Day 7, when I win.

7:00 seems to be the time I wake up, so I did. Dave got up too – today was the best day for the walk to the Rock Wahii, so that is what he did.  Before we left we saw a wide band of tiny birds all flying north, and he said he watched them for about an hour, all going the same direction. I hung out in the house and had leftover fruit salad and English muffin. They have a real toaster here. The difference between a real toaster and a toaster oven is just amazing. Like the bird clock, a toaster may be another item that we meet at the beach and decide we can’t live without. At about 8:35 I was off for yoga, with a stop at the Mariner Market for milk on the way in. Just before I left I looked at facebook and saw that Dave was at Arcadia Beach, which was fun to know. Town was more crowded, as it was Saturday and also an hour later than when I came in for yoga yesterday, but I was still able to find on-street parking right across from Bill’s. I could have parked even closer if I’d gone past the studio, but it was certainly close enough and convenient both to Mariner and the studio.

Can you see the hole in the Rock Wahii?

It was a small class today, only 3 of us. It was also a 90 minute class, the longest I’ve ever yoga’d. We started out very slowly, stretching out backs by lying on little bolsters in various positions. I liked that. In fact the whole thing moved very slowly, with some new stretches – and also some old ones that kept getting more complicated as we went on. I felt, to use Rhonda’s term, pretty blissed out by the end of it. I did realize when I got back in the car that I’d completely miscalculated – not sure how I thought a 90 minute class that started at 9 would be done by 10, but there it was. Tim was still asleep when I got home, though, so I was not rushed getting changed.

Next up was lunch at the Bread and Ocean. Manzanita seems to have a hipper, younger, and wealthier demographic than Cannon Beach, and it was interesting to see all the toned people in their spandex coming in for lunch. While we were at Castaways on Wednesday night chatting with the chef, he talked about wanting to keep things fresh and new at his restaurant, not like the steakhouse that’s been there 40 years and never changed a thing on the menu. Cannon Beach may be becoming that steakhouse, with Manzanita the new place to be. Fortunately our house is about halfway between them, so we get the best of all possible worlds – we like a good steak now and then. Back to lunch. I had the Banh Mi, which was just yummy and what I should always get. Tim had the roast beef, and Dave had the corned beef special, both of which was good but (title notwithstanding) nothing special. Dave and I both had the half sandwich and soup (although Dave seemed to get a whole sandwich), and Tim got a whole sandwich and ate Dave’s extra half sandwich and most of my cookie. Soup was Thai coconut chicken, and it needed a little more heat and fish sauce, but it was good anyway.

After lunch we came back to the house and did napping. It was a little early for a nap and the bed wasn’t in the sun yet, so I had to wrap up in the comforter. Dave put on many layers and napped on the deck, although again the sun wasn’t quite high enough. Clearly we should have delayed our naps, except we were very sleepy. We all woke up from our naps at about the same time, and then couldn’t get motivated to do anything. The pressure of knowing it’s the last day, combined with knowing that every parking lot both in town and at every beach was full, made it hard to decide. We considered geocaching but we’ve gotten all the close in ones; we thought about going for a hike but parking would be a problem, and it was so cold that going down to the beach wasn’t that appealing. Confidential to BOS and SFO: we did not consider beach bikes because 1) it was pretty much full on high tide and 2) Dave’s not a big fan, 3) Tim hadn’t expressed a strong desire to do it and 4) nobody can keep up with Tim anyway.

Tim had expressed a desire to do more kite flying, so Dave made the command decision that it was a beach day. I changed into many layers, and gathered the things I needed to do bootcamp on the beach (2 5-pound weights, water bottle, list of exercises); Tim and Dave grabbed all the things they needed (kites, kite accessory bag, baseball, baseball gloves, chair, umbrella), and we all headed down the stairs. Actually they headed down a few minutes before I did because I decided to put in a load of laundry. When I got down they were throwing the baseball back and forth as there wasn’t quite enough beach yet for kite flying. It turned out that down there it was really quite comfortably warm, and I ended up taking off all my outer layers. I was pleased to see that many of my sticks were still there, even if the hole had been filled in by the tide. I watched the baseball throwing for a while getting up the conviction to pick up the weights and swing them around. Eventually I did, and it was not as terrible as it sometimes is because 1) I was on the beach and 2) I was watching Tim and Dave play catch and then watching Tim fly the flexi. (Later on, while we were sitting on the deck finishing the rose from the fruit salad, Dave commented that the flexi is 28 years old – the kite designer signed and dated the bag it lives in when Dave bought it in 1984. I told him not to say such things).

When I finished my workout I walked around in the water for a while – over to the starfish rock to the south, which was still in the waves, and then out to the carriage road. It turns out the workout pants I was wearing are then best walking on the beach pants ever. At first I wondered if the salt water would be bad for them, but then I remembered the picture of Ironman Ben with the salt lines (can you tell how proud I am of having an ironman for a brother by the way I keep mentioning it?) and figured they could handle a little seawater. Why they’re great: they’re black, so they soak up the sun (that water is COLD), they dry fast, and they come to just below the knee and are tight fitting so they don’t flop around all soggily around your thighs. I picked up a couple of rocks to take with me when I go back East and thought about my dad, and I thought about my thighbones and shinbones as I splashed through the water, and I generally got into a better and better mood. My sunglasses are polarized, so when water is shallow and making ripples it makes very sharp patterns that are fascinating to watch. Also they make it so you can see where the peaks and troughs are under the surface, which also is interesting. It was an excellent walk, and it ended up that we spent about two hours down on the beach. And since we’d gotten there right at high tide, we could really see the ocean receding and the beach appearing. When I headed out to the carriage road I had to splash through the water to get around the outcropping at the end of our beach; when I came back the water was at least 10 feet away from it.

When I got back Tim and Dave were ready to pack it in too, so we all gathered our things and headed back up. Here’s where it gets ugly for me – day 1 of bootcamp, which is the set of exercises I did today, is really all about thighs. Sure, there’s some work for the abs and arms, but really, it’s all about those stair climbing muscles. And I was carrying 10 pounds of hand weights. This vacation I’ve been just prancing up the stairs without stopping, but that was most definitely not the case this time. I made use of each of the landings and even paused a few times in between. It’s interesting because I’ve lost about 10 pounds since we were here last summer (more when we arrived than now, as you might have guessed from the food descriptions), and carrying that extra weight really brought home how much easier it is to move without it. Of course it’s also easier to move when you haven’t tried to kill your legs for 20 minutes and then walked through calf deep water for an hour.

When I got to the deck Tim was in the shower, and given the complete lack of water pressure I decided to sit out on the deck and write until he got out and I could rinse off my feet. (A note here that while I'm not sure I like the aesthetics of the very short haircut, it sure is convenient). Dave brought out the previously mentioned glass of rose, and we had a wonderful time sitting on the deck in the sun listening to the waves. It’s another beautiful clear day – really, I’ve never been here when it’s been sunny every day like this. It’s still about 10 degrees cooler than you’d like it to be, but given the choice between cool and sunny and warm or cool but cloudy/rainy I will take the cool anytime.  The tide had gone out more and left those very interesting pools on the beach – why do they come sometimes, but not others? They were not there any other time this week. Eventually we all had showers and I got another load of laundry started and we saw the giant flock of tiny birds flying in the other direction, and then it was time to head to Fishes.

 

Fishes is in the Osborn building, in the space that used to be JPs (of fabulous marionberry lemonade fame). We have been looking forward to eating there since we first saw the “coming in January” signs last summer, although when it turned out only to be open for dinner we weren’t sure we were going to go. But yesterday we decided it would be more interesting than the Stephanie Inn and changed our reservation. It’s a very nice looking restaurant, with the kitchen in the back part of the restaurant where you can see it. The kitchen is made to sort of look like a pagoda, and the layout and décor of the rest of the restaurant is very clean and open. I particularly liked the 3 ceramic fishes swimming in a line high up on one of the walls. Unfortunately the open floor plan and very high ceilings make it very noisy – which wasn’t helped by the table in the center with 4 adults and 4 very loud undisciplined children. The children eventually got up and stood in an open place between the tables and started trying to lift each other, which resulted (just as Drew Pearrson predicted) in falling and crying. I blame the parents. When they left the restaurant got much quieter, but also much colder as they stood holding the door open for a very long time on their way out. Are they not aware that there are other people on the planet?

Dave and Tim started out with the Miso soup, which was flavorful and good although maybe a little over salted. We got the standard tuna and salmon rolls, a vegetable roll, tempura, Hamachi nigiri and a needles roll, which was salmon, crab and shrimp in a deep-fried roll. After all that anticipating, the food was a disappointment. The sushi rice was overcooked so it was mushy, and didn’t have enough vinegar. The tempura had a very strange batter – more like a beer batter that you’d get on onion rings – and was too brown and crunchy. The fish wasn’t as fresh as you’d like, and the rolls were just uninteresting tasting. Basically a failure in every respect, although the service was attentive. So we’re probably not returning to Fishes, which is sad. The good thing about Fishes, though, is that we didn’t order too much food and it is right next to Osborn’s, so it was dessert time. I had a kid size cone (chocolate-peanut butter), Tim had a big waffle cone (cookie dough), and Dave had his favorite haystack sundae, which he hasn’t had in a couple of years and which was just as good as he remembered it and which Tim finished the last third of. It is good to have Tim to help when you eat out.

On the way to dinner I said that we needed to play trouble tonight because I felt like I was going to win. I didn’t really feel like that, but I wanted to get something started. When we got home it was just after sunset and beautiful out, so I did some laundry and some blogging and we all did some relaxing and looking out the window, but eventually it was time to play. I was pretty sure that things were not going to go my way when Tim got a 6 on his first pop (anybody’s first pop, since he went first). And I was right. Not only did I not win, I think I only had one man in home and none on the board when he won. Usually we play for second but I wasn’t in the mood, so I cleared the board and we started playing again, and again everyone else immediately got out and I didn’t. But then things turned around, and at one point I had all my men out and nobody else was out on the board at all. So it went pop, groan, pop, groan, pop, move for several turns. But then somehow they got out and the next thing I knew I had all three of my men who were on the board back in my home. Also in this game was a spectacular double honk, where Dave had two men next to each other and Tim popped a 6 and a 1 to get both of them. But the MOST amazing and spectacular part of the game was when I won. I have won two whole games this trip, one pepper and one trouble. Given how many games we play every night, that’s a pretty paltry sum, but right now I am invincible.

Now we’ll sit in the dark some more and watch the fire (either live or in the reflected in the window version) and listen to music and eat Oreos and finish our wonderful week. Thanks for riding along.

Closing list of things we wish we'd had: mostly I like to wear sweaters or sweatshirts that zip or button, so it would be good to bring more of those in a variety of weights.Also on Labor Day Dave was cleaning out the closet in the computer room and found a fanny pack which would be perfect for geocaching and short hikes.