The Day Before Thanksgiving

My day started early, since I am heading to the gym at 6:30 to use the vibrating platform before practicing teaching the BodyFit class. Today was especially fun because someone came in to the classroom while I was teaching and encouraging my imaginary students, and she looked pretty concerned. After BodyFit it was home to clean the fishtank (using the brand new faucet in the master bathroom sink – no leaks!), then off to Safeway and then Phil’s to pick up some subs for lunch. Dave went to work and to the gym, and Tim slept. Kenzie Backous is our housesitter this trip, so she came by to get a key, see where everything was, and practice using the alarm.

We were all packed and ready to go by 1:30, but the instructions said not to arrive at the house before 4, so Dave and I took naps. That was good because I was very sleepy and a little crabby. We left around 2:45, and traffic was mostly very light, with a few slow patches. We waved at the little house as we drove by it, then turned right on Leech (eewww!) and right on Galinsky, and our driveway was the third on the right. Rustlewood is what the house is called, and it has a lockbox, so you don’t have to stop in at the ACPS office. This saves a great deal of time since Debbie the owner likes to talk. The house is almost due east of the castle-looking rock that you can see from the little house. It’s set back from the beach about 100 yards, with a very easy path to the beach. (As I’m typing this Dave and Tim are disagreeing about how far it is. Dave has conceded that maybe it’s more like 150 feet. Tim says, “I have a pretty good idea of how far 25 yards is). We’re not very far north of Arch Cape Creek at all. The thing is when you get here at 4, and then you unload and put everything away, it’s pretty much dark. So we didn’t get to do much exploring.

The house starts with a glassed-in porch, which is a good place to leave the shoe basket and suitcases and so on. You come in from there to the living room, which has a porch swing suspended from the middle of it, in front of the fireplace which is covered by a giant piece of plywood. It has no flue, so that’s how they keep the wind from whistling in.  The master bedroom is off the living room, and the kitchen is off of it as well on the other side. The kitchen has saloon-type doors, which are somewhat out of place given the overall heavily nautical theme. It has two rooms for the bathroom – one for the tub/shower, and one for the toilet and sink, which is nice. It also has very steep stairs – more like a ladder with railings – up to the top floor, which has two small bedrooms each with two twin beds. Tim likes having a whole floor to himself, but needs to practice not walking like an elephant since it makes the whole house shake and might make me thing there’s an earthquake, which would be very scary because we are right down here in the tsunami hazard zone.

We got unpacked and explored a little, including finding the very nice swing down by the beach. Then we were all very hungry and decided to head out for an early dinner.  We figured if we got to Irish Table a little before they opened we could probably get in to the first seating. We got there at 5:20 and were first in line. Problem is they’re not open Wednesdays and Thursdays, so it would have been quite a long wait. We got back in the car and headed over to Castaways, another restaurant that doesn’t take reservations. When we got there it was doing a good business but there were open tables, so we took the same table we had this summer. Once again the food and cocktails were excellent and inventive – the thai duck breast appetizer was my absolute favorite.  Tim had the jambalaya again, and Dave had the tuna in red curry, which was superb. I had the haystack chicken which was very good, but next time I would get it without the chicken – just goat cheese, mushrooms and caramelized onions in a pastry crust. And no visit to Castaways would be complete without the triple chocolate coconut brownie and ice cream. The owner seemed to recognize us and was very glad to see us, and we were very glad to see him and eat his yummy food.

When we got back it was time to make a fire in the gigantic fireplace and sit in the porch swing and listen to Mario Bauza on the jambox. Nobody seems to have the energy to play a game or even fly helicopters. The fireplace really is giant, and it appears that they clean it out between guests, so we’re having a huge fire and trying to build up a bed of coals.