Day 2, when the rains come

Today was one of those days where it goes sleep, eat, eat, sleep, eat. I woke briefly at 7:20 and contemplated yoga class, but decided that nobody wants to do yoga next to someone who is going “sniff, snork, hack, cough, sniff” and went back to sleep until 9. Almost 11 hours of sleep, and although I did wake up still sick I am definitely feeling better.  Dave was just getting ready to go on a walk, as the tide was low and headed lower, but I decided laziness was the order of the day and stayed in the brown chair eating cacklin’ and drinking tea. He walked all the way to the Rock With A Hole In It (Rock Wahii). It was a beautiful morning, partly sunny and about 65. Just before he got back I thought I’d take a shower, but they don’t provide shampoo and we’d forgotten to bring any. So instead we all got dressed and headed to Bill’s for lunch.

Town at first appeared to be a zoo – I can’t remember ever seeing so many people walking between midtown and downtown.  But when we got to the main parking lot, there were lots of spaces, and there were only two groups ahead of us in line at Bill’s when they opened at 11:30. There was a moment of disappointment for Dave as they had neither the red ale nor the 2x4 stout, but he decided to try the spruce ale, which I liked very much. We all had burgers and Dave also had an amber ale, which he liked very much (I drank about half of his spruce ale).

After lunch we picked up some shampoo and also dish detergent at the Mariner. We also got Tim some Hogwash – Gruntin’ Grape. Hogwash says about themselves, “Folks said we couldn't make a fun, fruity drink without a pigpen full of calories - but that's Hog Wash! Hog Wash is the low-calorie, vitamin enriched juice drink that's bursting with great taste.” (Visit hogwashfun.com for more info) They also say they don’t use artificial sweeteners, but they are sure using artificial something, because it’s completely poisonous. Tim is hanging on to his childhood with his fingernails by managing to down one every year. I will admit that Gruntin’ Grape seemed less poisonous than Oinkin’ Orange, but that may also be because my nose is all stuffed up.

When we got home it was nap time. Inspired by Tim’s beverage, I went whole hog with the advanced napper routine, in which you put on pajamas and announce that you will be taking a nap. Tim did the intermediate route (bed, no pajamas) while Dave did the beginner routine (I’ll just read in the chair for a while).  I should add that all of us are certified advanced nappers, we just chose different difficulty levels for today. Anyway, we all slept for at least an hour and a half. When I woke up the weather had turned, but Dave was not to be deterred – he had wrapped up in a hat and blanket and was settling in to read on the deck under the overhang while the rain got heavier and heavier. I stayed inside watching the storm come in.  Eventually it got wet enough for him to come in as well. Then we had hanging out and reading in the house, one of the best things.

Eventually I decided it was time to have some activity, so I went in the bedroom and did BodyFit day 1. I tried to imagine I was on the ship with Byron or Alex, and I did manage to push myself a little. But I am sick, after all. Meanwhile Dave took a shower and had good things to report about it. Afterwards I took one for myself and I, too, have good things to report – somehow there is much more water coming out than in the old one. And it has a leg-shaving shelf, which is very convenient. The only trick is that the shower curtain is basically a half circle, so you have to be very careful how you do things to avoid getting water everywhere. We were both successful. Then I started a load of laundry because last night I had a mussel disaster, in which I was opening a mussel and it let go unexpectedly and bright yellow curry went everywhere, even soaking into my undergarments. I’m hoping things will come clean. (Note from later: they didn’t. As Dave reminded me, turmeric is used as a dye).

Dinner tonight was the Bistro for Dave and me; mac & cheese at the house for Tim. Faithful readers may recall that the Bistro was destroyed in a fire last year. They have rebuilt, and it’s a very pretty open space with white walls and high light colored wood ceilings. It used to be very dark with low ceilings and quirky decorations, so it is prettier now but we kind of missed the quirkiness. The food was very good – possibly the best we’ll have this weekend. We started with the crabcakes which were very interesting in that they were shaped more like pancakes than cakes, but perfectly done with a very nice sharp lemon-sake sauce. We had a bottle of Zuani Vigne Collio Bianco, a very nice blended white wine that went perfectly with pretty much everything we ordered, but would also be nice to drink on its own. We had the Bistro salad with creamy garlic dressing (with capers), which is best described as yummy. It had chick peas and pickled carrots, and the dressing was very interesting, not sweet, and set off the wine.

Entrees: I had the shrimp and Dave had the crab stuffed halibut special. Both were perfectly prepared and interestingly seasoned. Mine had chunks of avocado that had been heated through, and although my usual rule is that avocado should never be served hot these were really delicious. Both dishes came with jasmine rice that had been cooked more to the texture of a risotto, which again I normally find offensive but which was very tasty. Dave commented that this is exactly the food we’d hoped for on the ship, and he was right. It’s not at the level of some of the best restaurants we’ve been to, but it was very good and we will definitely go back. Especially since the dessert, a chocolate ganache in a pecan crust with caramel sauce and homemade vanilla ice cream, was really, really good. In fact I was glad Tim hadn’t come with us, because he would have ordered it and then we would have each just had a bite of it and wished we had ordered it. Also they had a PX from a different producer than Dave usually gets and he really liked it. I tried some and it was not bad, which is high praise from me.

When we got home Tim had to hide in the back bedroom and jump out and scare me. It worked even though I knew he was going to do it. He had neglected to get wood and clean up from dinner, so he took care of it, and Dave made a fire. Here is the place where I’m going to mention that I got a different kind of sissy firestarters which were both cheaper and more conveniently boxed than our usual ones, and although Dave was skeptical, they are working just fine. While Tim was doing dishes he and Dave were singing the song about taking an Indian to lunch. They harmonize very well together and it was nice to hear Tim singing. Then they flew helicopters while I got caught up on the blog. After Tim’s helicopter ran out of batteries Dave started making noise about Trouble, saying he wanted to honk Tim back to the stone age (because we all know that now we’re in what came after the stone age, the SAND age). There were the usual bad jokes and traumatic moments and then I won. Then we played again and Tim won (just barely; I had my last man almost in) while Dave still had 3 men waiting to get out of the start. Both games were very fast paced. I’m feeling much better than I was yesterday, but I suspect it’s going to be another early night.