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.