Lincoln City Learning Feast

Monday, September 26, 2011

Check out my one and only tomato! Yep, when you live a couple blocks from the beach growing food can be interesting. Between wind, slugs and the lack of intense heat in the summer, it’s a challenge to grow food here.

As summer wanes to autumn we invite you to experience all the cool stuff to do here in Lincoln City. This is the best time of year here and we have a new event to offer you this year. It’s called the Learning Feast, a series of fun experiences that offer you a chance to learn and do something that you have always wanted to do.

The courses for this year’s Learning Feast include making soap and cheese from goats’ milk, beginning photography & special photographic techniques, glass fusing, wood carving & bark carving for beginning and intermediate levels, shell printing on rice paper with metallic watercolors, homemade spa treatments, anatomy for artists, Oregon autumn harvest cooking, Italian cooking, building your own guitar and Sky Hunters…an educational introduction to birds of prey featuring live owls, hawks and other raptors.

Learn something new, discover your passion, make Christmas presents for everyone on your list or start a new freelance career. Go to http://www.oregoncoast.org/fall-learning-feast/ for a full listing of classes, times, fees and instructors. And we are even sweetening the deal. Go to http://www.oregoncoast.org/katu/ to sign up for a fantastic giveaway package! Win a stay at the Sandcastle Hotel, $100 toward the Learning Feast class of your choice, a free glass-blowing experience, dinner at The Bay House (one of the best restaurants in the Pacific Northwest!) and much more! Classes start October 15 and run through October 29. Sign up now before these classes fill up without you. Get educated. Get creative. Get yourself to Lincoln City for the Learning Feast.

Mushroom madness

Friday, September 23, 2011

No, it isn’t a lumpy prop from the original Star Trek series. It is one of the many strange and wonderful types of fungi that grow around Lincoln City and in our Coast Range. The one you’re looking at is NOT edible, but it still looks pretty cool, huh?

If you are a wild mushroom aficionado, then don’t miss our wild mushroom weekend at the Lincoln City Culinary Center. On Thursday, Sept, 29 our chefs will put on a wild mushroom risotto demo. For $20, you will sit in on a professional cooking demonstration AND get to enjoy the results afterward. Savor Arborio rice slow-cooked with wine, wild chanterelles and other local mushrooms, finishing with Parmesan reggiano. You get all this, plus a wine pairing and a $5 coupon for a full length class at our culinary center.

But, wait…there’s more! On Saturday, October 1, Lincoln City hosts the annual Wild Mushroom Cook-Off. Be at our culinary center to watch chefs vie for mushroom mastery. This event is free, though taster-sized portions are available for a nominal fee. There will be live cooking demonstrations, wild mushrooms for sale, food vendors, wild mushroom identification, wild mushroom books, a wild mushroom gathering foray and much more.

Sign up for the risotto class now before it gets full. My friend, Anna, and I signed up for a sushi and Japanese cuisine class last year. We loved it! And we both still make sushi and miso soup for our families at home. More than worth the price of admission. And we got to eat everything we made during class in the dining room of the culinary center…with a spectacular view of the ocean and Cascade Head out the windows. Don’t miss your turn to enjoy a truly one-of-a-kind experience. Call 541-557-1125 or email sharonw@lincolncity.org to sign up. Now. Do it now. Really.

Celebration of Honor

Friday, September 16, 2011

Every year Lincoln City sets aside the fourth weekend of September to pay tribute to active military personnel and veterans. Not only do we roll out the red carpet for our military and their families, but we honor and thank them for their service. Join us in Lincoln City September 21-27 for Celebration of Honor.

If you are active military or a veteran, Lincoln City extends a warm invitation to your and your family. You are especially welcome here.

Celebration of Honor is a series of moving and fun events designed to honor our heroes and allow the rest of us to thank them. Chinook Winds Casino Resort plays center stage for the celebration; there will be a traveling replica of the Vietnam Wall set up there along with a field of 1000 flags. Kick off the tribute with a flag-raising at SW 51^st Street by the North Lincoln Fire & Rescue. Don’t miss the SOS Breakfast at Henry’s Lighthouse Doughnuts, our 5K Run/Walk for Honor, motorcycle runs, a Coast Guard fly over and much more, culminating in the Veterans of Oregon Medal award ceremony and the reading of the names of Oregonians who have died while serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.

There will be free movies, free coupon books for our outlet mall, free admission to our Community Center (pool, water slide and workout rooms) and more for active military and veterans. There will be displays of military memorabilia, a special exhibit at our museum and a flag display at the Taft Pioneer Cemetery. You must see the red, white and blue display of giant kites flying over the D River Wayside. And to keep things interesting, our Visitors and Convention Bureau will scatter 50 red, white and blue hand-blown glass floats on our beaches for you to find and keep.

Please join us for this unifying, fun and memorable event. Visit www.chinookwindscasino.com and www.oregoncoast.org for schedule times and locations.

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Monday, September 5, 2011

Now is the most wonderful time of the year in Lincoln City. For those of us who live here, we endure long soggy winters, fitful springs and not-quite-summers to get to this season. Late summer and early fall bring a warmer jet stream from southern California to our ocean waters and that warms everything else.

The breeze is warmer. The temperatures are warmer, yet still more pleasant than east of our protective Coast Range. The sky is a crisp blue, the nights are cool and autumn is just starting to soften the edges of life. Come to Lincoln City and let the natural beauty of our waves, water and sunlight soften the edges of your life, too.

Our beaches, lake, rivers and bay await your adventures. This is the time of year when outdoor activities reign on the Coast. Enjoy fishing, clamming, kayaking, hiking, hunting, charter fishing, biking, parasailing, agate hunting, geocaching, kite flying, boating or just relaxing with a locally brewed beer on the beach.

Lincoln City rolls out our outdoor activities during this time of year, too. We have our Fall Kite Festival, the Iris Pride Festival, the Surf City Classic Car Show, Celebration of Honor, Artober Fest, the Devils Lake Speed Boat Time Trials…join us for these outdoor events and more. Come hang out with the locals in Lincoln City and learn why we love this time of year more than any other.

Go to http://www.oregoncoast.org/ and click on Calendar or Events to get more information on these fun and fabulous events. Visit http://www.lcchamber.com/ for more information on the Artober Fest.

(photo credit: Richard Wilson)