More Beer!

So apparently the entire state of Oregon is beer nirvana.  I already knew that Bend had more than its share of excellent brewpubs, but I found out that Astoria - of all places - seems to be the next hotbed of microbrewing outside of Portland.  I left my Aussie husband at home to road trip to the coast and meet up with a couple of girlfriends for the weekend.  I had no expectations for the charming town of Astoria, so was quite pleasantly surprised to find it had – count them – 3 brewpubs.   As it was windy and rainy, the obvious choice for lunch was the Wet Dog café attached to the Astoria Brewing Co.  I was slightly disappointed in their beers, as they were all very hoppy and needed some balance.   The food, however, was quite tasty, with a pretty wide ranging menu.  After lunch we noticed that the weather had cleared a little, so set out for the Column, a lighthouse shaped monument at the top of a hill with a staircase to the top.  A very wind-y spiral staircase.  Which made for an interesting trip back down, after those beers at lunch.   As a friend once said, “more beer will fix it!”  so to calm our nerves and sooth our stomachs we headed for the Fort George brewery.   Now this was my kind of place!  Well-balanced (but still hoppy) beers, and oyster shooters on the bar menu.  We got some strange looks from the other tables as we tried to down some of the biggest oysters I have seen in shooters, but we figured hey -nobody knows us here!  Yes, we took pictures, and no, I am not going to post them.

The last option was Rogue, which had a great place on the river.  Their beers are reliably good and reliably interesting.  All in all, a very productive day!  We returned to our hotel and as this was a “girls’ weekend” we gave ourselves facials with cucumber slices to sooth our eyes.  No, I’m not posting those pictures either.