Day 4, when the rains came

Surprisingly, I woke up at 7 feeling fine – cold gone, ears clear, no ill effects from the overindulgence at Newmans. So I got myself together and headed in for Yoga. I had been trying to remember the space, specifically if it would work for Nia, and it would, although tall people would need to be aware of where they were in the room and maybe not stretch their arms above their heads. I’m thinking Vickie would work; Al not so much. I talked to Christen after class and she’d be very open to doing a workshop some Saturday. Now I just need to find an interested teacher. Anyway, class was very enjoyable – not so full that you feel like you can’t stretch your arms out. I like the flow of her classes and find her easy to follow, although there were a couple of times I wished there were mirrors so I could have checked my alignment. I did notice, though, that for the most part I could feel where my body was without looking, and that was a new to me sensation that was good. The 75 minutes went by super fast – I was stunned when she said to prepare for shavasana, I figured we were only about halfway in. I had worked up a good amount of body heat, although it’s unusually warm and still humid, so some of it may have come from that.

I blissed myself down to the car and back to the house, listening to the aria from La Wally that’s in the movie Diva, which if you haven’t seen it you should. It is perfect driving back along the coast from yoga music. Dave had been up when I left, and he was still up when I got back. Tim came out briefly but insisted that he was not awake, and in fact went back to sleep. I spent a little time finishing yesterday’s blog and getting it posted.

The tides aren’t great this week in terms of getting very low, but they are low later in the day. This means you can go to yoga and still have time for a nice walk on the beach. So Dave and I did that. Because of having a cold this was my first time down, so I will do the Path and Sand Report. The path down to the beach (55 steps, not counting the ones down from the deck, and not counting the steps that are just a board or tree root with dirt behind it) has been very well taken care of. All the weeds have been removed, and the first and steepest flight of stairs has been rebuilt so it’s not so rickety, although it is still very steep – and the bridge is still very bouncy. The vegetation around the waterfall is spare so you can actually see the water cascading down. The first thing you notice when you get to the beach is that the pebble area isn’t as wide as it sometimes is, but it is very high – you’re much further up the rocks on the left than usual. We headed toward hug point, and the sand is very high coming out of our cove, although Dave says that when he was there Monday the rocks in the narrow neck were very exposed and there were pools between them. Not so anymore – it’s completely flat. The waterfall is very low, as you might expect given the dry summer, but the sand at the carriage road is very high – so much so that we think one of my favorite dog photographing places where the sandstone is being worn away is completely covered. Also all of the rocks in front of the actual carriage road at hug point are buried, and the sand comes up very high going onto the road. There’s a deep pool in front of the north end of the point, so you can’t walk all the way around it on dry sand. We went up and over, and walked most of the way to Arcadia beach. Then we decided to head back. The water isn’t the warmest it’s ever been, but it is also not bone-numbingly cold. We enjoyed splashing through it and were able to walk around the point on the sandbar that’s about 8 feet out.

When we got back Tim was awake and his first words were “Where are we going for lunch?” Good question. It was mostly cloudy, but the sun would peek through every now and then, and it’s quite warm – high of 72 today. So we decided it would be a good day to check out the sunny beer garden at Warren House Pub, and it was. I got some spruce ale (a glass would be better than a pint) and the smoked salmon salad. I need to remember that the smoked salmon salad is super yummy just as it is on the menu. No need to order anything else or change the type of dressing – it is really, really good. Tim had the Rueben and Dave had the white trash tacos, which were basically tacos made with Lawry’s taco mix – very nostalgic tasting.

After lunch we went up into town – plenty of spaces available in the secret back lot. Tim headed off to get taffy while Dave and I tasted rum and what-would-be-called-tequila-if-it-were-made-in-Mexico at the Cannon Beach distillery, and bought some of each. I remembered that you take much smaller sips when you taste distilled spirits than when you taste wine, so it went well. Then we stopped at Maggie and Henry’s where we got a Cannon Beach T-shirt for Tim to take to Santa Cruz and a shirt made of hemp from Santa Cruz and a fantastic long sleeved shirt, both for Dave. Tim and I had discussed taffy and he’d said he was going to get the premixed bag, but he ended up choosing his own and mostly chose flavors I don’t like, which made me mad. Not mad enough not to eat it, just a little mad.

When we got home I did some relaxing in the brown chair while Tim and Dave headed to the beach. It remains overcast, humid, and very mild.  After a while I went down and dug a hole, but found it unsatisfying – it was too deep before I struck water, and I was worried about my nails, which need to hold up for the full two weeks. Eventually it started sprinkling so we came up and took naps. Of course it stopped sprinkling moments after we got up here, so Dave napped outside until it started sprinkling again, and then he completed his nap on the couch.

I’d been thinking about going to the intermediate yoga class at 5:30 but found myself not excited about it, so instead I went and did BodyFit day 2 in the back room. I didn’t start with 18s, the way Alex did on the ship, but it was a good workout anyway. As I was putting away my mat I realized that I left something out of yesterday’s blog, which is that we watched the cruise video after we got back from the restaurant. That’s when I drank my tea, I figured out. So the whole reason we got the video was so that we could see Dave’s triumphant dance and win in the Dancing with the Stars at Sea competition. The video started out with an interminable sequence of people having their boarding pictures taken (some with the moose, which made Dave sad because he missed the moose every time). It did show all three of the preliminary dance competitions. It showed parts of the shows, with the worst videography and sound you can imagine, and I know you can imagine a lot. But it didn’t have the final show! It’s one of the worst things we’ve ever paid for on the ship, and I include the hour-and-a-half wine tasting where we only tasted 4 wines and the leader went on about turbidity until our eyeballs went numb. We are not happy.

Once I’d finished my workout & we’d all showered we headed for Castaways Tiny Tiki Hut, a restaurant we never, ever would have gone to if not for Yelp. As it is, it’s one of our favorites – the only drawback is that they don’t take reservations for parties of fewer than 6, so you take your chances. This time we had to wait a bit, so we went out to the car and played on our personal devices until they called. The rains finally came in to stay, so walking around was not really an option. Once we got in and seated the service was a little slow, but Dave had his hurricance and I had a pomegranate-blueberry-ginger cosmo, so we didn’t really care. We tried the Texas Egg roll, which is basically peppery cream cheese in an eggroll wrapper, which was quite yummy. And of course the seared tuna appetizer, which was cooked perfectly and had interesting flavors. Our entrees were very good – Dave had the scallop special, I had the Jamaican pork chop, and Tim had his usual, the Jambalaya, 2 star spicy level. And of course dessert – chocolate brownie with ice cream for Tim, and Dave and I tried the mango flambé, which was yummy but a little too sweet. That didn’t stop me from totally chowing on it though. This is the first time that we’ve been there that the chef didn’t come out to say hello.

Once we got home and had more device quiet time, it was time for pepper. We had several games and I won two of them. The last game went on for a very long time. They are fun to play, but not very interesting to write or read about, except for the part where I laugh hysterically every time I try to bluff. Needless to say, we won’t be playing poker any time soon.

I want to take a minute here to talk about the Lone Tree, which has been standing by itself at the top of a hill for a couple years now. You can see it from everywhere - it's quite the landmark. During Sr Champs in March a bunch of us swim parents & swimmers went to Outback for dinner, and I found that Referee Tim Shiel, who works for Stimson Lumber and whose kids have been swimming with Tim forever, is responsible for the tree. Apparently it was too rotted to be worth cutting, so when he marked the trees for the clear cut he left that one unmarked. So it stands in solitary splendor - the Shiel Tree. Apparently his name is not spoken with great fondness in this area.

It’s still raining, and supposed to rain again tomorrow, so we’re hunkering down. We have a nice fire going and you can hear the waves, so things are quite good.