Yachats

Yachats is a town on the Oregon coast just south of us with a population of about 500.  Arthur Frommer, the guy who writes the travel guides, listed Yachats number seven among his ten favorite vacation destinations in the world.  All I can say to that is "What has this guy been smoking?"  I mean, it's a nice little town but that's about all.  Number seven?   In the whole world?  He must have hit his head on something that morning.  Now maybe he was using Yachats as a stand-in for the entire central Oregon coast, which is still an over-statement but at least it's arguable.  However in that case what he's really saying is Yachats is nice because you don't have to stay there.  You can go to Florence or Newport or wherever.  But a week within the actual city limits of Yachats?  Dullsville.

Outlet of the Yachats River flows past the town

There is some disagreement over where the name comes from.  Several native tribes lived in the area but the words in the various languages that might have corrupted down to "Yachats" all have unrelated meanings,  So it's hard to say what the name originally referred to.  What  everyone agrees on is that it should be pronounced YAH-hahts.  Everyone except me that is. I've always pronounced it to rhyme with ratchets and will continue to do so until they remove the freakin' "c".  The town is built on sea shell middens which means it is basically a garbage dump left behind by the earlier inhabitants. They don't mention this in the tourist brochures.

One of the first nights we were here we drove down to Yachats because Vicki was Jonesing for seafood.  There is a little fish market and restaurant (by little I mean 4 or 5 tables worth) called the Luna Sea Fish House which is reputed to have some fine deep fried goodness inside.  Much of the fineness comes from the fact that the owner operates his own fishing boat and catches much of what he serves himself.  I had halibut fish and chips which was not quite as good as the stuff in Bandon but was none too shabby.  Vicki had fried oysters (aren't we all surprised).  We returned yesterday afternoon and I had a grilled salmon sandwich on ciabatta bread which was fabulous.  Vicki had oysters again but grilled this time.  She is non-commital which I suspect means she like the fried version better.

Yachats River Covered Bridge

In the middle of Yachats there is a road you can turn on that goes through the town's residential area then continues inland following the Yachats River.  If you follow this road for about 9 miles and do not get deterred when the pavement runs out at about mile 7, it will take you to another small covered bridge left over from the last century.  It was built in 1938 and refurbished in 1989 and is serviceable for one car going one direction at one time.  If you can't find the bridge, don't worry.  The drive is worth it anyway.

The drive is worth it.

Yachats farmer's market

On Sunday mornings Yachats hosts a farmers' market in their commons from May until mid-October.  We visited last Sunday and had better luck than when we did this in Minnesota a while back.  In addition to some fresh lettuce and green onions, we also scored some farm fresh eggs which were notable for the variety of colors they showed.  A few tables down a woman was selling goose eggs and I couldn't resist picking up a couple of.  They are huge and one should easily feed two.  At another booth I tried some "Brazilian Stew" which

Brazilian stew

contained beans and sausage and about 20 different kinds of vegetables.  It was quite good.  We picked up some fresh bread from a local bakery and got a couple of jars of jam made with actual fruit, not that weird basil and red pepper stuff they were hawking in Minnesota.  A pretty good haul for a Sunday morning.  Of course a farmers' market is probably the most expensive way possible to buy produce, but you figure you're paying partly for the entertainment value.

Yesterday I made us an omelet with one goose egg, some fake

Goose egg - meal for two

crab salad and half an avocado.  The interesting thing about the goose egg is that it seems to have an awful lot of yolk compared to the amount of white, but I couldn't really tell any difference once is was all omeletted up.  It definitely served two handsomely.

I'm sure we'll get back to Yachats a few more times in the next couple of weeks since we have to drive through it to get anywhere further south.  If anything else interesting is discovered I will be the first to let you know.

Farm fresh rainbow eggs