Saturday, November 03, 2007

Cannon Beach

Today we are camped at the Canon Beach RV Resort and one of the nice things here is a shuttle to the city of Cannon Beach.


Scrabble Queen patiently waited in the shuttle kiosk while I took some pictures.


We got off of the shuttle at the Midtown stop across from the CaNNON BeACH HoTEL ~&~ REsTAURaNT (well it looks good on the sign.

I snapped a quick shot at the front desk of the hotel.

We decided to have lunch at the Gower Street Bistro established 2004 (almost threeee years old). It's billed as a European-Style Charcuterie so I looked it up and here is what I found:

Charcuterie (from either the French chair cuite, cooked meat, or the French cuiseur de chair, cooker of meat) is the branch of cooking devoted to prepared meat products such as sausage and confit, primarily from pork. The practice goes back to ancient times and can involve the chemical preservation, or curing, of meats. Since charcuterie can greatly extend the lifetime of meat, it is a means of using up various meat scraps that would have otherwise been wasted. All cured meat Hams, whether smoked, air-cured, salted, or treated by chemical means, are charcuterie products. Sausage making is also part of charcuterie.

The main techniques of charcuterie include the standard kitchen repertoire of poaching and baking, as well as salting or dry curing, brining, air drying, and smoking with and without heat. The room-temperature treatments involved in air drying and cold smoking introduce a host of food safety issues, and so curing salts are often used to prevent the spread of dangerous pathogens, particularly C. botulinum, or botulism.

The French word for a person who prepares charcuterie is charcutier, generally translated into English as "pork butcher."


I liked the ceiling and the light above us.


I also liked the atmosphere which was informal but very pristine. It was a colorful place with a great waitperson and the charcutier had a pretty cool tattoo on her right arm.


After lunch we walked down to the beach past this propeller outside another eatery.

Then down a ramp past some seagulls...

and were welcomed to the sight of the Pacific Ocean and the Tillamook Rock Lighthouse.


Next we saw Haystack Rock and the Needles.

"Haystack Rock is a large monolithic basalt sea stack. I have heard it claimed to be the fifth largest in the world, but have not verified that. It is big and very scenic. The Needles are the two tall, narrow rocks just to the south of Haystack Rock."



No, this is not trick photography or digital editing, but me taking a picture with sun behind the object. I like the surreal quality, however, and it's one of my favorites.


This is a great place to photograph and I'm sure with better planning the pictures could have been better but I don't mind this time and I like the reflection.


If you look really hard at the tall rock you can see one of the Needles, slightly lighter behind it.


I'm sure glad I don't have a house on this beach. (not)


I liked this cool stairway to the beach.


The two Needles are the backdrop for all the people wanting to get a bit closer to the Haystack.
"The Rock" is the breeding home of four species of sea birds: Tufted Puffins, Pelagic Cormorants, Pigeon Guillemots, and Western Gulls. The gulls nest up high on the rock using exposed nests. The puffins nest in burrows high on the north and northwest sides of the rock. The guillemots nest down quite low in cracks and crevasses. The cormorants stick their nests to small ledges medium high on the south side.

Okay, I did do an artsy picture of some sand, seaweed and lots of sea foam.

There are plenty of things to do in Cannon Beach including a Lewis & Clark museum (after all this is near where the Expedition ended before they went back east

Scrabble Score ~ Scrabble Queen 332 - The Contender 343

Quote of the Day -
"Great joy in Camp we are in view of the Ocean,this great Pacific Ocean which we been so long anxious to see and the roaring or noise made by the waves braking on the rocky shores (as I suppose) may be heard distinctly." ~ William Clark (August 1, 1770 – September 1, 1838) was an American explorer who accompanied Meriwether Lewis on the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

Clark spent three years with Meriwether Lewis on that expedition and although technically subordinate to Lewis in rank, he exercised equal authority at Lewis's insistence. He concentrated chiefly on the drawing of maps, the management of the expedition's supplies, and the identification of native plants and animals.

Later William Clark was appointed a brigadier general of the militia and made superintendent of Indian affairs in the Louisiana Territory in 1809. He set up his headquarters for this in St. Louis, Missouri. When the Missouri Territory was formed in 1813, Clark was appointed governor. During the War of 1812, he led several campaigns and he established the first post in what is now Wisconsin.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I absolutely love your blogs, so colourful and interesting to read. I would love more pictures of the athor though.
~~PF~~

Joyce said...

Hi, I have accidently stumbled across your Blog and have found it facinating. My husband and I too enjoy travelling in our camper van and I have always kept a journal of our trips. This year we travelled through France, Spain, Portugal and Belgium in our little two berth Fiat Trigano (it is so little it would probably fit in the trunk of your camper!)

I really enjoyed your photos, keep up the good work

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