White-knuckled adventure!

ITS ON!!

Nor sleet nor ice, wind or rain... Isn't that the motto of the postal service? Well those folks are much better than me! If nobody has noticed we've been having some wacky weather the past few days. It was very annoying actually. Going from sunshine to snow, to rain to snow to sunshine to sunshine with bellow freezing temps. I had planned for at least the last month to take Mike to the seafood and wine festival and as the day got closer I started getting nervous. As any good Pacific Northwesterner knows you can't just drive straight to the coast. Oh its like a goddamn holiday song to get there. Over the river and through the woods to grandmothers house we go! Only it's over the river through the woods and the fricken mountains! Ok so it was plenty cold on Friday when we anticipated leaving but it had been sunny all day and there hadn't been any snow on the roads as had been promised. So We put our brave faces on and headed west. Mind you I was starting to have second thoughts because I didn't realize this event was so big! I've heard of the seafood festival but for one until we started doing some research late last year we hadn't any idea that it took place in the dead of winter. Makes sense... but here I was thinking something in the summer, outdoors in the sunshine; kids with kites and all that mushy crap. Ok so reality is that it takes place in the dead of winter on the coast in a warehouse. Ok I can handle that. But it's also crazy busy and you should be there at least an hour before they let people in. Uh... what? It's like just below freezing, on the coast, in the dead of winter and you want me to stand in line for how long?! Oh the things I do for mike...
I got off work early with full intentions of heading out before sundown to beat traffic or whatever. Instead Mike picks me up and takes me to the gym. How socially responsible of him! It was worth it I admit. I felt better about the impending doom of my diet at the hands of this seafood fest. So we hit the road after spending too many points on lunch and spending too much time trying to get mike out the door. As we started climbing in elevation my blood pressure was headed in the same direction. We passed a giant blinking sign that said "Carry snow chains or studded tires". Oh shit should I just turn around?! But we kept on going slowly but surely. It really wasn't as awful as I thought it would be. It was just scary because it was dark and the weather has been so crappy that frankly I had no idea if I'd be seeing any ice on the road or not seeing it which would really be the problem. Snow on the sides of the road just elevated my anxiety. There was a moment where I *did* hit some ice and thought I might die. My heart was in my throat the rest of the way. I think someone must have been looking out for us. Insane as it might sound I felt safer being behind the wheel than I would have felt if it were Mike. I had decided if we were going to die I'd prefer it have been me causing my own demise and not mike causing my demise. It is insane. We have established I'm at least a sandwich short of a picnic.
As you can imagine we made it there safely. We checked into our hotel, a step above motel 6 but you know what it had cable haha, I was gonna say it was warm but it wasn't. We brought our own blanket and it came in handy. We had dinner at the Newport Cafe which was tasty if you ask me. Mike made a snap decision to have an oyster omelet. I think he was less than impressed by his choice. Gawd I love shrimp... just a quick stop at McD's for a sundae and back to our room to settle in and get up early to stand in line in the cold. Oh how exciting...
I had a rough night sleep, we were sharing a full size uh.. maybe a queen. I woke up nearly off the bed. I kept pushing mike over but he wouldn't budge. When I dragged my ass out of bed to pee I realized that bastard was hording a good 2-3 feet of bed! I got back in bed and pushed his chunky ass over. This morning rehashing said events Mike admitted he thought I was trying to push him off the bed. So the plan for the morning was to get up and mosey on over to the stop for the shuttle but first we needed cash. I got some gloves and a scarf at the local Walmart and some cash for the road. The bus left just as we pulled into the lot. Ugh so much for that! We figured we'd be better off just driving ourselves anyway and paying the $5. We found the event and parking on the street directly across from the entrance free of charge wooo! And guess what else? NO LINE AT 10 AM!!! Hell yes score: Jones' 2; Newport 0. We went in and first thing we decided on was breakfast. Crepes to be exact fricken awesome!! I had a crepeadilla haha it was great! While I waited I got some moscato mmm winning combination! Breakfast out of the way we did some more drinking and some more drinking. Mike found some beer I found more wine. We found some oysters, and octopus, and awesome dips and more wine. Shrimp... mmmm good times. I was just tipsy enough to get through the crowds without loosing my mind. By the time we left about 3hrs later we had collected smoked salmon, some mead and some dips to bring home. The line was now nearly around the building... SUCKERS! All in an a successful trip. We had a really good time together which is always a bonus. Our shrink will be happy to hear that. Now if we could only find some stuff to do together that doesn't include food as the main focal point. Well whatever we had fun and we didn't blow all of our points before coming home. Newport, we will definitely be back. We'll wait until summer though. Thanks!