Lunch on the Umpqua

The Schooner Café in Reedsport, Oregon, is a paradox.

Situated on the banks of the Umpqua River with a view of a rusting railroad bridge from an outdoor seating area, it calls to my mind the bayside restaurants on the Chesapeake. You know what I mean, the kind of place loved by the boating crowd who motor up to the dock for lunch and dinner, who toss on a tee-shirt to wear with their shorts, and who slip their feet into a pair of docksiders. I’ve enjoyed many a meal at such places.

So how do you explain that the café is only open from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.? Or that there are only four fish or seafood items on the menu? Or that nothing on the menu is fried? I explain it by describing the Schooner Café as a “women’s restaurant.”

There is a lengthy list of salads, many of which contain some form of fruit and/or nuts. There is the apple cranberry salad – mixed greens, sliced apples, slaw, dried cranberries, pecans, carrots, celery, red onion, and grilled chicken breast with poppy seed vinaigrette. There is the orange raisin salad – greens, mandarin orange slices, raisins, almonds, carrots, slaw, grilled chicken breast topped with red onion. Or there is the turkey delight sandwich – sliced turkey, cranberry sauce, cream cheese, and lettuce on hazelnut bread. This place is more of a tearoom than dockside seafood joint.

But whatever the Schooner Café is, our recent lunch was delicious. Chuck ordered the special sandwich of the day – the Grilled Gobbler. This was a version of the turkey delight with the addition of sliced apples and cheddar cheese to the turkey, cranberry, and red onion and was served perfectly grilled on sliced sourdough sandwich bread.

There is something about the denser texture of sourdough that makes it perfect for grilling since it develops a crisp almost crunchy exterior. The slightly sour flavor of the bread counterbalanced what could have been a very sweet sandwich with the apple, cranberry, and cream cheese.

With his sandwich he also ordered a cup of the café’s clam chowder (as did I with my meal). This was first class chowder although thicker than I like, but just what Chuck likes. The chowder was full of dairy—either butter or cream (and maybe both)—and loaded with tender clams; the creamy base had the requisite briny clammy flavor. In fact, had we had this chowder before our great chowder ranking, it just might have edged out Norma’s for second place.

My choice was the “manliest” item on the menu – the Fiesta Beefeater Sandwich. The same grilled sourdough bread encased thin-sliced and still rare deli-style roast beef, mild green chilies, roasted red peppers, red onion, pepper jack cheese, and chipotle mayo. This had enough “oomph” from the chilies, jack cheese, and chipotle mayo to be interesting without being mouth-searing.

With my sandwich, I had the choice of chips, slaw, German potato salad, or cottage cheese (I said this was a woman’s menu), and I chose the potato salad. Bad choice on my part. I should have gone with the chips. This was one of those very sour, very acidic, very vinegary potato salads. We were spoiled by Janis Dannenberg’s German potato salad, which is now the standard by which German potato salad will be judged.

Our original game plan was to share – we’d each eat half of each sandwich. It came time to switch. We each took a bite of the others and promptly switched back. We were both happier with our original choice.

The Schooner Café was a very pleasant surprise, given that we have been so unhappy with Oregon coast food and deserves a 4.0 Addie score.

After lunch, we walked around the waterfront area and came upon this totem pole in front of the Umpqua Discovery Center, which features displays and interactive exhibits related to the natural history and cultural history of the Lower Umpqua Valley and the Oregon coast.

I Must Go Down to the Sea

"I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by;"

Those opening lines from the poem "Sea Fever" by John Masefield kept running through my mind as we viewed the Pacific from the Oregon coast.

The overcast skies emphasized the loneliness of the sea on the day we visited the Umpqua River Lighthouse. Located six miles south of Reedsport, Oregon, above the entrance to Winchester Bay, the lighthouse is identical to Heceta Head Lighthouse (July 21 blog). An earlier structure, commissioned in 1857, was the first lighthouse sited on the Oregon coast. It fell into the river in 1861 after sand eroded the foundation.

The current structure with its 65-foot tower overlooks sand dunes from its 165-foot elevation. This view from the lighthouse shows the dunes and the fog-bound coastal waters beyond.

From Florence to Coos Bay, the Oregon Dunes extend for 40 miles along the coast. Formed by the ancient forces of wind, water and time, these dunes are like no others in the world. These are the largest expanse of coastal sand dunes in North America and offer numerous opportunities for solitude.

These two photographs (above and right) show the formations behind a large department store on the northern outskirts of Florence.

It would appear that the fence was no match for the wind and the sand in the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area.

Just north of Florence is the town of Heceta Beach and its beach. In my attempt to photograph a sunset over the Pacific, I have been met with clouds and fog banks during our stay in Florence. So, turning to the beach itself, I found this piece of driftwood behind, interestingly enough, the Driftwood Shores Resort.

Just south of Florence was the South Jetty Beach with sand dunes rising nearly two hundred feet in some places.

European Beach Grass, planted in the early 1900s to stabilize sandy coastlines and protect water supplies and homes, has now become a problem.

The western snowy plover is a bird that needs dry, open sand to survive. As the grass invades the open sand, this bird has become threatened with extinction.

When I took this photo late one evening on the dunes, the wind was so strong that I did not want to risk damage to the camera lens and mechanisms. Besides, I thought I would have more opportunities to photograph other sunsets over the Pacific.

I thought.

"I must go down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,
To the gull's way and the whale's way, where the wind's like a whetted knife;"

Hitless in Oregon

Unlike Chuck, I have not embraced the fog (see yesterday's blog). In fact, it has probably colored my attitude about the three weeks we have spent along the Oregon shore – including the quality of restaurant food. I might go so far to say that I have never visited an area with such mediocre food at such inflated prices.

Our first Florence, Oregon, stop was at Abby’s Legendary Pizza – part of another Oregon local chain, this time with thirty-five outlets. Abby’s pizzas are made with hand-rolled dough, sauce made from their own recipe, and toppings that extend to the outer edges of the crust. Their specialty pizzas include a cheese steak pizza, a roasted garlic and chicken pizza, a Greek vegetarian pizza, and four different southwestern (taco, fajita, BBQ, and chicken BBQ) pizzas. We were more traditional.

We arrived at about 2:00 p.m., and the very spacious restaurant was almost empty. Chuck’s eyes were bigger than our stomachs, and we ordered the sixteen-inch “giant” (I had suggested the thirteen-inch “large”) cheese and sausage. And, as you can see from this photo (below), this was a giant meal.

The pizza had been baked in a gas oven and had a medium thin, but very crisp, crust. It was topped with a generous amount of good Italian sausage that was light on fennel. The sauce reminded me of the slow-cooked South Philadelphia Italian gravy (their term for this type of red sauce) that becomes cloying after a while. I prefer more acid in my tomato sauce and less sweet. And again, there was far more cheese than either Chuck or I prefer. This pizza was so filling that enough returned home with us to provide me with two mornings of cold pizza breakfast.

This was a pretty average pizza and Abby’s gets a pretty average 3.5 Addie score.

Our second dining foray was to the Brown Hen Café for breakfast. This restaurant is reputed to be one of the best places for breakfast in Florence and gets great web reviews. Our first impression was encouraging. This small café was beautifully decorated with walls that were painted either dark taupe or what Chuck calls burnt sienna (his favorite box of crayons color) with stark white trim and crown molding. The crown molding was accented with recessed lighting that reflected off the white ceiling. Along one side of the dining room where three stained glass window panels depicting Florence scenes: the historic bridge crossing the Siuslaw River (right), a lighthouse, and fishing boats.

The breakfast menu included among other dishes: three egg omelets, regular and thin pancakes, “stackers”, breakfast burritos, and egg/meat/hash brown combinations. Chuck’s choice was the short stack (two) of regular buttermilk pancakes with a side of bacon.

Now, who wrote the rule that pancakes must now be BIG and the BIGGER the better. Do you know what often happens with BIG pancakes? They don’t get cooked in the center and such was the case here. When Chuck was finished there was a circle about three inches in diameter of uneaten pancake left on his plate. And he characterized his bacon as OK.

I ordered the half order biscuits and gravy and half order hash browns with sausage gravy combo. Did I fare any better? No. The biscuit bottoms were so tough that you couldn’t cut them with a knife and the amount of gravy for the mass of biscuit was skimpy. And the kitchen tried to “gourmet” the gravy with an overabundance of dried thyme. So much thyme that I was left with a harsh aftertaste. The hash browns would have been quite good without the gravy.

So to rate the Brown Hen Café. They get a 4.0 Addie rating for atmosphere and a 2.0 Addie rating for food.

Our final Florence experience (before deciding to eat at home from then on) was Bliss’ Hot Rod Grill. Yes, we were sucked in by the gimmick – the classic 50’s cars and the neon. But this is a place that needs a lot of TLC. The carpeting was torn. Few of the tables had a level eating surface, and most had giant chips out of the turquoise formica-like surface. One fellow diner almost fell off his chair when one leg ended in a depression in the floor.

On a bright note, the car in the front dining room seemed to be in good shape--with seating for four.

Still, the food was decent. We decided to play it safe and order half-pound specialty burgers – the Three Alarm Burger (pepper jack cheese, grilled jalapeno peppers, lettuce, tomato, onion, pickle, 1000 Island dressing) with regular fries for Chuck and the Guacamole Burger (pepper jack cheese, salsa, guacamole, lettuce, tomato, onion, pickle) with X-treme cracked pepper fries for me.

Both of our burgers came on jumbo buns – so jumbo that the bun extended a half inch beyond the burger patty. But the beef was cooked medium and had the crusty surface and edges that we both like. They were good, but certainly not among our top five burgers of all time.

My rating is just the reverse of the Brown Hen Café – a 2.0 for décor and a 4.0 for food.

As we were leaving, we asked ourselves, "Why is Bob with his Big Boy double-decker cheeseburger hanging out at Bliss' Grill?"

Embrace the Fog

"Embrace the fog," I kept telling Kate. "Let it envelop you; see the world of the fog."

"What are you talking about? It's depressing," was her only reply.

Another foggy morning greeted us as we headed 12 miles north of Florence, OR, on Route 101. We drove over the Cape Creek Bridge, which resembles a Roman aqueduct, with a single parabolic arch that spans half its 619-foot length. It was built of reinforced concrete and opened in 1932.

We took the exit that brought us to Devil’s Elbow Beach, under the bridge we had just crossed.

The fog seemed to be selective. Here it lifted enough to give us a glimpse of the Pacific through a piece of driftwood.

Looking to the right, we could see the fog engulfing the huge rocks just offshore.

We set off on the nearby trail to the house on the cliff, which was one of our destinations.

The wide trail wound through the edge of the Siuslaw National Forest, which would have made a fine destination in its own right.

As we made our way uphill on the quarter of a mile hike, we stopped to take this photo. The fog seemed to surround the scene, providing only an outline of the tree-covered cliff, yet highlighting the crescent-shaped beach.

Shortly, on the west side of Heceta Head, 205 feet above the ocean, we arrived at Heceta Head Lighthouse, one of the most photographed on the coast.

The light at the top of the 56-foot tower was illuminated in 1894; the automated beacon, seen 21 miles from land, is rated as the strongest light on the Oregon coast.

The historic assistant lighthouse keeper's house (Heceta House; built 1893) now operates as a bed and breakfast inn.

Driving back to Florence, we took time to stop at a couple of overlooks for these views of the ocean.



A gull completed this photo of the coast line.

This scene of the beach, the waves, the ocean, and the fog showed the fog in the ideal position--"waiting" off shore for the cue to embrace the beach or the people on the beach.

Just so it waits for its cue. In the case of fog, too long an embrace can be depressing.

Florence's Old Town

We arrived in Florence, Oregon for a six-day stay, and our first stop was the Visitors' Center. (Talk about a creature of habit.)

"I would suggest starting your time in Florence with a walk through Old Town," was the advice we received from the Welcomer at the Center.

So, we started at the east end of Bay Street, which ran along the Siuslaw River. We soon understood how fishing had been one of the major industries of the town's first residents in the late 1800s.

This area, identified as the Port of Siuslaw, is less than five miles from the Pacific Ocean, making access to prime fishing and crabbing grounds for commercial fishing boats very easy.

William Kyle played an important role in two early, major industries in Florence. He owned a salmon cannery and the Florence Lumber Company. His ambitions were unlimited, he dreamed of developing a monopoly in the trade and business of the valley of the Siuslaw River and owned a tug and a three-masted schooner.

However, while his ambitions were great, his capital was not.

The building in the photos above and right was the William Kyle and Sons building. Today it is the Bridgewater Restaurant.

Continuing our walk around Old Town, we came upon the Balcony Gourmet, which carries kitchenware and gifts.

When I took this photo, I was standing near what had been the site of the dock for the Florence-Granada Ferry, which operated from the late 20s to 1936, when the Siuslaw River Bridge was built.

As is apparent in the photos, we were quite taken with the old pilings in the river.

Near the west end of Bay Street, we saw the Waterfront Depot Bar and Restaurant.

From the vacant lot adjacent to the Waterfront, I took this photo of the historic Siuslaw River Bridge. The concrete arch structure was designed Conde B. McCullough. This photo shows one of the two 154-foot concrete bowstring arch spans.

Some of the pilings were in better shape structurally than others. The growth in this piling seemed a beautiful contrast to the aging wood.

End of the Trail

John Jacob Astor was a very successful and wealthy New York fur trader in the late 18th century who saw the great potential in creating a new fur trade in the undeveloped Pacific Northwest.

In 1810, he sent two parties of men to present day Astoria. One party traced the Lewis and Clark journey. The second party sailed by clippership around South America. By 1811, after much trial and tribulation, Astor had established Fort Astoria which has become the oldest settlement west of the Rockies.

Present-day Astoria, Oregon, shows both its history of ties to the sea and trade in some of the buildings at the docks and its focus on the future with the waterfront trolley. The trolley passes an observation deck, restaurants, and shops that beckon to tourists and locals alike.

Not far from the docks is the Astoria Column. Built in 1926, the 125-foot column atop 600-foot Coxcomb Hill was the last of a series of 12 historical markers erected between St. Paul, Minnesota and Astoria. These markers were the pet project of Ralph Budd, president of the Great Northern Railroad. He wanted to salute Astoria's explorers and early settlers for their critical role in the United States' expansion to the Pacific.

The Column's 14 25-foot-long scenes represent the triumphs, conflicts, and turning points of the Pacific Northwest. The Italian immigrant artist, Attilo Pusterla, used a bas relief technique called sgraffito, an art form that combines paint and plaster carvings, to create these scenes.

A short distance from the Column is this cement replica of the Ceremonial Burial Canoe of Comcomly, the Great Chief of the Chinook Nation (1763-1830).

During his lifetime he was a trader, navigator, and not only befriender of Lewis and Clark, but also benefactor of the early Astorians.

The ever-present fog (at least it was so during our stay in the Cannon Beach area) prevented us from making a photographic record of the view of the Columbia River and Youngs Bay from Coxcomb Hill.

We headed south from Astoria to the coastal town of Seaside with the fog as a traveling companion. About four blocks from the ocean, we saw this twosome on the Necanicum River in town. Even late in the morning there was lingering fog.

We headed to the beach to see just how the fog was affecting beach activity. A few ghostly figures were walking on the beach, two were involved in a type of volleyball activity, and a few were burying a member of the family in a mound of sand.

On this cloudy, misty, cool day a little activity on the swings was about it for beach play.

At the end of Broadway was the Lewis and Clark statue entitled "End of the Trail" to commemorate the journey of the first Americans to traverse the Continent to reach the Pacific Coast. This statue is in the center of the auto turnaround.

A walk along the beach would be along the two-mile-long promenade in front of the hotels, motels, and residences along the oceanfront. The “Prom” was originally built around 1908 as a boardwalk, and that original boardwalk was replaced with the cement structure.

The main street in Seaside is Broadway. This runs perpendicular to the ocean and is lined with shops, restaurants, and the usual resort souvenir shops, bumper car rides, corn dog windows, and two special shops that we had to visit.

The Buzz on Broadway doesn't just sell chocolate Twinkies. The have chocolate cherry, cherry, and orange Twinkies.

All we need to see are the words "soda fountain," and we're at a couple of stools. We each had a cone and asked about the bottles of soda they had displayed at the Flashback Soda Fountain.

Well, just a couple doors away was a store that had some 200 varieties of soda, many of which are only being made in small quantities by small bottlers.

We asked about Nehi Orange, which is no longer bottled, but we did find a dozen bottles that we wanted to taste again--or, in some cases, for the first time. Four of the dozen are shown here (right).

We're not sure what to eat with Moxie Blue Cream.

Our walk back to the truck took us past this residence. I thught the weathered appearance presented an interesting visual appeal.