am. Wendebird and I stayed up till around 2am. Another awesome day at the ocean.
Originally Posted By TiggerPooh1973 Great trip report. Hey they rent out beach homes here too, I can get ya a good deal! Curiosly, this report is making me hungry too......well until I read this <<sun-dried tomato and galri pesto with penne>> Galri doesn't sound appetizing, but that is just me.
Originally Posted By SuzieQ I decided if I was going to be offered all this wonderful food, I might as well set a weigh gain goal of 10 lbs. I'm pretty sure I met my objective!
Originally Posted By Lisann22 Sunday was tamale making day. I had frozen the masa at home and brought it up in an ice chest. When we got there Thursday, I immediately put it in the freezer. On Friday afternoon I took it out and put it in the sink to thaw. Late Saturday night it was finally thawed, so I put it back in the refrigerator so it would not spoil. So while quincytoo and SuzieQ were at the outlets Sunday morning, I got the kitchen and dining room tamale making ready. Had everything laid out, some items prepped for us to get started. I took the masa out of the frig and it was frozen again. Ugh! So I put it out on the deck in the sun to thaw once again. I was bound to kill us with all this thawing and de-thawing. <sigh> Well, I FORGOT about Drop Dead Fred the killer seagull and his pal of thugs, the Gulls and Black crows. Pretty soon, they were flying over the deck, casing the joint out. Landing on the deck, bobbing their heads toward the masa. I had taken to talking Gull now. My spelling problems come from now being quad-lingual. I'd run out there like a mad Spanish/Italian woman waving my dish towel in the air yellig - HA! HA! HA! Little good that did, they just got madder. Chewing me out in Gull-talk. Chirping and shrieking at me. Let's just say it was a long afternoon being on Gull-watch. The masa FINALLY thawed out and we began to make tamales around 3pm. OMG! I don't think I've ever laughed so hard in my life. We had a great time but I felt like I was back in my grandma's kitchen learning to make tamales again. My poor poor Abuelita, did I put her through this too? quincytoo is practically a master chef, so it was she I was mostly teaching, hence the picture of her and I cooking up the mole and such. She learned the need of preparation quickly as she almost burnt the mole. ;> Wendebird complained will the sink full of cornhusks ever end? LOL! Then came the applying the masa to the cornhusk, spooning in the pork, adding the olives, and closing up the husk. This has to be the weirded 13 dozen various sized and shaped group of tamales I have ever produced. I telling people I'm responsible for the taste not the look on this batch. Yes, that's my story and I'm sticking to it! We have the following: goodgirl Torpedo Bombs. This is when you smother and I mean smother brother the corn husk from top to bottom with about quarter inch of masa, than drop the pork right smack in the middle, fold over the husk so they meet end to end and PLOP the little bundle of joy on the table. Lisann22 then gets out her mini tractor and loads it into the steamer. quincytoo made tamale biscuits. Cute little 2"x2" squares for tea time at the Empress Hotel. How coincidental that she hates olives and her little masterpieces kept missing them. SuzieQ eggrolls. I think SuzieQ might have flunked cultural cuisine cooking in high school. I guess she figured if it had pork, you must roll it. And then there was Wendebird, my kindered spirit searching for a world of balance and evenness. Lots of heavy sighing and stress beads of perspiration coming from her side of the table. Wendy was out to make the "perfect" tamale. Just the right amount of masa, pork and olives. Problem is Wendebird couldn't figure out the rough side from the "chiney" side of the cornhusk. ;> Two hours later we were steaming our first potfull. The aroma filled the house. We cleaned up so that Jodi could prepare us our dinner for the night. She made us lemon rosemary chicken with garlic lemon root vegetables and homemade bread. I scarfed down my food as I was so hungry. Eating the past couple days had been challenging. It was so GOOD. It took till 10pm for all the tamales to steam. goodgirl went to Blockbuster, rented a few movies and we watched "For Your Consideration." Another fabulous day!
Originally Posted By SuzieQ I was eating tamales by 10:30 this morning! OMG, that was so much fun. We laughed and laughed. And since Lisa refused to take any of our creations into her house, I got an extra dozen!
Originally Posted By friendofdd >>>Our first nights dinner was homemade clam chowder, a wonderful salad that had oranges, almonds, avacado, cucumbers, lettuce and I don’t know what else but it was dang tasty with some of the best cheese bread I’ve ever had. The stuff was like crack, we could not get enough.<<< I do wish you wouldn't keep referring to crack in that manner. Some LPers might think you mean it. =o] I'm happy you cleared up the question about the unusual shapes. So, it was the tamales rather than La Blanca Chicas! Sounds like a wonderful time was had by all.
Originally Posted By Lisann22 Monday was a whole lot of reading, laying around and talking. It was a blustery day out. I can't remember but I don't think anyone went down to the beach. The wind was quite brisk. SuzieQ made us NY steak with all the left over veggies from our various meals and bread. There was cheesecake for dessert. We played Tripoley till past midnight. I'm going to include our food intake (LOL) here... clam chowder salad with oranges, almonds, avacado and cucumber to die for cheese bread cheese fondue with some fancy schmancy bread salami swiss cheese brie cheese monterey jack cheese napeleon desserts chili egg puff casserole two types of bacon bagels orange juice grape juice Jodi's blackberry jam sundried tomato pesto penne green salad with tomato, green onion pound cake toasted with blackberry jam with a "dash" of amaretto vanilla ice cream roasted almonds salsa chips grapes oranges pineapple garlic lemon chicken mushroom gravy beef tips eggrolls NY steak sourdough bread w/olive oil and vinegar AND with all that what did we eat over and over? What could not one person did their hand it without having to serve 4 others? RED LICORICE!!
