Day 6, fog and a comedy tonight

It’s been a busy day already, and we’re not even done! Usually I take a few minutes here and there to get caught up, but today I haven’t had a few minutes. I started out by heading in for yoga with Christen. It was very interesting because she had 2 new-to-yoga people in the class, so I figured we’d be spending time on form and alignment. I really like classes like that because I enjoy working on form and alignment and listening to my body, but also because it often means holding a pose or a stretch for a little longer than you might otherwise, which can be quite challenging. Instead it seemed to me that we whipped through a whole lot of poses, kind of like if you don’t hold any position very long it doesn’t matter how you do it. We did a series of what are now called mountain climbers that was unlike anything I’ve ever done in a yoga class, which doesn’t mean that much because I haven’t done all that much yoga. But it was weird.

I was home by a little after 9:30, and the skies had pretty much completely defogged – it was a beautiful day! So Dave and I decided that once I’d finished my cacklin’ we’d head off to the Neahkanie mountain trails. Which we did, but Nehalem was completely socked in – heavy, deep fog. We were disappointed but decided we’d go ahead and do the hike anyway. It’s two trails – the south trail, which goes mostly straight up (with switchbacks), and the north trail, which slopes down the whole way (also with switchbacks). Of course if you started from the north their up-and-downness would be reversed, but the north end is lower than the south end, so we figured we’d do less up and more down. It was an amazing hike, because the fog was breaking up the whole time. So we had the sun filtering through fog, we had clear patches, we had places where the fog ended just over head-level so it was illuminated by the sun as you walked through it and it blew past. That was really strange because you felt like you should be pushing it out of the way, like the thinnest cotton you can think of, except that even though you could see it, there was nothing to push.

We met some people on both trails, but mostly it was just the two of us. In addition to going in and out of the fog, we’d also go in and out of where you could hear the ocean – we’d suddenly notice that it was almost silent except for our footsteps and breathing, and then you’d go a little way and the ocean noise would be back. We know that we missed some good views because of the fog, but I’m glad we went when we did because watching it lift and change was better than views. After all, it’s just the ocean, right? There was one place which is sort of the summit , although it’s not the top of the mountain. Before it, the trail mostly went up; afterwards, the trail mostly went down. It’s the only place where the trail goes past a rock wall and I wished I’d had my security rope. It had an open view down to the ocean, but when we got there all we could see was fog. But as we stood there taking pictures of the fog, it started to go away and we could see patches of oceans through it. It was so cool.

The last bit of trail going down is just a long slope with switchbacks. The path is only about a foot wide and very overgrown with vegetation on both sides. There are also roots to trip over and on the downhill side the trail often isn’t as wide as the opening between the vegetation, so we really needed to watch our footing. I did step off the path and slid down to my knees once, but was unhurt. Unfortunately my knee doesn’t like going downhill for a long time, so the last bit was kind of painful. Does anybody know why it would hurt going down stairs or down a slope, but not going up stairs or up a slope? Well, it’s annoying. By the time we got back to the car the sun was completely out and we were starving. We texted Tim to get ready, and stopped at the house to put on dry clothes – between the fog and the dripping from the trees and the sweating and the slipping (in my case) we were pretty soaked.

There’s a new lunch place and cupcake bar called the Cannon Beach Café  where the original JPs used to be in the Cannon Beach Hotel, and we decided we’d try it for lunch. I was a little nervous when we came in and there was a vacant 4-top that needed to be cleared, and the waitress suggested we might like to come back in 5 minutes. There was a nice couch next to the table so we sat there, and she cleared and wiped down the table (but not the placemats, which was kind of questionable). Service wasn’t as slow as I’d feared, and Tim said his French dip was very good. Dave’s and my sandwiches were just ok, and the cupcakes were dry with not very interesting frosting. So we’ve been there and done that and don’t need to do it again.

Tim had thought he might go beach biking after lunch while Dave and I hung out in town, but yesterday’s run (and this morning’s) caught up with him and he decided not to. There’s not really a reason for Dave or I to go with him since he’d be halfway down the beach before we even got past the creek. So we drove into town which was very crowded, but for the third day in a row we got our same space in the secret back lot. We went to the coaster theater to pick up our tickets for tonight’s show, but even though it is tonight the box office lady couldn’t get them to print out, so she just hand wrote our information on blank tickets. Then we went to EVOO to get bread, and while we were there we wondered if they were doing thanksgiving dinner, and they were, so we made reservations. Because our favorite place, the Nehalem River Inn, changed hands before last Thanksgiving and isn’t worth going back to.

Then it was back to the house, where Tim and Dave went down for naps. My knee was still unhappy, but it was gorgeous and sunny and low tide and I really, really wanted to go down to the beach, so I hopped and stumbled my way down there. I’d worn my workout capris since I forgot a bathing suit and also they are great for going in the water (although not as good as the ones that fit tightly all the way down), and I figured my knee would like to walk in the water. It’s not that cold at all, so I ended up wading in jut to the tops of my thighs (on average – this is the ocean and it’s very wave-y), and walked all the way to the tip of hug point and back. It was a great walk and it was fun to see all the little kids running back and forth with the waves chasing them. By the time I got back to the house I was pretty much soaked all the way up my arms and chest. Also by the time I got back to the house the fog had come back and we were completely socked in.

I did a little ab workout and had a shower, and then I had about half an hour before it was time to make the fruit salad. Since we’re going to the theater tonight we figured it would be easier to just eat in the house. The fruit salad was very good except that there were two bitter peaches that got in – I should have just tossed them. The mango, plums, nectarines and melon were all good though, and the bananas were about perfect even though they looked overripe because they’d been in the fridge.

After dinner I had time for some more blogging while Dave put away the leftovers (not very many) and Tim did the dishes. Then we headed in to town to see ‘A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum’ at the Coaster Theater, because our friend Rhonda-the-piano-teacher was making the music (it’s all live at the Coaster). We couldn’t get Tim to come with us since last time we went it was a very strange musical version of A Christmas Carol (which Rhonda also played for) and the moaning spirits in the aisles at the beginning left him quite disturbed. We were lucky; it was their next to last performance and even though the audience was small they (we) were very into it and the performers did not disappoint. We enjoyed ourselves thoroughly.

Back to the house through one of the clearest nights we’ve ever seen. It’s finally cooled off and the humidity is gone, so we’ll enjoy a little time with the crackling fire and sleep well tonight.

Here is a bonus picture of Tim playing with Buckyballs