Today starts with a leftover from yesterday – just a note to selves that you want to get to the Irish Table around 7, as the getting there when it opens thing just won’t work – our waiter told us there’s always a line when they open. You can call around 6 and get your name on the waitlist, or just show up around 7. Bring farkle.
Meanwhile, I had a lazy morning. I woke up about 7:30 and Dave was already up and raring to go for a walk. I, on the other hand, was not raring to go for a walk – I was raring to read a book and take a nap. So that’s what we did – Dave headed up the beach (North) all the way to the Rock WAHIT, about a 2.5 mile walk from here, while I got back in bed and read and napped until almost 11:30. Decadent, and very enjoyable. When he got back it was pretty much time to head out for lunch, so we pulled Tim out of his room (he was awake and reading too) and headed in to town. We decided to take two cars because we wanted to do some geocaching and wandering around town, and those aren’t Tim’s favorite activities. Then there was the question of where to lunch. My first thought was Warren House, but it was pretty overcast, and even their sunny beer garden, which is often sunny even when it’s not very nice anywhere else, probably would not be sunny. So we decided on Wayfarer.
Wayfarer used to be a favorite dinner location, so good that once or twice we’ve even come in from Forest Grove to eat there. Faithful readers will recall that in the past few years it has been going steadily downhill, and last year we decided it was no longer on our list. But I checked its yelp reviews, and although they were mixed they did mention a new menu and remodel, so we thought we’d give them a try. Dave parked in the lot at Midtown and walked over (a short walk), and Tim parked the van in front of the restaurant. Imagine my surprise when Tim and I were greeted by the lovely hostess, who turned out to be none other than Forest Grove’s own Kylie Marble! It was such a surprise that at first I didn’t recognize her – fortunately all the staff wear nametags with their hometowns, so I could say hello with confidence. Kylie showed us to one of our favorite tables, and that was the end of the good part of our trip to Wayfarer. The remodel is unfortunate – a giant canned salmon label on the back wall, fake leather with rivets and fake portholes on the other wall. Overall it makes the spacious room look dark and low-ceilinged. And the food, when it came, took presentation and taste to new lows – although Tim’s garlic fries, while not tasting of garlic, were very tasty. The wild mushroom dip, smothered in melted chedder, was served on in a white terrine on a white plate with flatbread cut in triangles. No garnish, no attempt to make it colorful or inviting. My tuna salad was sweet and insipid, and Dave’s fish tacos were just a gloppy disaster. Tim’s French dip and fries were the best thing, but he says the Eastern Star sandwich at McMenamin’s back home is better. So the results are in, and unfortunately, the Wayfarer – one of the first restaurants I ever ate at in Cannon Beach (with my mother, over 20 years ago) has joined the ranks of Restaurants We Do Not Go To. At least we didn’t waste a dinner to find out.
After lunch Tim headed back to the house, and Dave and I headed south along Hemlock to find a geocache. We walked for about half a mile towards the ‘S’ curves, which is not really a very fun walk because there are no sidewalks. But when we got to where we thought there might be a trail to the geocache, based on the description, there was no trail. In fact it looked like there couldn’t be a trail, since there was a very steep hill in the direction the GPS was pointing. Disappointing! We headed back towards the car, but found some stairs going down to the beach right opposite haystack rock, so we decided we’d walk along the beach to our secret road and go to town that way.
Walking on the loose sand is tricky, and pretty soon we decided we’d head up the dune and pick up the road. I thought I remembered from last year that you could pick up the secret road at Jackson, but looking at the houses it seemed we could get on to it sooner. So we climbed up the dune, only to discover that you get on the secret road at Jackson. We walked along some more and then got on the secret road, and arrived in town next to the Coaster Theater. At this point Dave was pretty tired out – don’t forget he already walked about 5 miles this morning. The Cannon Beach shuttle stops at the Coaster, so we went to look for a schedule to see when the next bus would be there. Turns out there was no schedule, but Dave looked up the street and saw the shuttle on its way. Sometimes you don’t need all the information. We hopped on the shuttle, took it to midtown, and hopped in the car (and dropped off our sweatshirts) and drove to the back parking lot, which had plenty of parking. This made us happy, because now we would not have to walk back to midtown after our time in town.
We stopped off at the picnic basket to pick up some treats and then headed to the post office to mail a package to Josh. Then we wandered around town, stopping in at many favorite shops, but not really finding anything. El Mundo for Men, where Dave has found many good things over the years, is for sale, and they are clearly closing out their inventory. Maggie and Henry’s, one of my favorite shops, had plenty of inventory but nothing that really pushed my button. But we had a good time popping in and out of shops (although Dave was definitely ready for a nap), and were very very pleased that our car was local. We stopped at Mariner market to get some cheese for tomorrow night’s dinner, and then headed home. On the way we looked to see if there was a trail to the geocache we were looking for, but didn’t see anything. We’ll need to do some more research.
Then it was afternoon nap time. The weather continues to be poor, with long cloudy periods broken by sun breaks. It was warm and sunny enough for Dave to do his nap outside. At about 5:30 I was feeling pretty logy from mostly sitting around all day so Tim and I went down to play giant frisbee for a half hour before I needed to get ready to go the the Stephanie Inn. I love playing giant frisbee and Tim was very patient with my complete inability to throw it to where he was. If he had been 3 people standing in a line about 10 feet apart it would have been good. As it was he got plenty of exercise, and I was pretty sweaty myself – throwing the giant frisbee takes a fair amount of oomph. By the end I had actually gotten to where two out of three throws would go close enough that he only had to take a step or two, but most of the time on those throws he had to leap in the air. Needless to say, his throws were pretty much all right on.
Then it was time for me to go up. Since the tides are weird, it was about halfway to low tide, so Tim ran out to the carriage road while I went up and took my shower. I’d been trying to do laundry all day, but I kept forgetting about it, so my towel was in the dryer when I got in the shower. When I was done showering Dave brought me the towel right out of the dryer. A warm fluffy towel straight from the dryer has to be one of the very best things in life.
Although it was cold and cloudy most of the day, it cleared up this afternoon more than it has so far this week – all the way down to the horizon. This means it’s sextant time! Fans of anachronism will appreciate Dave taking sextant sightings, then entering the numbers into his sextant iPhone app for it to do the number crunching. When I got dressed, Dave was on the deck teaching Tim to use the sextant. The very nice picture I have of them is posed.
Then it was time to head off to the Stephanie Inn. Last year the Stephanie Inn had a two-seating, prix fixe dinner setup, and we went on a Friday night when the assistant chef was in charge. They have changed to an open seating arrangement with both a prix fixe option and an a la carte option – with the nice touch of having individual wine pairings for each course. Last year we enjoyed our dinner, but thought that it didn’t quite measure up to the price or the ambience. This year I made very sure that the chief chef would be there, and it made quite a difference. While none of the items was spectacular, all of them were well above average – and if we’d had anything even remotely like them at the Wayfarer, we would have stood up and done the dance of joy. The highlights for me were a goat cheese and butternut squash ravioli – I know, I know, it’s so two years ago, but it’s not often done this well, and the curried lentil soup. I also very much enjoyed the J Lohr Chardonnay and Sylvan Ridge sparkling early muscat that were paired with my smoked salmon chowder and crème brulee. Stephanie Inn is now on our for sure list.
When we got home, Tim was very excited to see us – he had clearly missed us terribly. Dave went out to try to do some twilight sextant sightings, I folded the laundry, and Tim got the fire going. We needed to get all our chores done so we could get down to some serious rematch. First: Trouble. It was an unusually quick game – nobody got trapped at home, unable to do anything for roll after roll. And it was also unusually close at the end – we were all trying to get our last men in at the same time. But in the end, it was Dave who had the victory – well deserved, indeed. Tim came in second, and I came in last. I hate Trouble. After trouble Tim requested Yahtzee. I got what might have been my first yahtzee ever, but Dave won. I hate Yahtzee. Then it was time for 3 quick games of pepper. Tim won the first one. Tim won the second one. Tim even won the third one, in a particularly nasty battle with Dave where Dave thought he’d won, only to discover that Tim’s last card was the blue 6. I hate Pepper. Tomorrow night it’s bananagrams all the way.
Then it was time for flying helicopters and reading. And that’s the day.
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Mussels, Farkle, Honk!
When I woke up this morning and looked out is was broken clouds – so far the weather has been variable. We had a slowish start to the morning with our bowls of cacklin’ oat bran, but we did have a goal we were working towards – geocaching. First I had to remember how you find them and load them into the GPS, but once we’d done that we were ready to go. Our first 3 caches were all north of town. (Apologies to BOS who finds descriptions of geocaching dull). A note about equipment: Dave was using the geocaching app on his iPhone, which has the advantage of not needing to be downloaded to the GPS and also showing maps; I was using the Garmin GPSmap 60x, which has the advantage of being more accurate, especially in areas with trees. We drove to town (Tim was still sleeping) and parked by the Lunberyard, a large restaurant that used to be called Clarks (or, as we called it, Quarks) that we went to once and don’t feel the need to revisit. Our fist cache was close to Cannon Beach elementary, and I found it! It was my first find in quite some time. It is a funny cache because it has a giant fake plastic flower on a very long stem attached to it – I guess to make it easier to find. We left one of the plastic insects (a spider, not technically an insect) that we got at Mo’s but didn’t take anything as it is a new cache with nothing particularly fun to take out.
Second cache, on the other side of Ecola Creek. It had started to drizzle as we were driving to town, and had continued to do so all during the walk across the bridge and while we looked for the second cache. Oddly, we had not brought raincoats, but it was a very light drizzle and we were both wearing hats, so we paid it no attention. We are Oregonians, after all. Guess what, I also found the second cache! The people who put it there had left an oil filter, so we left a plastic car to go with it. By now it had stopped drizzling and turned into a beautiful, warm, sunny day. The third cache was just up the road, in a new subdivision that we’d never been to. It’s near an odd wire sculpture of Lewis and Clark, and I found this one too! First bananagrams, then 3 finds in a row – I’m on such a hot streak, I should buy a lottery ticket! We didn’t actually get the cache out because the area was full of muggles (non-geocachers), but we did log the find on Dave’s phone.
Now we were faced with a choice, because the third cache was on a path leading out to the beach. Should we go back the way we came, or should we walk on the beach? It would seem like an obvious choice, except that Ecola Creek was between us and our car. I have a memory of once crossing the creek without getting my feet soaked (it may be a dream), and we have had a dry month, so we thought we’d risk it. We crossed the first water section with no problem. The second one, not so much – this was the main branch. Dave, with his longer legs, had taken a very wide step across the deep part. I didn’t think that would work for me and was walking towards the ocean, hoping things would flatten out and get shallower, when suddenly I could see I was in trouble. A big wave had come in, and even though the waves had been a good 10 yards from us, the water was coming in fast, and I was trapped. Yes, once again I was standing in Ecola Creek with water pouring in over the tops of my boots. On reflection, I don’t think I’ve ever made it across without wet feet.
Faithful readers will wonder if I was wearing my wonderful waterproof Ecco boots. Yes I was, and once again they proved how tremendously watertight they are by keeping all the water inside. We walked (I squelched) up the beach into town and came in on the road by the Fireside Inn, and also by Ter Hars. We stopped by the Waves motel to sit on a wall so I could wring out my socks and empty my boots. Our plan was to call Tim and get him up so he could meet us in town after we did one more geocache, so we went into Ter Hars and I got a three pack of cute socks – I figured I’d put one on then, another dry pair when we got to the car, and the final dry pair when we parked near the next geochache. So I put on the first pair and we headed for the car. On the way there we found a new store next to Ecola Seafoods – it is a chocolate store, selling chocolate bars, moonstruck chocolates, and chocolate milk shakes. We put it on our list of places to visit with Tim.
When we got back to the car, we remembered that we still hadn’t stopped in at Arch Cape Property Services to sign the contract that they forgot to have us sign on Sunday, so we decided to head there instead (it’s on the other side of the little house from town) and then pick Tim up and have some lunch. So we did. I planned on staying in the car with my wet feet while Dave signed the contract, but Debbie Henry, the owner of ACPS, was working the office and she and Dave got to chatting. So I went in too and said hi. She didn’t know the shelves had disappeared, but told us to mention the need for a dresser in our bedroom in the comment sheet, so we’ll do that. I also called Tim to get him going.
We got home and I changed my shoes and took the insoles out of my boots hoping to get them dry for a hike later in the week. By now it had completely clouded up again, so I put the boots inside rather than on the deck. We headed to town for lunch at JPs. Our first choice was Warren House, but we remembered that it is closed on Tuesday s, so maybe tomorrow. JPs is an interesting restaurant in town, because much like the weather the food there is highly variable. I had the black forest salad, chicken and lamb sautéed with mushrooms, garlic (lots of garlic), onions, and pinenuts and served warm over mixed greens with a balsamic vinaigrette. It is spectacular and I could eat it every day. On the other hand, we’ve all eaten things there which were forgettable – or worse, like the duck in a sweet ketchup-based barbecue sauce. So you never know. But it turns out we won’t need to know ever again, because this will be our last trip there. They are closing on September 24th and Chef Bill Pappas and his wife Diane are going to Greece. I will miss the salad and their fantastic marionberry lemonade, but we are hopeful that something new and more reliable will take its place.
After lunch we walked up to EVOO and made reservations for Saturday night for their dinner show – it’s a 3 course dinner that they cook in front of you. I also made our Friday night reservation at Newman’s as we were walking from there to the car, so we have our dinners planned out for the rest of the week. We decided to move Wayfarer’s from a dinner to a lunch, as our last 3 visits there were very disappointing. Then we headed home for the afternoon relaxing period. Dave wrapped up in a blanket and did a good hour’s worth of napping on the porch – we call that a successful nap.
We had a nice slow afternoon, although I resisted the urge to nap. Dave and Tim went down to the beach to do some more archery and baseball, but I stayed safely out of range in the house. Tonight was our night to go to the Irish Table, which may be my favorite restaurant in Cannon Beach – for those of you who are yelpers, it has 5 stars with over 50 reviews. The problem with it is that they don’t take reservations for groups under 4, so it’s a little hit or miss. I had called and they said if we got there at 5:30 we should be good. So we did, and we weren’t – the group ahead of us got the last table. Dave was ready to go somewhere else, but I was not – both because this was our only free night, and because I’m not sure where we could have gone. They said they’d have a table for us if we went away and came back in about an hour, so we did.
When we got back they were not quite ready for us, but this time we were prepared. We brought a piece of paper and the farkle container (which has the scoring printed on it), and used the dice app on Dave’s phone to play, since there was no table. We were very happy in the chairs outside with a pint of Murphy’s for Dave. The beer was only half gone – and the game less than half over – when our table was ready. We went in, sat down, and it all went bad when they brought the menus. If you go to yelp.com, you’ll see one dish repeated over and over – the curried mussels. They are fabulous, and after you finish the mussels you put the bowl in the middle of the table so you and Tim can sop up all the curry sauce with the soda bread or just eat it with a spoon. Only tonight, the mussels were not on the menu. At all. We went all the way home, came all the way back, waited for a table, and then no mussels. “Where are the mussels?” I asked the waiter, plaintively. “Gone,” he said. Apparently they had gone through 15 pounds of mussels in 40 minutes. And also apparently this is not unusual, because they had menus without the mussels. I was crushed. He described the specials and then gave us a moment to mourn, I mean, to consider what else to have. As I was considering, he came back with a big smile – there were a couple of orders left! All was right with the world! The other thing that’s super at the Irish table are their soups (and their curried lentil soup is indescribably good). So Tim and Dave opened with the tomato-basil and seafood bisque, respectively. They were so good. Tim had his usual steak, and Dave had the special, a ling cod in a buerre blanc. The special was very, very special – second only to my mussels, and not that far behind either. For dessert Tim had the chocolate pot – a very dense, rich chocolate pudding with mounds of whipped cream and espresso shortbread cookies. Dave had the homemade Guinness icecream sandwich - super yum, but something of an exercise in engineering to eat. Dave and I both had hot biddys to go along. I just love the Irish Table, and next year we’re inviting all of you to come eat with us there - we’ll make a reservation!
When we got home it was time to build a fire and complete the game of farkle – this time using real dice. It was an exciting game, with several lead changes between Tim and me. I was ahead going into the final rolls, but Tim had a big finish and went over 10,000. We all got one turn to try to beat him. On my first roll, I scored 1500 points – only 600 to go to beat him! No problem! I rolled the dice… and got no scoring dice – a farkle, and a terrible defeat. If hadn’t been so full of mussels and soda bread and hot biddy I would have been crushed – but I held tight to the memory of last night’s bananagrams.
Meanwhile, Dave had been trash-talking all day about how he was going to honk all of us at Trouble tonight. “I’ll honk you so hard, you won’t know what hit you,” he proclaimed (and more than once). So once I had recovered and he’d had a chance to poke the fire, we got out the Trouble board and started to pound the pop-o-matic. Tim’s luck continued, and he had his first man home before Dave and I even got our first men on the board. But then things got interesting, as first Dave, then I, got out and started around the board. For a while it was looking pretty even, but then Tim only had one man to go – then we honked him repeatedly – then he was going around – then he was getting all the rolls he needed to send me and Dave back to the start – then he won. He had to do the poses of great joy, including throwing both arms into the air so high we almost lost the ceiling. Then it was a battle to for second between Dave and me. Dave looked to have it all sewn up until I popped 4 or 5 sixes in a row, which got my last guy exactly home. So after all his talk, Dave finished the night a loser. But he says, “I’ll get you next time, Chauncy!”
Now it’s reading and enjoying the fire and the music on the jambox.
Confidential to SFO: I’m not sure that bananagrams is any different from the table scrabble we played once many years ago, but we’ll play it next time we’re together.
Second cache, on the other side of Ecola Creek. It had started to drizzle as we were driving to town, and had continued to do so all during the walk across the bridge and while we looked for the second cache. Oddly, we had not brought raincoats, but it was a very light drizzle and we were both wearing hats, so we paid it no attention. We are Oregonians, after all. Guess what, I also found the second cache! The people who put it there had left an oil filter, so we left a plastic car to go with it. By now it had stopped drizzling and turned into a beautiful, warm, sunny day. The third cache was just up the road, in a new subdivision that we’d never been to. It’s near an odd wire sculpture of Lewis and Clark, and I found this one too! First bananagrams, then 3 finds in a row – I’m on such a hot streak, I should buy a lottery ticket! We didn’t actually get the cache out because the area was full of muggles (non-geocachers), but we did log the find on Dave’s phone.
Now we were faced with a choice, because the third cache was on a path leading out to the beach. Should we go back the way we came, or should we walk on the beach? It would seem like an obvious choice, except that Ecola Creek was between us and our car. I have a memory of once crossing the creek without getting my feet soaked (it may be a dream), and we have had a dry month, so we thought we’d risk it. We crossed the first water section with no problem. The second one, not so much – this was the main branch. Dave, with his longer legs, had taken a very wide step across the deep part. I didn’t think that would work for me and was walking towards the ocean, hoping things would flatten out and get shallower, when suddenly I could see I was in trouble. A big wave had come in, and even though the waves had been a good 10 yards from us, the water was coming in fast, and I was trapped. Yes, once again I was standing in Ecola Creek with water pouring in over the tops of my boots. On reflection, I don’t think I’ve ever made it across without wet feet.
Faithful readers will wonder if I was wearing my wonderful waterproof Ecco boots. Yes I was, and once again they proved how tremendously watertight they are by keeping all the water inside. We walked (I squelched) up the beach into town and came in on the road by the Fireside Inn, and also by Ter Hars. We stopped by the Waves motel to sit on a wall so I could wring out my socks and empty my boots. Our plan was to call Tim and get him up so he could meet us in town after we did one more geocache, so we went into Ter Hars and I got a three pack of cute socks – I figured I’d put one on then, another dry pair when we got to the car, and the final dry pair when we parked near the next geochache. So I put on the first pair and we headed for the car. On the way there we found a new store next to Ecola Seafoods – it is a chocolate store, selling chocolate bars, moonstruck chocolates, and chocolate milk shakes. We put it on our list of places to visit with Tim.
When we got back to the car, we remembered that we still hadn’t stopped in at Arch Cape Property Services to sign the contract that they forgot to have us sign on Sunday, so we decided to head there instead (it’s on the other side of the little house from town) and then pick Tim up and have some lunch. So we did. I planned on staying in the car with my wet feet while Dave signed the contract, but Debbie Henry, the owner of ACPS, was working the office and she and Dave got to chatting. So I went in too and said hi. She didn’t know the shelves had disappeared, but told us to mention the need for a dresser in our bedroom in the comment sheet, so we’ll do that. I also called Tim to get him going.
We got home and I changed my shoes and took the insoles out of my boots hoping to get them dry for a hike later in the week. By now it had completely clouded up again, so I put the boots inside rather than on the deck. We headed to town for lunch at JPs. Our first choice was Warren House, but we remembered that it is closed on Tuesday s, so maybe tomorrow. JPs is an interesting restaurant in town, because much like the weather the food there is highly variable. I had the black forest salad, chicken and lamb sautéed with mushrooms, garlic (lots of garlic), onions, and pinenuts and served warm over mixed greens with a balsamic vinaigrette. It is spectacular and I could eat it every day. On the other hand, we’ve all eaten things there which were forgettable – or worse, like the duck in a sweet ketchup-based barbecue sauce. So you never know. But it turns out we won’t need to know ever again, because this will be our last trip there. They are closing on September 24th and Chef Bill Pappas and his wife Diane are going to Greece. I will miss the salad and their fantastic marionberry lemonade, but we are hopeful that something new and more reliable will take its place.
After lunch we walked up to EVOO and made reservations for Saturday night for their dinner show – it’s a 3 course dinner that they cook in front of you. I also made our Friday night reservation at Newman’s as we were walking from there to the car, so we have our dinners planned out for the rest of the week. We decided to move Wayfarer’s from a dinner to a lunch, as our last 3 visits there were very disappointing. Then we headed home for the afternoon relaxing period. Dave wrapped up in a blanket and did a good hour’s worth of napping on the porch – we call that a successful nap.
We had a nice slow afternoon, although I resisted the urge to nap. Dave and Tim went down to the beach to do some more archery and baseball, but I stayed safely out of range in the house. Tonight was our night to go to the Irish Table, which may be my favorite restaurant in Cannon Beach – for those of you who are yelpers, it has 5 stars with over 50 reviews. The problem with it is that they don’t take reservations for groups under 4, so it’s a little hit or miss. I had called and they said if we got there at 5:30 we should be good. So we did, and we weren’t – the group ahead of us got the last table. Dave was ready to go somewhere else, but I was not – both because this was our only free night, and because I’m not sure where we could have gone. They said they’d have a table for us if we went away and came back in about an hour, so we did.
When we got back they were not quite ready for us, but this time we were prepared. We brought a piece of paper and the farkle container (which has the scoring printed on it), and used the dice app on Dave’s phone to play, since there was no table. We were very happy in the chairs outside with a pint of Murphy’s for Dave. The beer was only half gone – and the game less than half over – when our table was ready. We went in, sat down, and it all went bad when they brought the menus. If you go to yelp.com, you’ll see one dish repeated over and over – the curried mussels. They are fabulous, and after you finish the mussels you put the bowl in the middle of the table so you and Tim can sop up all the curry sauce with the soda bread or just eat it with a spoon. Only tonight, the mussels were not on the menu. At all. We went all the way home, came all the way back, waited for a table, and then no mussels. “Where are the mussels?” I asked the waiter, plaintively. “Gone,” he said. Apparently they had gone through 15 pounds of mussels in 40 minutes. And also apparently this is not unusual, because they had menus without the mussels. I was crushed. He described the specials and then gave us a moment to mourn, I mean, to consider what else to have. As I was considering, he came back with a big smile – there were a couple of orders left! All was right with the world! The other thing that’s super at the Irish table are their soups (and their curried lentil soup is indescribably good). So Tim and Dave opened with the tomato-basil and seafood bisque, respectively. They were so good. Tim had his usual steak, and Dave had the special, a ling cod in a buerre blanc. The special was very, very special – second only to my mussels, and not that far behind either. For dessert Tim had the chocolate pot – a very dense, rich chocolate pudding with mounds of whipped cream and espresso shortbread cookies. Dave had the homemade Guinness icecream sandwich - super yum, but something of an exercise in engineering to eat. Dave and I both had hot biddys to go along. I just love the Irish Table, and next year we’re inviting all of you to come eat with us there - we’ll make a reservation!
When we got home it was time to build a fire and complete the game of farkle – this time using real dice. It was an exciting game, with several lead changes between Tim and me. I was ahead going into the final rolls, but Tim had a big finish and went over 10,000. We all got one turn to try to beat him. On my first roll, I scored 1500 points – only 600 to go to beat him! No problem! I rolled the dice… and got no scoring dice – a farkle, and a terrible defeat. If hadn’t been so full of mussels and soda bread and hot biddy I would have been crushed – but I held tight to the memory of last night’s bananagrams.
Meanwhile, Dave had been trash-talking all day about how he was going to honk all of us at Trouble tonight. “I’ll honk you so hard, you won’t know what hit you,” he proclaimed (and more than once). So once I had recovered and he’d had a chance to poke the fire, we got out the Trouble board and started to pound the pop-o-matic. Tim’s luck continued, and he had his first man home before Dave and I even got our first men on the board. But then things got interesting, as first Dave, then I, got out and started around the board. For a while it was looking pretty even, but then Tim only had one man to go – then we honked him repeatedly – then he was going around – then he was getting all the rolls he needed to send me and Dave back to the start – then he won. He had to do the poses of great joy, including throwing both arms into the air so high we almost lost the ceiling. Then it was a battle to for second between Dave and me. Dave looked to have it all sewn up until I popped 4 or 5 sixes in a row, which got my last guy exactly home. So after all his talk, Dave finished the night a loser. But he says, “I’ll get you next time, Chauncy!”
Now it’s reading and enjoying the fire and the music on the jambox.
Confidential to SFO: I’m not sure that bananagrams is any different from the table scrabble we played once many years ago, but we’ll play it next time we’re together.
Monday, August 29, 2011
Bananagrams!
I have to start with some things I left out yesterday. First is another big change – they cut down all the trees around the parking area, making it look much bigger. It doesn’t make much difference in the house, since only one very small window (in our bedroom) faces in that direction, but it is very disconcerting when you drive in. The same folks who cleared out the parking area seem to have taken on the beach path as well. No trees are gone, but it has been cut back and groomed very nicely – no bushwhacking this year.
Also last night after I finished my typing it was time for some pepper. I was the one who suggested that we play, which might make you think that I would win, but alas, as usual, not so. We played three games, and there are three of us, so statistically speaking… but no. We had one regular game, and one unbelievably long game (there are only 15 cards on the table – how long can it take for one person to run out?) and one incredibly short game in which Dave won decisively. There was one very good run in one of the games where Tim decided to pick on me but I was able to counter every one of his cards. It would make a very fine story if I had then won the game, but…
Also a note about the weather, which was hot and sunny at home, but cool and cloudy here, and somewhat foggy, both last night and this morning.
Onward, then. I started this morning with a nice walk. There was a -.9 tide at 7:15, but I didn’t get out until 8:30 or so. Since the tide was on its way in and I have already been to the carriage road, and the walk between hug point and arcadia beach is very boring, I decided to drive to the arcadia beach parking lot and walk from there to The Rock With A Hole In It. On the way there, and especially on the way back, I was struck by how much I take these amazing rock formations for granted (not for granite – I know they’re basalt). We call it a rock, but it’s huge, big enough to have grass growing on the top. And there are many of them, and many places where holes have grown in them – makes you think about how long something like that takes, and how short our time is.
The other thing I thought about was starfish, and where they go. Faithful readers may recall that the starfish population last year was very small – not a good year for starfish, as we say. This year is a bumper year – they are everywhere in giant masses, and they are huge. So it makes me wonder – how fast do they grow? I always have thought of them as slow-growing, but if they are, where were the great big ones last year? And if they are not slow-growing, I have to revise my whole thinking about the relationship between how fast things move and how fast they grow. Maybe it’s time for some starfish research.
I made it to the Rock WAHIT, and climbed around inside of it for a while, thinking about geologic time and starfish time. The tide was not low enough to walk all the way through it or around behind it, so I took a few pictures and moved on. On the walk back I stopped by two houses that had interested me on the way there. One has fallen down partway – it looks almost like it cracked in half, and then the whole front wall fell off of one half so you can see in. It has a nice rock fireplace and looks like it was very comfy. The other half is leaning at an angle, so I didn’t see much of it. It’s kind of sad. Right next door (on the way home I drove by and found the driveway for both houses – it’s the same driveway) is a very neat two story house that is still occupied. It has walls of windows on both stories facing the ocean and looks like it would be very interesting inside. What makes these houses unique is that they are the only two houses on a very long stretch of beach that is often inaccessible during higher tides. I wonder how they got there and why there aren’t any houses near them.
When I got back we relaxed for a while (Tim was still relaxing horizontally in his bed with his eyes closed), and then it was time to head off to Bill’s for lunch. The tyranny of Bill’s is that they open at 11:30, and if you get there much after that not only is there no parking in the public lot but there are no tables at Bill’s. We went in a little early and visited the store that use to be the explorastore but now isn’t even though it mostly has the same stuff, then got to Bill’s promptly at 11:29. Of course this is Bill’s so they didn’t open until a little after 11:30, but we got our table and had our beers (stout for Dave, root for Tim, and the fabulously named dunkelweizen for me) and onion rings and burgers. Then we walked around town a little. Not much new there although there is a store selling items purported to be from shipwrecks, including beach glass with a “certificate of authenticity”. Oddly, there’s not much beach glass on the beaches here. Maybe it is too cold. We bought Tim a bathing suit, because we found out on Saturday that he didn’t have one. At the toy store we bought a new farkle set because the old one is in the trailer (at least we hope it is) and a bananagram set. I am excited about playing bananagrams because I am good at it and Dave and Tim are not. It will keep me going through all the losses at pepper.
When we got home it was time for Dave and Tim to take the bow and arrows down to the beach. Dave took up archery a couple of months ago, and he and Tim like to go in the side yard and shoot. The problem is that our side yard is very small, so the target can’t be that far away. Since our cove is completely cut off at high tide, they were able to set up the target very far away and then shoot arrows in its general direction. Neither of them actually hit the target, but they had fun trying, and they also got some good exercise running back and forth to pick up the arrows. When they were done shooting they decided to play a little baseball – one pitching and one hitting. Meanwhile, I tried to dig a hole, but ran into too many small rocks, so I filled the hole in and was just lying on the sand enjoying the sunshine – because it had cleared up while we were in town for lunch. Suddenly there was yelling, and then the ball was falling from a great height and hitting me in the calf – just above where I scraped myself on some barnacles this morning. So now I am the walking wounded. I tried to convince Tim that he had to carry me up the stairs to the house, but it didn’t work. So I went and scrambled around on the rocks for a while. Dave and Tim decided to go up to the house, but I stayed down to see if I could get my feet used to the cold water. I could, but it wasn’t much fun while they were going numb! Once they were numb it was very fun, hopping around in the waves for a while.
After I came up Dave and I hung out on the warm sunny deck for a while, then we all had showers and read and napped in the living room. I am reading a very interesting book called “Voodoo Vintners”, about biodynamic grape growing in Oregon. Wow, there are many people out there who don’t get science. On the other hand, there are some interesting questions raised about how things work.
Dinner was at 7 at the Bistro, and once we finished having the fight with Tim about not wearing jeans or sneakers with holes and duct tape, it was a very pleasant evening. Crab-stuffed shrimp for me, veal scallopini for Dave (accompanied by a very nice Evesham Wood chardonnay) and pork tenderloin for Tim. We all had dessert, too. My berry pie (I heard it called both blackberry and marionberry, but not someberry) was ok, although the crust wasn’t very good. Dave had the hazelnut torte (shortbread crust, yummy) and Tm had the chocolate pie with pecan-caramel crust that is possibly the best thing n the whole menu. He was kind enough to share a bite with each of us.
Back home, and ready to try out our new games. Let me start by saying that I did not sparkle at farkle. In fact, it was much like one of those games of Trouble where you can’t get a six out of the pop-o-matic to save your life – I couldn’t get the 500 needed to start scoring. In general, it was a very low-scoring game, except for Tim who had a run of fantastic rolls. You play to 10,000, and Tim beat us all by more than 5,000 points – almost 8,000 in my case. Fortunately after farkle it was time for bananagrams, a game at which I RULE. You might think because I love words I’d be good at those scrambled word games. I totally am not – but bananagrams is exactly how my mind works. We played twice, and even though in the second game Dave appeared to have the edge with words like “taxation” and “voters” and many early peels, in the end it was me, me all the way. Not that I’m gloating or anything.
I haven’t mentioned the helicopters yet. Last year – at Thanksgiving, I think – Dave and Tim got remote control helicopters. Tim’s is smaller and quieter and zippier, while Dave’s larger one is radio controlled (Tim’s is line-of-sight , so when he goes behind the chair it is all over). After their humiliating defeats at banangrams, they got out the helicopters and entertained themselves by flying them around my head while I worked on this blog. Tim is pretty good, but Dave sometimes turns the wrong way by accident, making his helicopter a little more dangerous to have hovering by your ear. The helicopters are very cool.
Tim built the fire tonight mostly all by himself except for Dave standing over him telling him how to do it and making fun of his inability to use matches. Now it’s crackling away nicely in the fireplace, and the waves are making their wave noises down on the beach, and it’s time to sign off for another night.
Confidential to BOS: I am so pleased you got the slug reference in last night’s blog. It was in there just for you.
Also last night after I finished my typing it was time for some pepper. I was the one who suggested that we play, which might make you think that I would win, but alas, as usual, not so. We played three games, and there are three of us, so statistically speaking… but no. We had one regular game, and one unbelievably long game (there are only 15 cards on the table – how long can it take for one person to run out?) and one incredibly short game in which Dave won decisively. There was one very good run in one of the games where Tim decided to pick on me but I was able to counter every one of his cards. It would make a very fine story if I had then won the game, but…
Also a note about the weather, which was hot and sunny at home, but cool and cloudy here, and somewhat foggy, both last night and this morning.
Onward, then. I started this morning with a nice walk. There was a -.9 tide at 7:15, but I didn’t get out until 8:30 or so. Since the tide was on its way in and I have already been to the carriage road, and the walk between hug point and arcadia beach is very boring, I decided to drive to the arcadia beach parking lot and walk from there to The Rock With A Hole In It. On the way there, and especially on the way back, I was struck by how much I take these amazing rock formations for granted (not for granite – I know they’re basalt). We call it a rock, but it’s huge, big enough to have grass growing on the top. And there are many of them, and many places where holes have grown in them – makes you think about how long something like that takes, and how short our time is.
The other thing I thought about was starfish, and where they go. Faithful readers may recall that the starfish population last year was very small – not a good year for starfish, as we say. This year is a bumper year – they are everywhere in giant masses, and they are huge. So it makes me wonder – how fast do they grow? I always have thought of them as slow-growing, but if they are, where were the great big ones last year? And if they are not slow-growing, I have to revise my whole thinking about the relationship between how fast things move and how fast they grow. Maybe it’s time for some starfish research.
I made it to the Rock WAHIT, and climbed around inside of it for a while, thinking about geologic time and starfish time. The tide was not low enough to walk all the way through it or around behind it, so I took a few pictures and moved on. On the walk back I stopped by two houses that had interested me on the way there. One has fallen down partway – it looks almost like it cracked in half, and then the whole front wall fell off of one half so you can see in. It has a nice rock fireplace and looks like it was very comfy. The other half is leaning at an angle, so I didn’t see much of it. It’s kind of sad. Right next door (on the way home I drove by and found the driveway for both houses – it’s the same driveway) is a very neat two story house that is still occupied. It has walls of windows on both stories facing the ocean and looks like it would be very interesting inside. What makes these houses unique is that they are the only two houses on a very long stretch of beach that is often inaccessible during higher tides. I wonder how they got there and why there aren’t any houses near them.
When I got back we relaxed for a while (Tim was still relaxing horizontally in his bed with his eyes closed), and then it was time to head off to Bill’s for lunch. The tyranny of Bill’s is that they open at 11:30, and if you get there much after that not only is there no parking in the public lot but there are no tables at Bill’s. We went in a little early and visited the store that use to be the explorastore but now isn’t even though it mostly has the same stuff, then got to Bill’s promptly at 11:29. Of course this is Bill’s so they didn’t open until a little after 11:30, but we got our table and had our beers (stout for Dave, root for Tim, and the fabulously named dunkelweizen for me) and onion rings and burgers. Then we walked around town a little. Not much new there although there is a store selling items purported to be from shipwrecks, including beach glass with a “certificate of authenticity”. Oddly, there’s not much beach glass on the beaches here. Maybe it is too cold. We bought Tim a bathing suit, because we found out on Saturday that he didn’t have one. At the toy store we bought a new farkle set because the old one is in the trailer (at least we hope it is) and a bananagram set. I am excited about playing bananagrams because I am good at it and Dave and Tim are not. It will keep me going through all the losses at pepper.
When we got home it was time for Dave and Tim to take the bow and arrows down to the beach. Dave took up archery a couple of months ago, and he and Tim like to go in the side yard and shoot. The problem is that our side yard is very small, so the target can’t be that far away. Since our cove is completely cut off at high tide, they were able to set up the target very far away and then shoot arrows in its general direction. Neither of them actually hit the target, but they had fun trying, and they also got some good exercise running back and forth to pick up the arrows. When they were done shooting they decided to play a little baseball – one pitching and one hitting. Meanwhile, I tried to dig a hole, but ran into too many small rocks, so I filled the hole in and was just lying on the sand enjoying the sunshine – because it had cleared up while we were in town for lunch. Suddenly there was yelling, and then the ball was falling from a great height and hitting me in the calf – just above where I scraped myself on some barnacles this morning. So now I am the walking wounded. I tried to convince Tim that he had to carry me up the stairs to the house, but it didn’t work. So I went and scrambled around on the rocks for a while. Dave and Tim decided to go up to the house, but I stayed down to see if I could get my feet used to the cold water. I could, but it wasn’t much fun while they were going numb! Once they were numb it was very fun, hopping around in the waves for a while.
After I came up Dave and I hung out on the warm sunny deck for a while, then we all had showers and read and napped in the living room. I am reading a very interesting book called “Voodoo Vintners”, about biodynamic grape growing in Oregon. Wow, there are many people out there who don’t get science. On the other hand, there are some interesting questions raised about how things work.
Dinner was at 7 at the Bistro, and once we finished having the fight with Tim about not wearing jeans or sneakers with holes and duct tape, it was a very pleasant evening. Crab-stuffed shrimp for me, veal scallopini for Dave (accompanied by a very nice Evesham Wood chardonnay) and pork tenderloin for Tim. We all had dessert, too. My berry pie (I heard it called both blackberry and marionberry, but not someberry) was ok, although the crust wasn’t very good. Dave had the hazelnut torte (shortbread crust, yummy) and Tm had the chocolate pie with pecan-caramel crust that is possibly the best thing n the whole menu. He was kind enough to share a bite with each of us.
Back home, and ready to try out our new games. Let me start by saying that I did not sparkle at farkle. In fact, it was much like one of those games of Trouble where you can’t get a six out of the pop-o-matic to save your life – I couldn’t get the 500 needed to start scoring. In general, it was a very low-scoring game, except for Tim who had a run of fantastic rolls. You play to 10,000, and Tim beat us all by more than 5,000 points – almost 8,000 in my case. Fortunately after farkle it was time for bananagrams, a game at which I RULE. You might think because I love words I’d be good at those scrambled word games. I totally am not – but bananagrams is exactly how my mind works. We played twice, and even though in the second game Dave appeared to have the edge with words like “taxation” and “voters” and many early peels, in the end it was me, me all the way. Not that I’m gloating or anything.
I haven’t mentioned the helicopters yet. Last year – at Thanksgiving, I think – Dave and Tim got remote control helicopters. Tim’s is smaller and quieter and zippier, while Dave’s larger one is radio controlled (Tim’s is line-of-sight , so when he goes behind the chair it is all over). After their humiliating defeats at banangrams, they got out the helicopters and entertained themselves by flying them around my head while I worked on this blog. Tim is pretty good, but Dave sometimes turns the wrong way by accident, making his helicopter a little more dangerous to have hovering by your ear. The helicopters are very cool.
Tim built the fire tonight mostly all by himself except for Dave standing over him telling him how to do it and making fun of his inability to use matches. Now it’s crackling away nicely in the fireplace, and the waves are making their wave noises down on the beach, and it’s time to sign off for another night.
Confidential to BOS: I am so pleased you got the slug reference in last night’s blog. It was in there just for you.
Sunday, August 28, 2011
We have arrived!
This morning started early for me, with an hour of blueberry picking at Sandage Acres. Yes, our 5 blueberry plants have grown to the point that my daily bowl of blueberries doesn’t keep up. Since blueberries freeze so well I figured I might as well strip the plants before we left. So now we have another couple quart bags of frozen blueberries in the freezer, ready for oatmeal and snacking. It’s a good feeling.
We pretty much packed all day on and off both yesterday and today, so it was a low-key kind of day. So low key, in fact, that we ended up sitting around for about half an hour between when we finished packing and when we had to leave, which may have been a first. The packing was made easier by our decision to go back to two cars, which allows us to completely fill the back seat space in my car – which is the biggest car of its size. I ended up driving it by myself, a very odd feeling. I got Harry Potter & the Chamber of Secrets from the library before I left, so it was a very pleasant drive. Tim drove Dave’s car, with Dave. I didn’t see any finger marks in the leather, so Tim must have driven well.
I stopped at Arch Cape Property Services to pick up the keys, and when I got here Tim and Dave had walked around to look inside and they had Big News – the gray chair, my nap chair, was GONE! This had me all shook up, as you can imagine, but when we got inside we discovered it has been replaced by an equally comfortable “suede” covered chair that swivels. The swivel allows you to looks at the fire, then the ocean, then the fire… you get the idea. We have made the determination that this change is Good.
The other major change is that they have taken the shelves out of Josh’s bedroom and our bedroom. This change is Bad, as it leaves us with nowhere to put out clothes. Minor changes include new cushions on the rocking chair (good), new comforter on the bed in our bedroom (the old comforter has moved to the bed in Josh’s room), and a new tablecloth on the kitchen table. The faucet in the kitchen has not been fixed, but the run-down look that had crept in last year has been taken care of, which is very good.
We unpacked and connected to the internet , which in the case of my phone meant re-typing the 2000 character WEP key. It only took me 10 minutes or so. Then it was time to go to Mo’s. The Mo’s dinner has to be early not only because otherwise there is a huge line, but also because the breakfast burritos that Dave made for lunch (to use up leftover potatoes and green chili sauce) had worn off. Approaching Mo’s I must confess I was nervous – traffic was bad and the parking lot seemed very full – but we got a spot and possibly the last empty table. It was a deep-fried night with popcorn scallops for Tim (since when does he eat scallops?), fried clams for me and the number 3 combo (fried clams, fried scallops,fried fish) for Dave. The food came very fast and was very hot, which was a little unusual. Then off to the Surfcrest Market for milk, and then home.
Wow, was the tide ever out when we got there! Tim walked up the road to see if there’s a path where there looks like there should be one (there’s not); I went down to the beach, and Dave stayed at the house to get the Jambox set up and be radio headquarters. Here’s the sand report: the sand is very high to the south, so that most of the boulders in front of the cave are hidden. On the other hand, the rocks between the monolith and the hill to the north are very exposed and surrounded by water, so you really can’t get through that way – we will be very cut off when the tide is in. Also good. I walked all the way to the carriage road, and was able to stand on the sand in front of it. As you might expect given how dry the last month has been, the waterfall is very low.
When I got back to the house Dave was starting the fire, and then it was time for relaxing. We did have an exciting moment when Tim went out for firewood and found a giant slug. I gave it a chunk of cherry tomato, which it ate. Watching slugs eat is weird and kind of creepy – do they have teeth? I am hoping not to have slug-induced nightmares.
That is all for today.
We pretty much packed all day on and off both yesterday and today, so it was a low-key kind of day. So low key, in fact, that we ended up sitting around for about half an hour between when we finished packing and when we had to leave, which may have been a first. The packing was made easier by our decision to go back to two cars, which allows us to completely fill the back seat space in my car – which is the biggest car of its size. I ended up driving it by myself, a very odd feeling. I got Harry Potter & the Chamber of Secrets from the library before I left, so it was a very pleasant drive. Tim drove Dave’s car, with Dave. I didn’t see any finger marks in the leather, so Tim must have driven well.
I stopped at Arch Cape Property Services to pick up the keys, and when I got here Tim and Dave had walked around to look inside and they had Big News – the gray chair, my nap chair, was GONE! This had me all shook up, as you can imagine, but when we got inside we discovered it has been replaced by an equally comfortable “suede” covered chair that swivels. The swivel allows you to looks at the fire, then the ocean, then the fire… you get the idea. We have made the determination that this change is Good.
The other major change is that they have taken the shelves out of Josh’s bedroom and our bedroom. This change is Bad, as it leaves us with nowhere to put out clothes. Minor changes include new cushions on the rocking chair (good), new comforter on the bed in our bedroom (the old comforter has moved to the bed in Josh’s room), and a new tablecloth on the kitchen table. The faucet in the kitchen has not been fixed, but the run-down look that had crept in last year has been taken care of, which is very good.
We unpacked and connected to the internet , which in the case of my phone meant re-typing the 2000 character WEP key. It only took me 10 minutes or so. Then it was time to go to Mo’s. The Mo’s dinner has to be early not only because otherwise there is a huge line, but also because the breakfast burritos that Dave made for lunch (to use up leftover potatoes and green chili sauce) had worn off. Approaching Mo’s I must confess I was nervous – traffic was bad and the parking lot seemed very full – but we got a spot and possibly the last empty table. It was a deep-fried night with popcorn scallops for Tim (since when does he eat scallops?), fried clams for me and the number 3 combo (fried clams, fried scallops,fried fish) for Dave. The food came very fast and was very hot, which was a little unusual. Then off to the Surfcrest Market for milk, and then home.
Wow, was the tide ever out when we got there! Tim walked up the road to see if there’s a path where there looks like there should be one (there’s not); I went down to the beach, and Dave stayed at the house to get the Jambox set up and be radio headquarters. Here’s the sand report: the sand is very high to the south, so that most of the boulders in front of the cave are hidden. On the other hand, the rocks between the monolith and the hill to the north are very exposed and surrounded by water, so you really can’t get through that way – we will be very cut off when the tide is in. Also good. I walked all the way to the carriage road, and was able to stand on the sand in front of it. As you might expect given how dry the last month has been, the waterfall is very low.
When I got back to the house Dave was starting the fire, and then it was time for relaxing. We did have an exciting moment when Tim went out for firewood and found a giant slug. I gave it a chunk of cherry tomato, which it ate. Watching slugs eat is weird and kind of creepy – do they have teeth? I am hoping not to have slug-induced nightmares.
That is all for today.
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