Trip #1 Chips and Dips
Traveling from Seattle to Lincoln City takes between 5 and 6 hours, depending on the route you take. We originally wanted to take I-5 south to Kelso and then join Oregon Highway 30 west to Astoria and then 101 south through Tillamook along the coast to Lincoln City. But what looks good on paper doesn’t always look good in real life. After starting a little later than we intended we opted to take I-5 all the way south to Salem and then head west into Lincoln City.
First day... Seattle to Lincoln City, Oregon
As is usually the case, except a lunch stop nothing really happened as long as we were on the freeway. In Centralia, Washington, we stopped at the Country Cousin Restaurant. Thought I’d go for the hot turkey sandwich and it lived up to it’s reputation... it was hot and it was turkey. It’s a pretty good restaurant that we’ve stopped at before. Here’s a link to their web-site:
http://ramblinrestaurants.com/country-cousin-restaurant.html
About half-way between Salem
and Lincoln City we passed a
Buffalo farm.
Above: The Looking Glass Inn with Mo’s in the foreground.
Right: The Looking Glass Inn
Somewhere between Salem and the coast is the Spirit Mountain Casino. Go past the buffalos and turn left. According to their website; “The Casino was created to enhance economic self-sufficiency opportunities for the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, its members and surrounding communities; to promote economic diversification by the Tribes: to support a variety of housing, educational and cultural programs under the direction of Tribal Council.” I did my part. Here’s their site;
The Looking Glass Inn is dog-friendly. When you check-in they provide a nice little basket with two bowls, a bag of dog treats, a couple sheets for the bed and a couple of towels for cleaning after a romp on the beach. Check out our review.
Not only was the Looking Glass Inn just across the parking lot from the beach and a nice beach front park with picnic tables and fire pits, but it was directly across the street from Mo’s Restaurant. Anyone familiar with the Oregon coast has heard of Mo’s. They have 4 or 5 restaurants and are famous for their chowder. The place isn’t fancy but the menu is extensive and the night we were there they had a weekly special going of a full Dungeness crab, chowder or salad and a side, for only $20. You know you’re not in the big city anymore when you can get that much crab for that little of amount of money. In fact, I didn’t see anywhere on the menu where it said “Market Price”.
Mo’s web site is at; http://www.moschowder.com/home.cfm?dir_cat=13368