Turkey Day

Woke up at 8:30 after a rough night last night to an amazing high tide and windy, stormy skies and seas. The water is coming all the way up the beach onto the rocky areas, and the wind is blowing the spume off the tops of the waves. I wonder how far the storm extends. I wonder if it’s reaching the Oosterdam, halfway to Ensenada. If it is, and I were there, you know I’d be sloshing in the pool. But I am happy to be here watching this beautiful world.

You may be wondering why last night was a rough night. Two things. First, when we got in bed we discovered that they have put fleece sheets and pillowcases on the bed. Yes, fleece – it’s the next step up from flannel, I guess, and it is very strange. First of all it just feels weird, and secondly Dave was afraid his flannel pajamas would interact badly with the sheets and he’d get strangled. Fortunately that turned out not to be the case, and we fell asleep to the sound of the ocean roaring outside the window, one of our favorite things. Unfortunately we didn’t get to stay asleep very long. At 3:20, the alarm decided it had waited long enough for someone to pay attention to it, and started in on its beeping again. We shut it up again, but not with the same “ah that’s taken care of now” feeling as before. When we got back in bed it was almost impossible to fall asleep because it was pouring rain again, and it was like being inside a drumset because of the big plastic skylights. We did get to sleep, though, until the alarm system went off again a little after 6. It hasn’t gone off yet again, but we’ll be disturbing somebody’s Thanksgiving to get it taken care of.

Today was a bootcamp day for me. Dave was a little nervous that if I did it in the living room the whole house would collapse. No, he’s not making a comment on my size – the supports under the house are questionable at best. So I did it in our bedroom, which isn’t much off the ground, and I shook the house less than the washing machine on the spin cycle, which I think is a compliment. Today was day 3 (both here and on the ship, interestingly) and as I’m trying to do the burpees with the pushups it was pretty hard. But it felt good. Dave took his shower while I was stretching, and I took mine after his. Then we woke Tim up (at 11!) and headed in to town for lunch at the Pig’n, a Thanksgiving tradition since last year. There’s nothing like pigs in a blanket for lunch on Thanksgiving to make you feel thankful. We all ordered what we wanted, and Tim ate what dave and I couldn’t. Once again Tim was disappointed that we wouldn’t let him order any Hog Wash, a low calorie energy drink aimed at kids.

Don’t worry, Tim’s disappointment didn’t last long. After brunch we headed to the mariner market for milk and tea, and while I was standing in line I heard the folks in front of me talking to the cashier about Hog Wash. “You have Hog Wash?” I asked excitedly, and they pointed me to the cooler behind me. It was so exciting – what kind to get? I decided on the Blue Raspberry as the least likely to contain natural ingredients. Tim was very excited when I got back to the car, but he was driving (we’d found out on the way in that Dave left his wallet in the house), so he had to wait until we got home to try it. The weather was pretty extreme, very windy with gusts of heavy rain, so Tim drove pretty carefully for the most part, except for when he was on the ramp onto the highway. The van is not a Ferrari, it just sounds like one.

Once we got home it was Hog Wash time, and boy, was it awful. Sweet, loaded with both cane sugar and aspartame and more chemicals than you can imagine. After I tried it I had to make spitting noises for quite some time. Bleah, bleah, bleah. Dave and Tim later googled it and found that this flavor is widely known as the worst of the hog wash flavors, so we may need to try another. The hog wash segued into a relaxed afternoon of reading and napping and relaxing, which was very nice. Also watching the storm come and go, which was pretty amazing – at times it would just be blowing and raining like crazy, then it would slow down, then it would start up again. Sometimes the wind would be screaming so loud in the hall it sounded almost like a siren. Dave put a towel on the floor in front of the front door because the wind was just blowing right through. (As a side not, Gordon Church, the owner, has been planning on replacing the front door for some time now. He is searching for the perfect door. The suspense is almost too much to bear.)

Around 4 it cleared up again and the tide was well on its way out to a surprisingly low -1.4, so Dave and I put on our boots and headed down for a walk. It was funny because even though I’d showed him a picture of the waterfall full of water, when we got there he was just blown away – the reality is way more impressive than the picture. Once again there were several waves that came up way higher than any of the usual waves. We tried to get to the carriage road, but the sand is really low, and the water from the waterfall made it pretty much impassable if you wanted to have dry feet, which we did. Dave got lots of great pictures of the cloudy, sunset colored sky reflected in the wet sand. It was an invigorating and enjoyable walk.

When we got back to the house I had time for a short call to the Bubster in MA, and then it was time to get dressed for the Nehalem River Inn. We went there a couple years ago with Rhonda the evil piano teacher and her husband Tracy and had a really good time, but neither of us could remember much about the food except it had been fine. Once again Tim got dressed without complaining – that is a nice change this year. We headed out at about 5:30, and the weather was awful – buckets of rain and lots of wind. This is kind of scary when you’re driving on the poorly lit twisty road with barely visible lines and a sheer dropoff down to the ocean on your right. But Dave did good driving, and we found the restaurant (it’s just past the Nehalem Winery over the bridge on the left). Tim was sort of stunned when we got there, because on the outside it looks like we should have been riding our Harleys and wearing our jeans and leather jackets. Inside, though, it’s a very nice restaurant, and we were seated at the same table we’d had before.

The dinner was a 3 course prix fixe menu, with 2 appetizers (butternut squash soup or arugula salad), 3 entrees (turkey dinner, red snapper, and quail) and 3 desserts. Dave and Tim had the soup and turkey, and I opted for the salad and quail. The appetizers were all very good, although last night’s butternut squash is still the champ. What wine with turkey and quail? We considered a pinot noir, but ended up with a 2009 Domaine Drouhin ‘Arthur’ chardonnay – an excellent choice. My quail, with “vanilla scented root vegetable hash, brussel sprout petals, and a duck confit-carmelized onion puff pastry”, was simply spectacular, just amazing, indescribably good – so much so that I ate the whole thing, which I don’t usually do with entrees. Dave and Tim’s turkey was good too – very good – but I think mine was the best. Dessert was also yummy, and the coffee was very good. A memorable meal for sure, and no cleanup!

Fortunately it had stopped raining when it was time to drive home, and since it’s Christmas music time I enjoyed playing a selection of my favorites (Dasher Dancer Prancer Vixen! Huh!) on the way home. And of course when we got home it was time for some Punkin’ Chunkin’ on the discovery channel, another tradition since last year. This is where people build giant contraptions to throw pumpkins across a field. There are several divisions of machines of increasing power, concluding with the air cannons, and it is strangely compelling television. We were all pleased when the novice air cannon team with the outsize budget (and the word ‘Yankee’ in their name) lost by 4 feet.

Afterwards it was time for farkle, at which, honestly, nobody sparkled. Where’s Josh when you need him? There were a few good rolls, but mostly it was 50s and 100s – painful. Tim won the first game by quite a bit, and I won the second one in a cliffhanger – Tim needed 3,000 points to tie, but farkled at 2300. We all agreed, though, that they were two of the lamest farkle games ever.

Here is what is hanging over our heads tonight. The alarm went off yesterday at 5:20pm, 3:20 am, and just after 6 am. Then it didn’t go off all day until exactly 5:20pm. So we’re wondering… do we get a complete night sleep tonight? Stay tuned, and Happy Thanksgiving!