Posts Tagged: vacation

The crowd erupted into a roar as Chinook Winds’ New Year’s Eve Vintage Circus began!  The night started off with a special VIP dinner that included fantastic performances by acrobats, jugglers, stilt walkers and dancers. At 9pm the main event kicked off with live music from Portland’s Big Night Out! Guests danced the night away in our convention center as we got closer to midnight.  Throughout the evening, attendees were encouraged to step right up to our photo booth and receive a memento New Year’s Eve photo.  10pm came and one lucky winner picked the lucky card to win our $100,000 Aviator drawing! Right as our winner was announced, DJ Metal kicked off another party in our Showroom! Our Chinook’s Seafood Grill rang in the New Year with performances by Flexor T and Shades of Huey.  Time Machine played throughout our celebration at Aces Sports Bar and Grill.  Before we knew it, Midnight was here and special ball drops kicked off the new decade! We hope this next year brings joy to all of you. Happy 2020 from all of us at Chinook Winds!

According to Google the average American eats nearly 18 pounds of bacon each year. You know what this means…… Our fifth annual Beach, Bacon and Brews Festival is coming up in a few weeks! $25 entry fee gets you access to live music, free beer tasting from local Pacific Northwest microbreweries. The entry fee also includes 5 free bacon bits to start your tasting journey of delicious bacon recipes. Bacon bits are $1 per taste and all proceeds from them go to the charities you choose to spend them trying samples from. This year ten charities are competing for the title of best bacon recipe!

Chinook Winds and Sunnyvalley Smoked Meats partnered together the first year to supply the bacon to the competitors. By the second year of Beach, Bacon and Brews They became the full bacon sponsor. Bigfoot Beverages has been the beverage sponsor from the beginning and breweries from all over Oregon come to bring samples of their best brews. Charity recipes change every year and there are three types of judging: Top two professional chef recipes, top two amateur recipes, one people’s Choice for bacon and one people’s choice of best brew.
Breweries from all over Oregon are serving up their specialty tastes of beer and cider. Take advantage of an opportunity to sample craft beer from local breweries. Current breweries scheduled to take part this year are: Ace Cider, Arch Rock, Avid Cider, Bauman’s Cider, Breakside Brewery, Fort George Brewery, Goodlife Brewing, Groundbreaker Brewing, McKenzie Brewing, Nectar Creek Mead, Ninkasi Brewing, Oakshire Brewing, Pelican Brewery and Three Creeks brewing.

Live music is a huge part of Beach, Bacon and Brews. This year Rock ‘N’ Roll Cowboys, Short Notice and Fun with Jo will be performing live from our stage next to the tent. Sip brews; eat bacon and enjoy live entertainment that adds fantastic atmosphere every year! Rock ‘N’ Roll Cowboys hit the stage from 12pm to 1:30pm. Fun with Jo comes on stage from 2pm to 3:30pm with Short Notice performing from 4pm to 5:30pm. Awards will be announced shortly after. Tickets are available now online, by phone or in person at our box office at Winners Circle. Come join us July 13th from noon until 6pm and support our wonderful local charities while having a blast!

A little history about Beach, Bacon and Brews. It all started with James Myers from the Newport Food Pantry, he pitched the idea for a north Lincoln County event and had previously participated in a Tuna BBQ elsewhere. He thought a bacon event in Lincoln City would be fun! James Myers graciously coordinates the charity teams every year and has built a wonderful working relationship throughout the years. “For the non-profits this gives them needed funds to help support their programs and allows them to share their missions with the attendees From support for a battered women’s shelter to a summer youth baseball program the money raised these ten groups put the funds earned towards activities that benefit our entire county,” James Myers. The 2019 participating charities are: Lincoln City Chamber of Commerce, Depoe Bay Food Pantry, Family Promise of Lincoln County, American Legion Post #116, My Sister’s Place, Taft Tiger Boosters, Bay City Cruisers, RSVP and Mouse Factory Cooperative Preschool.

Here is a recipe for a fantastic 7-Layer Salad that is sure to be a hit at your next gathering.
Ingredients:
1 medium size lettuce, shredded
½ cup thinly sliced green onion
1 cup thinly sliced celery
1 cup (8 oz) water chestnuts
1 package of frozen peas
2 cups mayonnaise
2 teaspoons sugar
½ cup grated cheddar cheese
1 teaspoon garlic powder
¾ pound bacon, crisply cooked
3 hardboiled eggs, chopped
2 medium tomatoes cut into wedges.

Assemble the night before in a 3 to 4-quart glass dish. Make a layer of shredded lettuce, top with layer each of onion, celery, water chestnuts, peas. Spread mayonnaise. Sprinkle sugar, cheese and garlic powder. Cover and refrigerate until the next day. Crumble bacon into salad, sprinkle on chopped eggs and arrange tomato wedges around the salad. Enjoy!

Summer is coming upon us! Who is ready for a good excuse to visit the beach? Here are some of our upcoming events that give back to our veterans and local charities!

Kicking off the summer events is our 24th Anniversary, with Clay Walker performing on June 20th and 21st at 8pm and the big fireworks show on June 22nd at approximately 10pm. We have the Brewers Classic Golf Tournament, benefiting Lincoln City scholarships, on June 29th. That same weekend we have the first annual Bigfoot Fest! Complete with escape room adventures Jun 28th and 30th as well as our Bigfoot Hunt Giveaway Finale on June 30th.

Did you know that bacon dates back 3,500 years?  On July 13th we host our fifth annual Beach, Bacon and Brew Fest! $25 entry fee gets you beer tastings from over 20 brews, $5 in free slot play, as well as access to great food vendors, and live music! Purchase bacon bits at $1 per bit to enjoy original bacon recipes made by local charities. Each charity competes to win the title of who has the best bacon dish. All money earned from those bacon bits goes to the charity it’s dropped at. The Brewfest will go from 12pm-6pm with live music throughout the day to enjoy. Designated driver tickets are available at a reduced price.

Surf City Classic Car show and SoundOff competition are coming back on August 24th and 25th.  There will be everything from hot rods to custom cars, vintage corvettes, bikes and trucks at this show!  Car registration Is just $10 and includes a t-shirt and $5 in Free Slot Play! This timeless show takes place in the main parking area in front of the casino and all registration proceeds go to Angels Anonymous, a local non-profit created to assist our community with immediate needs. Surf City also brings in great car-related vendors as well as food, live bands and a beer garden. Soundoff is heading into its eighth year and is sure to be bigger and louder than ever! Awarding competitors with best sound quality and loudest car audio. Most competitors enter contests all over the country to earn points towards national level competition. Our Surf City SoundOff winners get triple points towards an invitation to the prestigious dB Drag Racing Worlds Finals! We also hold raffles to benefit Angels Anonymous.

The 15th annual Celebration of Honor returns September 18th- 22nd and will feature medal ceremonies, a special glass float drop, The Field of Honor, plus a free buffet, and a buy-one-get-one-free deal on a comedy show are available for veterans, active military personnel and their families.  Veteran’s services and Military displays are found in the large tent at our parking lot. This year, the Traveling Memorial Wall will be available for viewing throughout the week. Please join Chinook Winds Casino Resort in honoring those who have served and continue to serve in all branches of the military.

Mark your calendars and make plans with friends and family to attend these fantastic summer events! We hope to see you soon.  Check back soon for more updates on what’s coming up at Chinook Winds!

The Surf City Car Show and the Surf City Sound Off is just around the corner, and this year we have something special for our neighbors nearby! That’s right. It’s time again for our celebration of classic cars, trucks and bikes as well as the loudest and best sounding vehicles in the West (country?)! Cars are better at the beach and on August 25th and 26th, Chinook Winds will have some exciting, friendly competitions to see whose rides look the best and sound the best. This year we’ve added a fun giveaway  to let all of our neighbors in on the Surf City Sound Off fun!

If you live in the greater Lincoln City area and hear the Sound Off every year, we have an exciting opportunity for you. Last year Chinook Winds helped raise more than $8,000 for Angels Anonymous during Surf City Sound Off! Angels Anonymous is a nonprofit that strives, “to provide immediate and basic services to those in need in the greater Lincoln City area, while complimenting existing services. The desire of Angels Anonymous is to provide a service that is immediate and to help those we serve to find solutions for long-term problems”. This year Chinook Winds would like to invite our neighbors to join us in bringing awareness to this great charity!

We know the Surf City Sound Off is a flashy event that brings new sounds to the coast. So, this year we would like to know what our neighbors will be doing during the Sound Off. Chinook Winds will be giving two lucky winners who share their stories with us a weekend away to stunning Central Oregon for next year’s event, or any other time of year you may choose! First, you’ll need to like Chinook Winds Casino Resort on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. Then, when you hear the Sound Off on August 25th and 26th, post a photo or video of what you were doing when you heard the sounds. We want to see everyone’s posts, so to make sure your post is seen and eligible, it must be public, with a caption, and tagged with our hashtag #AngelsSoundOff.  The winners of the Angel Sound Off Giveaway will be selected at random and announced on social media the following Monday, August 27th, 2018.

Chinooks Winds will be giving away a grand prize and a runner-up prize. The Grand prize includes a weekend getaway to beautiful Central Oregon, with a stay at the Sunriver Vacation Rentals by Meredith Lodging, four High Desert Museum admission tickets, and a one-hour family photo session with Kassia Nicole Photography. The Runner-up will receive a two-night stay at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel in the heart of downtown Bend, and a $200 gift card for sunglasses at A to Z Eyeglass Repair.

Chinook Winds is calling all angels to stand up and sound off this August. Whether you have the loudest, best sounding vehicle in the West, or spend the day out on Devils Lake kayaking, we want to hear from you. Send us your photo and video stories for your chance to make a difference. Help us support Angels Anonymous, the group that supports all of us in the greater Lincoln City area so well!    #AngelsSoundOff

Welcome to our first Blog post. We hope to do some fun spotlights of guests and staff, behind the scene stories and include interesting thing to do when you visit the beach. If you have ideas of what you would like to see featured send us a note to heatherh@cwcresort.com.

Who is Eric Simpson?

At first glimpse, Eric Simpson is an adventurous and fun guy who enjoys his Keno and has a keen wit and sharp sense of humor. As you start listening to him, you discover that his joy of playing Keno is genuine.  At Chinook Winds Casino Resort we encounter so many interesting people as they come and go, but some leave a lasting impression. Eric is a guest who leaves a positive mark on staff and guests every time he is here.

Eric was born in England and moved to the states shortly after his birth. They lived in Florida and then in Canada for about three years before making their permanent home in Salem, Oregon in 1973. Since then Eric has grown up enjoying his garden. He started growing Sweetpeas because “that was the flower my mother is holding in her wedding picture”, and soon expanded to tomatoes and a few other garden variety (pun intended) vegetables. His passion for his garden is evident in how he lights up when talking about it. “I like to give some of my plants to local elementary schools to inspire our youth to get excited about organic gardens”, said Eric.

How does he win so many times?

For years Eric has visited our Resort and played his favorite 6 or 8 spot progressive Keno game. He might enjoy a random Keno Game King machine, but his favorite is good old fashioned Keno. “I enjoy visiting with the friendly staff here. For years I would bring my companion (his beautiful dog) Freddie and enjoy the beach and play a little”. In August 2017 Freddie passed away, and since then Eric has come back numerous times walking the beach where he and Freddie walked. When asked how he chooses his numbers his answer was simple, “I will try many combinations, but mostly I pay attention to the staff and use special dates such as Freddie’s dog tag number and numbers I have used with my dad until he passed away in 1997”.

Many would say Eric is one of the luckiest Keno players we have here at the Resort. Since July of 2017 Eric has won a Keno Progressive seven times. You read that correctly, seven times a Keno Progressive winner! As we talked, Eric was very humble and simple about how he chooses his numbers, but he was methodical in his approach as well. He doesn’t do anything by chance, in fact he has solid plans of play every time. He will sometimes visit Reno and if numbers worked at Keno in Reno then he will try them here. If numbers are in a slump he will take a look at everything he has tried and go back to numbers that used to work and give them a try.

When asked what his secret is, he looks you square in the eyes and says, “I’m a time traveler. Your present is my past. I cannon expand on this due to the rupture of the space-time continuum”.

Guests are like family:

Eric isn’t just a dedicated Keno player to us here at Chinook Winds, he has become a guest who is part of the family and is happily referred to as the “salsa king”. He grows tomatoes at his home in Salem and graciously makes salsa for his friends – which includes many here at Chinook Winds. Last year Eric made more than 20 gallons of salsa for his neighbors, friends and a number of folks at Chinook Winds. When asked why he visits us, his answer was simple – “You have the nicest people here”.

Thank you Eric, for visiting us and choosing us as your place to relax, have some fun, win a little, but as you said, “leave the place better than when you came and do a good deed every day”.

This is the first of many Blog posts to come for Chinook Winds Casino Resort. We hope you enjoy our conversations with our guests, information about the area and fun topics of interest. If you have ideas on topics feel free to email heatherh@cwcresort.com and make sure to subscribe to our posts so you don’t miss out on any information.