Losers, Weepers

Lincoln City has this lovely little tradition called Finders Keepers, where they scatter beautiful, blown glass floats along their beaches for people to find.  It's one of the most brilliant tourist-lures I've ever come across, and it's been going on for about fifteen years.  I first heard about it perhaps a decade ago, and while I've always wanted to participate, I never actually have.

Until today.

It being my birthday weekend, and the ocean being My Happy Place, I decided that what I really wanted was for today to be the day that Neeps got to see the Pacific Ocean for the first time.  In a happy coincidence, today also kicked off a week's worth of "special glass art drop", so I decided that the the time had finally come for me to go beach combing.

If you saw the title of this post, I'm sure it will come as no surprise to you that, in spite of spending a couple of hours doggedly trudging up and down the beach, we did not find a single float.  I did, however, anoint my son with ocean water, and we saw a whole lotta' seals, so it wasn't a total bust.  I briefly considered buying myself a float from one of the various hot shops out there, but I decided it simply wouldn't have the same satisfaction- and this way perhaps we can make it a family tradition to go out seeking for birthdays (since all three of us fall withing Finders Keepers season).  And/or I'll fork over the money for the super-awesome experience of blowing my own, something I've wanted to do since I worked at the Museum of Glass after college.

(No for real- who wants to get me an awesome birthday present?)

What we did find (after a retrospectively-comical series of mishaps that had me growling, "Lincoln City is great- unless you actually want to eat food.") was a wonderful little restaurant called Tiki's at 51st.  They were 1) open, 2) accepted credit cards, 3) minor-friendly, 4) dog-friendly, and 5) had gluten-free options.  (By the time we went there we'd been trying to find a place for close to an hour, and I definitely called them to check on all of those things, because I had learned that apparently double-checking is required in Lincoln City, never mind what the damn website says).

But yes.  Tiki's.  Good food, good people.  I even got a gluten-free cinnamon roll to go, to eat for my Birthday Breakfast tomorrow.