Gray Friday

Woke to gray skies, even though the forecast called for them to hold off until Saturday. No matter, I headed off to yoga with Christen while Dave headed out for mimosa madness and shop small in downtown Cannon Beach. He had great success – 3 shirts at Maggie and Henry’s. I also did well, even though Christen said the class was the largest class in the 3 year history of the studio. It was a tad cramped, but we staggered the mats and did ok. She had a couple of interesting moves. Two in particular that I want to remember – the classic clasp the hands behind the back and raise the arms, but with the added twist of bringing the palms together. And raising one leg to hip height in plank pose, which I found much more difficult than I thought I would.

Once class got done I headed back to the room to change – I love staying in town! – and then we headed out for more shopping. Dave found several kitchen gadgets at Fruffels, and they also had an amazing bird lamp. We also enjoyed walking through Dragonfire, especially the brass kimono wall art. And we stopped in at EVOO and got some evoo. Bob was making the pumpkin cheesecake deserts, and greeted us with his usual delighted “Hi kids!” It is a terrific friendly greeting and allows him not to have to remember our names. He let us taste the olive oils and we ended up with two, an Italian one that Dave liked and the house blend from Newburg that I liked.

At that point it was time to meet Rhonda for lunch at Bill’s. Because we have no boys we could sit in the grownup side, so we didn’t really have to worry about the crowds. Rhonda is the pianist for the show at the Coaster, so we got some inside scoop. The show is sold out and we’re really looking forward to it – an adaptation of Irving Berlin’s White Christmas. We tried two new beers – the chocolate stout, which was kind of meh, and the Yule Mule, which was very good.

After lunch we did a little more shopping – time for taffy and licorice at Bruce’s – and then went back to the room. We did some web surfing and catching up on facebook, and were both starting to fall asleep when I noticed that the tide was out and it was clearing up. So we went for a walk. We drove to Les Shirley Park because I didn’t feel like walking all the way around Ecola Creek, and then walked up 5^th street and headed toward the John Yeon State Natural Site, which we still don’t know what or exactly where it is. It’s somewhere near the big monoliths just north of Ecola Creek. We had a fantastic walk. It’s a part of the area that we usually rush through, trying to walk the Ecola Creen-Indian Beach route on the beach and not get caught by the tide, but since today we were just walking in that area we could really do some exploring. Here’s what we found – a trail from crescent beach to the road to Ecola State Park that goes by a beautiful waterfall. A rock with not just a hole in it, but several fantastic caves that go waaay back into the rock (hooray for the flashlight app!). HUGE starfishes, and one a deep purple color we’d never seen before. Mussels the size of your hand, covered with giant barnacles. On the trail we also found a very weird sign  - “Natural Area – do not enter”. What is a natural area? And was the area all around it, which looked identical, unnatural? Also by the sign was a huge fallen tree, and on top of the tree was a long smooth stick shaped like an ‘L’, and on the part that was hanging down there was a barnacle that looked just like an eye, and while I was standing next to it it suddenly looked just like a snake and I had to squeak and jump in the air, and then it went back to being a stick, leaving me looking more than a little foolish.

As we went back to the car there were lots of sirens; we still don’t know what that was but there were sure a lot of them. When we got back to the room it was time for me to practice Canta some more. Dave said he would practice with me but then he didn’t. It went pretty well except I was having a huge amount of trouble getting the first move – where you put your hands over your head and move your ribs – to be on the beat. And the only way I could get it right was to completely stop and wait for the next bar. So that’s going to have to be fixed. Other than that all three songs are working pretty well, so it may be time to move on to the next one. Except I forgot my big paper pad.

Then it was time for a quick shower and change and an early dinner at the Bistro, risen from the ashes. The food there continues to be very good, the service is good, and the chocolate ganache pie with the caramel pecan crust and coffee ice cream may be the best dessert in Cannon Beach. We had to have an early dinner so we could be sure to get to the theater without being rushed, which we weren’t – in fact we had time to go back to the room and work on the blog in between. Once again we loved walking to and from the restaurant and theater, although it was raining on the restaurant to hotel leg.

So, White Christmas. Dave’s not seen the movie for a long time, and I’m pretty sure I’ve never seen it, so we can’t compare it with anything else. It was mostly the same people who put on A Funny Thing Happened… this summer, and they seemed to be having just as much fun. Rhonda even had a cameo as the cigarette girl, which was very funny both because she got to trot out her New York accent and because she had to stop playing the scene change music to come out, leaving the scene changers scrambling a little. We’re pretty sure the Coaster is a new tradition when we’re at the beach.

We didn’t get back to the room until after 10, and then we had to light the menorah and go outside and take a picture of it. We don’t have any front facing windows in the main part of our house to put it in, so it’s fun to actually have it in a window. But we do have to light it kind of late so we can be here while it’s burning.  We don’t have any plans for tomorrow night, so maybe we’ll be on time for lighting.

Yes, there was a lot of exercise today, especially when you combine it with yesterdays 5+ mile walk. And especially when you realize that I don't walk - I'm the person who will circle the Safeway  parking lot for 5 minutes waiting for a close spot to open up. So stay tuned to see if I can move at all tomorrow.