It was a sunny day (Saturday)

There was Yoga at 9, but we woke up a little after 8:30 and I didn’t feel like rushing around like a crazy person to try to get there. Dave got up and went to make the fire, and I slept for another hour – this is what vacation is for, right? Eventually I got up and had some cacklin’ (another nice thing about this house is the very small bowls), and then we headed to Manzanita for some walking around and lunch. It’ a much nicer day today – light overcast, no wind, no rain, moderately warm – so it’s a good day for walking around. 

Manzanita is a fun town these days. At the far west end there’s a yoga place called Longetivity that has lots of yoga clothes and mats, and there are several more clothing shops that have fun funky clothes. There are also several places to get candy and ice cream and pies, and of course the Thanksgiving Saturday bazaar in the grange hall. Manzanita is definitely a hipper place than Cannon Beach, but the shoreline is much less interesting – hardly any monoliths at all.  When we got there, at about 10:30, there was plenty of parking, but by the time we left it was pretty parked up. One of my favorite tchotchke places is called Finnesterre, and we usually go in there and see all sorts of things we like but can’t figure out how to fit into our lives. This time we not only found something for ourselves, we got the same thing for Grandma Sandage. Ho, Ho, Ho. Not telling. One of the things they had in that store that we didn’t get were these balls covered with a felty, veloury kind of fabric that kind of looked like brains and kind of like cauliflower (or broccoli, in the case of the green ones) and felt soft and fuzzy when you touched them. They were a classic example of things we like but can’t figure out what we’d do with.

We’d left Tim at home with two jobs: keep the fire going and figure out what sandwich you want from Bread and Ocean. We wouldn’t know for sure until we got home if he accomplished task 1 (he did), but he dealt with task two with alacrity. So after we’d done our walking around we headed over to Bread and Ocean, which is a favorite lunch spot but which is now for sale – this is not good! It’s still being run by the same people which is good because we really like their sandwiches, but who knows what will happen under new ownership? Anyway, Dave had the turkey Panini and I had the half banh mi which is still terrific. I also had a sweet potato and arugula salad which needed a little lime juice and coriander but was pretty terrific anyway. We brought home Tim’s corned beef sandwich (very tasty) and our leftover cookies (ginger for me, coconut for Dave) and he was very happy to see them.

Since he had kept the fire going I decided it was time to put on the big log which we got on Thursday afternoon and have been toasting in front of the fire ever since. Dave put it on with several other pieces of wood, and it caught on fire immediately, which was very gratifying. We’d had all sorts of plans to go up to Cannon Beach and walk around and maybe go for a hike, but they all came to a screeching halt when the big log went on. 

Eventually the log burnt down enough that I could tear myself away, and we headed up into Cannon Beach. We were concerned that parking would be bad, but there was plenty of parking in the secret back lot. We walked around and noticed many changes, the most startling being the gaping empty dirt lot where the Bistro was before it burned last summer. We went into several shops and galleries, but after Manzanita it all seems a little staid. Down one alley, though, we came upon the Cannon Beach Distillery, which was doing tastings. We’d seen it last year and decided not to go in – after all, we don’t know anything about spirits and how interesting could that be? We had the same thought process today but decided to go in anyway, and was it ever fun! It’s run by a young guy who was a biology/chemistry major. It’s all distilled right there and he’s very knowledgeable and also fun to talk with. We started with a rum (note – take a smaller sip than you would while tasting wine) and then tasted two very different gins. We both liked the rum and really liked the first gin, the Peters’ family gin. Dave liked the second, which had more Asian spices, but I found it somewhat medicinal.  We ended up getting a bottle of the Peters’ family.

While we were in town Dave had gotten a call from Newman’s, where we’re headed for dinner, so we pulled over into the Icefire parking lot so he could listen to the message. They were blowing, so we went in. They were making something we’d never seen before –clear glass tumblers. Perfect for gin and tonics – and how perfect would it be to drink hand-crafted boutique gin in glasses made no more than a mile away! Pretty perfect, we thought as we left. But then we got in the car and thought again how perfect it would be, so we went back in and got two of the glasses.

When we got home we found that Tim had gone for a run and also kept the fire going, and the giant log was already half way gone. Dave centered it so that it would all burn up. I’m very pleased. It was still not raining, and in fact seemed to be clearing up, so we went for a walk. Well, I went down to the stream which was just as cold and uncrossable as ever, and Dave sat on the swing with some blankets we’d brought from home. Then I came back and sat on the swing too, and we watched the sun get lower and lower as it got clearer and clearer. We were starting to think there might be a green flash, but just as the sun went down it mostly went behind a cloud. Dave got some good photos. By the time the sun had gone down it was quite chilly, even with the blankets, so we were glad to go back to the fireplace, where the giant log was pretty much gone.  Then it was time for taking showers and sitting around watching the fire.

Tonight’s dinner was at Newman’s at 988, an always reliable choice. The menu hasn’t changed in the past couple years, but tonight they were offering so many specials that it didn’t matter. A nice feature of Newman’s is that they have a 4 course prix fixe dinner, but all of the items in the dinner are also available separately. We ended up with several of them – the seared foie gras and apple appetizer for Dave, the spinach salad for me, and the 3 cheese ravioli for Tim. Tim also had the soup du jour, a tomato soup with gorgonzola and prosciutto, that was quite good. In fact I need to remember that Newman’s has excellent soup and you should get it. Dave had the seared scallops for his entrée, which he really enjoyed. I had the lamb and Tim had the medallions of bouef, which were their usual good selves. Dave and Tim had the chocolate hazelnut torte for dessert and it was excellent. I had a honey walnut pie with lemon curd ice cream where both items separately were excellent, but the combination was questionable. So I separated them and for the first time this trip ate way too much.

 

When we got home it was very cold but also very clear, so Dave restarted the fire and then bundled up to go sit on the swing some more. Tim and I watched two of my favorite top gear shorts on youtube (reliant robin and ford fiesta beach landing) and then set ourselves up for more relaxing. It’s been weird not being at BLH, but this house has many excellent features, especially the fireplace. If you were wondering, the giant log burned completely up.

Then we played 2 games of trouble and I lost both times, even though in the second game we tried to gang up on Dave after he won the first game. Honk Dooga! Eat Katie!

A couple of notes, in case we end up in Rustlewood again: by running the fireplace almost constantly we heated the chimney up so much that it makes it almost too warm to sleep in Tim’s room and almost too warm to sit comfortably in the swing. As I write this, we have the door open to let some cool air in. The closet in our bedroom has the fireplace as one wall, and it is majorly toasty in there.

Bring the big down jacket and the long underwear, even if the forecast calls for rain the whole time. The forecast is almost always wrong, and it would have been fun to sit out on the swing and look at the stars and the beautiful moon.

Bring some t-shirts to wear at night in front of the fire. Maybe some shorts too. Or a bikini.

Dave would bring a pirate flag to run up the flagpole & see if anyone salutes.

 

When you fall asleep on the swing, you will think you are still swinging when you get in to the real bed. This is a good thing.

 

 

Friday - whatever adjective you want

Rainy Friday is more like it – it’s been steadily raining and windy today. I woke up just before 8, got the fire started, and headed in to town for Yoga. I was a little nervous because last night at dinner Rhonda said she’d gone and really disliked the teacher. This made me nervous because we’ve had two other teachers before and had the same feeling about them both – one we liked, one we didn’t. But I went anyway, and it was the same teacher from this summer and I like her. The class was very full – more and more people kept coming and squishing in – so you had to be careful when you were moving your arms and taking up lots of space not to also take out your neighbor. I practiced carefully and had a very nice time. It was mimosa day in Cannon Beach, so after class the teacher popped open some champagne and OJ, but I needed to get back to Rustlewood so I didn’t have any.

When I got back Dave and Tim were both up and the fire was roaring away. Dave was sitting on the porch watching the waves and rain. The porch would be a perfect place to do that, since it’s entirely closed in, except that it has these two small open places right under the roof, so it is a little chilly. I got changed and we went back in to town to meet Rhonda and Tracy at Bill’s. (I think two cars might have been a better idea – I wouldn’t have minded taking clothes to change into and staying in town). I feel about Bill’s the way Dave and Tim feel about Pig’n – I enjoy it well enough, but I wouldn’t mind skipping it either. The seasonal beer called “Yule Mule” was pretty good though – I enjoyed my glass and my burger.  Tim was there, but he was much happier taking the picture than being in it.

After lunch we went to Bruce’s for a little taffy, licorice wheels, and an assortment of salted licorice to take to work. I’m just addicted to the stuff. The Tim went to the car and Dave and I went to La Luna Loco where I got another pair of fabulous pants for half off. I would have gotten several pairs, but they didn’t have a very large selection of colors. The ones I got are very, very pink. Driving home through the heavy wind and rain we realized that the bolt that holds the pop top down had come loose again and the top was just being held down by the safety catch, so when we got back I opened the roof and screwed it back in. The final step involves hanging from the handle and putting your feet on the roof in front of the pop top and pushing with your feet while you’re upside down, an impressive gymnastics move that we did not get a picture of. And will not get a picture of.

When I got in Dave was restarting the fire, and we had a nice relaxing afternoon. Mostly relaxing – at one point all the downstairs smoke detectors went off. Tim and I were just going to sit there and let them make noise, but Dave actually got up and said we should get out of the house. In the rain, really? I was slowly gathering my things (laptop, shoes, a jacket, things like that) but by then the door Dave had opened had de-smoked the room and the alarms stopped going off. Then I opened the window by the table to let more smoke out (we hadn’t realized how smoky it had gotten), which was a mistake because all the wood in the house has swollen up in the humidity and it wasn’t clear we’d get it closed again. Then it was back to relaxing, except for a short time of helping the FGSC meet director figure out a problem with the Xmas meet.

About 2:30 the Irish Table called and said that they did not have room for us tonight. This made both me and Dave very crabby, because here’s what: there’s no good food in Cannon Beach that takes reservations and isn’t expensive. Newman’s, Stephanie Inn, Inn at Arch Cape – all very good, all spendy. Sweet Basil café, Castaway, Irish Table – all reasonably priced, no reservations. Gah. We finally decided to take our chances on Sweet Basil, where we haven’t been since they upscaled their menu (but will have to try for sure). So we texted Tracy, and then Dave grumped off to walk on the beach in the pouring rain and I grumped out to the front porch to do BodyFit day 4. Tim was already napping in his room. So I got about 2/3 of the way through my exercises before Dave got back. He was very wet but less crabby and went to get more firewood (we go through an amazing amount of it). While he was in the woodshed Irish Table called and said they had space for us at 5:30, which was about half an hour earlier than we wanted, but it is guaranteed good food. The conversation was a little difficult with Shawn, because I was panting a lot. Also when I lay down to stretch afterwards in the cool damp front porch steam was rising from my body. But it was all good. Dave got in touch with Tracy again and he was able to make the earlier time but said no more changes. We hope not.

Once we’d all warmed up (Dave) or cooled down (me) or woken up (Tim), there were showers all around and we headed to Irish Table. Dinner was very good, although maybe not quite as good as it has been in the past – the recipe for the broth for the curried mussels had definitely changed. Still, my favorite dinner so far. And the desserts were super yummy. Unfortunately since we had to eat a half hour early, we were left with an awkward amount of time between when we got done and when the show started. We headed back to the house, then back into town. Fortunately the rain had slowed down so the driving wasn’t too bad.

The reason we went to see Scrooge, aside from the part where we really like the story, is that Rhonda plays the piano in it. We’d never been inside the Coaster theater before, and it’s smaller than I thought, but very comfortable. We had nice seats in the middle, and when the lights went down it turned out we could see Rhonda through the scrim, so that was fun. But I have to take a moment to talk about this particular adaptation, which is an adaptation of the 1970 movie starring Albert Finney, which is of course an adaptation of Dickens’ famous book. The interpretation in the movie with all the singing and dancing was strange enough, but this version added on a whole other layer of weirdness, including a scene where Marley comes back and tells Scrooge that his chain isn’t ready because they had to hire extra devils to work on it. That being said, it was a totally enjoyable show with some very funny and also some very touching moments, and we all had a good time. Well, Dave and I did. Tim was bemused by much of it, particularly the dancing phantoms. I can feel a new tradition coming on.

We didn’t get home until after 10:30, but decided to make a fire anyway while we got caught up on our evening. One thing about the giant fireplace is that it makes us all just want to sit and stare at it, so we haven’t played any games and only Dave has flown his helicopter. It’s worse than TV!