Blue Heron Cheese French Cheese Company
September 2021
Tillamook, Oregon
I had a decent month with regard to my reading, finishing five books for the RIP challenge and one extra that I had started listening to in August. Three of the books were very good, but the others were somewhat mediocre.
The Most Fun We Ever Had by Claire Lombardo (4.5/5)
A Finer End by Deborah Crombie (2/5)
In the Market for Murder by T.E. Kinsey (3/5)
The One I Left Behind by Jennifer McMahon (4/5)
The Survivors by Jane Harper (2/5)
The Madness of Crowds by Louise Penny (4/5)
Wild Bill - We finished the series and thought it was pretty goofy. Fans of Death in Paradise will probably enjoy it more than I did.
Whitstable Pearl - Entertaining, but not as good as I'd hoped.
Worth - Very good. We watched it right around the 20th anniversary of 9/11, which made it even more moving.
McDonald & Dodds - Much better than I'd anticipated! I hope a third season is in the works.
Supernova - Great cast & acting, but somehow this fell short for me.
Guilt -Very good. Loved the way it kept me guessing. Definitely need to turn on the subtitles for this one!
Only 85 days until Christmas. Have you started shopping for gifts?
Movies & TV Series:
Puzzlemania:
Road Trip:
As I mentioned, we took a short trip up the coast to one of our favorite state parks in Oregon. We've been seven times in the past three years! There were very few empty campsites (thanks to Covid, everyone wants to own an RV!) and we typically prefer to go in the off-season, but it was still nice to have some time to do nothing but read, walk on the beach and make new friends. We even discovered a new-to-us Mexican restaurant in Manzanita that has great margaritas, in addition to pretty good food. We went twice in three days. ;)
Only 85 days until Christmas. Have you started shopping for gifts?
I've taken notes of the movies/shows you watched. Right now we are watching the last season of "Spiral" and we'll have to find a new show to add to our list! So true about the RVs, even my husband who doesn't like driving said he was looking at RVs. I'm like what?! haha... Loved reading a look back at your month. Wishing safe and fun travels!
ReplyDeleteIliana, I'll have to check out Spiral, although our TBW list is almost as long as my TBR list. :) Too funny about your husband looking at RVs. I love that people are looking at it as a way to travel and explore the country, but I wish the parks weren't so crowded!
DeleteYour road trip sounds fantastic, especially if you discovered good Mexican food!
ReplyDeleteAnd you've gotten in some really good watching, I'll have to make note of those shows/movies to check them out.
Helen, we've been to Nehalem so many times, but never tried the Mexican restaurant until some friends recommended it. We'll definitely return the next time we're up there. Knowing us, we'll plan a trip just to get more of those margaritas! ;)
DeleteWe didn't really like the second season of M & D. I thought the bickering tone, and her lack of appreciation of him ended with season 1, but it still went on. We stopped watching. And as I wrote in my Whitstable post, the TV show wasn't a bit like the books. I liked them much, much better.
ReplyDeleteAnd Wild Bill was just silly, I thought. Lots of flack on igram about the show because people feel he got off easily on a serious crime/charge whatever it was.
I am, however, a huge fan of Death in Paradise.
I've liked all the Kinsey books but don't remember a thing!
Nan, isn't that how it goes? Books are 99% of the time better than the movie/TV series. I'll have to look for Whitstable Pearl at the library. Rod is a huge fan of Death in Paradise, too. I enjoyed the first season, but when they made the switch with actors, I lost interest.
DeleteI have loved every different guy! And the women. That's an interesting thing about British TV shows. They change the cast. Even longtime shows have different actors in the lead. I don't watch much (any) US TV anymore so don't know if they do it here or not.
DeleteNan, it doesn't bother Rod, either. Maybe if I went into the show knowing the cast would eventually change, I wouldn't mind so much.
DeleteFirst of all, so happy you guys got another road trip and the food looks great! We watched M & D too and liked it. Hope there will be another season. The Whitstable series was ok as well. We love Death in Paradise too, but are caught up there too. Have not tried the others. And 'regular' TV is back plus football and soon basketball so there will be more to see.
ReplyDeleteKay, it's been nice getting back out on the road, even for short trips up the coast. I wish we could have taken a longer journey to a new location, but we're hoping to get up to Alaska next summer, so that should do! :) As I mentioned to Nan, I enjoyed Death in Paradise, but lost interest when some of the original actors left the show. Rod loves it though and we tease him about his love for "Penguins in Paradise" (which is why I messed up the name of the show in this post, which I have since corrected). You forgot to mention watching the baseball playoffs & World Series! ;) Ha!
DeleteLots of great reading and watching last month, Les. The extra road trip is a bonus, too! In addition to not reading much in September, I don't think we watched much of anything either! Oh well, on to October...
ReplyDeleteJoAnn, it was a good month! My reading is taking off again and we're on another road trip (heading south), so I can't complain. Hope you have better luck with your books this month.
DeleteI love a place with good margaritas! Can't believe it's October. Sigh does that mean winter is on the way? Luckily it's still pretty here which I hope lasts a good long while. Love your beach pics and the puzzle. I wouldn't mind seeing Worth ... I hadn't known about it ... but we haven't been getting Netflix the last few months, just Prime & HBO. You had a good RIP month of reads. & a pretty nice trip north for R & R. Happy October.
ReplyDeleteSusan, the margaritas were so good! I had one in the restaurant and got one to go to have by the campfire. :) I wound up only drinking half of that one that night and saved the other half for the next afternoon.
DeleteAh, yes. Winter is coming. Ours won't be as brutal as yours, but the darker days tend to get old. I'll be back on my Peloton since I don't care to walk in the rain, so my audio listening will drop off somewhat.
My RIP reading continues to go well, although I did give up on several from my list after reading just a page or two. It's almost time to start putting together my stack for Nonfiction November. I love list-making!
What?? Christmas in 85 days? No, I have not started even thinking about it yet, LOL.
ReplyDeleteSo glad you had such a lovely trip to the coast. We love Nehalem State Park.
Laurel, I know! We don't buy gifts for very many people anymore, but there are still some that I need to start thinking about.
DeleteSo far, Nehalem SP is our favorite state park in Oregon. We're currently in Bandon (Bullard's Beach), which is also nice, but I prefer Nehalem. I can walk to the beach much more quickly and Manzanita is nicer than Bandon. We need to start exploring the parks in eastern Oregon, but the fires are always discouraging.
Mmmm. That Mexican food looks like the real deal. Delish!
ReplyDeleteI know. October. My neighbors put their Halloween stuff up. We didn't, yet. We plan to this weekend. It's cool in the morning but hot, very hot come the afternoon so my body doesn't know what to think.
I feel the return to work dread coming even though I am the only one who was not told when to return. I asked twice but apparently they are busy and I can work from here without any problems so I shall continue to do that until told otherwise.
Ti, that Mexican food was the real deal! After living in San Diego for 20 years, we got very spoiled with good Mexican food. We finally found some favorites in Nebraska, but it's been rough finding anything decent in Oregon. We now have a spot in Manzanita and Reedsport, but they're a bit of a drive just for lunch, so we'll hit them whenever we're camping nearby.
DeleteI hope you can continue working from home as long as you like. I'm sure it's your preference, right? It would be mine!
A decent month for the R.I.P. reads, I should say so! You read more for that than I read in all of September. It was an abysmal month for my reading, when I thought that I would retire and have all the time in the world to read as I chose. Hmmmm, well, being a leader for Bible Study Fellowship and the care of some older friends who are having trouble seeing/driving, is taking up some of time, albeit in a worthwhile way.
ReplyDeleteI love the photograph of that Mexican food…well, I love Mexican food! And, I’ll share a drink with you any time! I think a margarita is my favorite mixed drink ever. We have a place called Fat Rosie’s, of which there’s one in Chicago, too, which serves the best empanadas, and Margaritas, I’ve ever had in the Midwest. When we were in San Diego, though, for Daniel’s graduation from the Marines, those were the closest I’ve ever had to authentic in the States.
How lovely to travel as you do, to see the mountains and the oceans, and all your good friends. I am so happy for you and Rod and your good life together. Xoxo
Meredith, I'm really pleased with the books I've been reading for the RIP challenge. My two current books are very good, too, so I think I'll have a strong finish for the month.
DeleteI thought I'd read a lot after we retired and moved to Oregon, but I think I'm reading about the same. I don't usually read during the day, so my nighttime reading is no different than it was when I was working at B&N.
Mmmm, margaritas and empanadas sound wonderful right now! Yes, San Diego has the BEST Mexican food. I love it when we visit family down there. :)
We are on the road again, enjoying our little house on wheels. It's such fun to be able to go on these road trips with my hubby. We are very fortunate. Maybe someday we'll get out to your neck of the woods!
xoxo
You had a great month. I'd like to look for The Most Fun...in fact, I may already have a copy around here...somewhere!
ReplyDeleteWe really wanted to visit Oregon on our fall field trip, but we just couldn't get up the nerve to fly, and driving was much too far. Maybe next year. I'd love to visit that Mexican food spot, too.
Deb, I'll be interested to hear if you like it. I think part of my enjoyment was in the narration of the audio book and I don't know if I would have rated it as high had I read the print version.
DeleteI'm sorry your trip to Oregon didn't work out this year, but maybe it will be in the cards next year. I feel the same about traveling to TN to visit our daughter. We don't want to fly and it's such a long drive!
My FB friend who lives in Bandon is just posted about how excited she is for the king tides which should be in November. Your new header picture made me think of that. I remember her pictures from last year and how magnificent those huge crashing waves were!
ReplyDeleteI wish we'd been able to spend more time on the Oregon coast while we were there. Your pictures are always gorgeous. We did drive down the coastal road (101? 1?) from Cannon Beach to Tillamook and it was breathtaking.
You've made me hungry for Mexican and I only have ingredients for mushroom stroganoff for dinner tonight! Oh well.
Enjoy your last trip in the RV!
Jen, king tides are pretty exciting around here! We don't have an ocean view, but our neighborhood ocean pathway is just a short walk from the house and we enjoy heading out to see the big waves crashing against the bluff. We can hear the waves at night when we have our windows open and, at times, they sound like thunder.
DeleteI hope you get a chance to return to Oregon, whether for another assignment or just to play tourists. Yes, Hwy 101 is a beautiful way to see the coast and we've taken all the way from the north end of the state all the way down into Southern CA.
We had a very nice trip to Santa Rosa and will have one more short trip before the end of the year. We're trying to decide if we should brave the chance of snow showers and head over to LaPine (which is near Bend, OR). We've booked a week at the state park and can always cancel, only losing our $8 reservation fee. Of course, there's always Nehalem for another getaway, if we get a dry spell later this winter.