Monday, August 27, 2012

Mid-Vacation Break

We decided to take one day where everyone could do whatever they wanted. For the most part we didn't go/do very much when we were together besides going to play a lot of tennis and crabbing. And the only meal eaten out was for Dad's birthday, so this was our chance to do all the things we love to do on the Oregon Coast. We chased the sun and headed out of the bay to Oswald West State Park for a hike to Cape Falcon. Needless to say, the beach was packed.

Oswald West Beach Area

Crowded Oswald West Beach

Oregon hiking is hard to beat with old growth forests, canopy of lush scenery and views to die for.

Fallen tree along the path

Hiking to Cape Falcon

View of Cape Falcon

Mike at Cape Falcon

The rocks at Cape Falcon

Oswald West

Oswald West Coved Beach

Surfers at Oswald West

My favorite stretch of Oregon beaches is south of Cannon Beach and beyond, with cute beaches such as Hug Point, Manzanita and everything inbetween, so we decided to stop off at cute little Neahkahnie Beach for some lounge time after our hike.

Neahkania Beach

Path to Neahkania Beach

Enjoying the sunshine at Neahkania Beach

Us on Neahkania Beach

At Neahkania Beach

We had the best of intentions to eat the small lunch we packed, but it was way pass lunchtime and we were ready for dinner, so we jumped in the car and headed to cute Cannon Beach for something to eat. Technology is simply amazing, instead of wandering up and down Cannon Beach's main street (which isn't a bad way to spend an afternoon), we simply consulted the TripAdvisor app on our phones and quickly found out there was a sushi and Japanese cuisine restaurant newly opened in town. Owned by the same chef who has a successful upscale French/Italian Seafood restaurant in town, we decided to give it a try. Fishes looked very uninviting like we were stepping into a conference center at first, but the interiors were very cute, especially the sushi tiki-styled bar.

Fishes Sushi & Japanese Cuisine Restaurant

Fishes Sushi Bar Cover

Rogue Brewery's Morimoto Black Obi Soba Ale

So how was the food? Well sometimes you can't separate the food from the service, especially when it comes to sushi and if you end up sitting at the sushi bar. And all we can say is Fishes seemed to be ran by a bunch of high school kids who wanted to hang out and make some extra summer cash. The whole operation was amateur to say the least, but one thing we can say for Fishes is it is damn lucky they are so close to the ocean, the quality of the ingredients made up for the lack of proper sushi rolling technique and poorly executed/timed service. The menu is very limited to just the basics, so we didn't expect too much. However, how often is it you can get dungeness crab california roll and a chirashi bowl that actually had locally caught tuna and not imported/unsustainable bluefin? The sushi rice was also really good.

Dungeness Crab California Roll

Tempura Veggie Roll

Chirashi Bowl

We had ordered the teriyaki beef medium rare, which came scorched to beyond well done, so we sent it back and waited for a re-fire, like we said a bunch of highschool kids running the place. But our sweet waitress felt extremely bad and offered up two complimentary desserts. We had been eyeing the desserts since we haven't had many sweets since Dad's ice cream cake a couple of days ago, so we opted for the ginger creme brulee and the sake sorbet. The creme brulee was custardy and exactly what we were expecting. The sake sorbet on the other hand was stellar. When it arrived we thought it was nicely shaved iced with sake poured over, but no, it was creamy like ice cream with a definite punch of sake. Delish!

Ginger Creme Brulee

Sake Sorbet

It was such a lovely day. We had a great time and a well appreciated vacation break from our vacation.

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