Salty Dawg

We enjoyed a relaxing evening yesterday after our return from the coastal driving excursion.  While I downloaded photos, wrote and posted my story for the day, Gene did a little surfing on the internet.  After the evening news, we went into Waldport for dinner.  

We’re quite fond of Mexican and it has been a while.  The nice lady at the Chamber recommended the Salty Dawg when Gene inquired where he might find some Mexican food.  We drove by to check it out on our way home earlier in the day.  “Salty Dawg” didn’t sound Mexican and it certainly didn’t have that Mexican look.  Well, they did have a Corona sign, but no pinatas, no sombreros, and no red chili pepper fun lights.  We decided to go there anyway, even if we couldn’t get mexican food.  The place was just too cool.  It was located right on the Alsea Bay, even had a boat dock out front.  How could it be bad?  Besides, there were several cars there at 4 PM.

When we went back about 6:30, we had to park a block away.  All of Waldport may have been there.  Several of the locals who had apparently stopped in after work for a beer were still there and very relaxed.  We found a booth and began the menu search.  There was one full page of appetizers--fried clams, peel and eat shrimp, and one item, Mexican only in the sense that it was a chili, jalapeno poppers.  There was a wide variety of burgers and sandwiches.  Yesterday was Moo Monday.  That meant steaks were on special.  Finally, on the back of the menu was Mexican.  I guess the nice lady at the Chamber hadn’t misunderstood after all.

Of course, wanting a second opinion, we asked our waitress.  She naturally said it was all good, especially the broasted chicken.  Since no one seemed to be having Mexican, we decided to play it safe and ordered the chicken.  It was good, not outstanding.  Since clamming is big around  here, I could resist ordering a cup of clam chowder.  Now that was outstanding.  I haven’t had fresh clam chowder in several years so can’t really say if it was better than any I ever had.  It was very good and I should have ordered a bowl and a small salad and left the chicken for someone else.

Drift Creek

Today we drove a few miles east of our campground to the Drift Creek Wilderness.  The nice lady at the Chamber said it is a popular place to hike and that was confirmed by our guidebook.  Gene got directions to the trailhead and a map of the trail from trails.com.  It was a moderate 4.5 mile hike loosing 1200 feet down to Drift Creek then, of course, gaining 1200 feet back up to the truck.  The trail meandered through old growth forest, but we were not able to pay much attention as we had our eyes on the trail.  The treadway was in good condition generally free of rocks, roots, and ruts, but it was very steep and pretty overgrown.  There were places where we had to hack our way through.  We were rewarded for our efforts when we reached the creek.  The trip back up the hill gave our hearts a real workout.

Tomorrow, we move to Salem, the state capitol.