Day 9 – Bonus

House from Beach with Fog

I woke up early again and noodled around for an hour or two, then since the tide was still very low I decided to walk down to Arch Cape and see if I could get across the creek to see the actual Arch of Arch Cape. A couple of weird things happened on the way there. The first is that the sands are starting to shift, and there was a gentle but pronounced drop off of the sand in front of the house. It’s still high in the cave, but further out it’s getting lower and more like usual sand. And the second is that I ran most of the way there – yes, ran. Well, jogged. About a mile and a half, with brief pauses to cross streams as drily as possible. What is up with that? I usually don’t like running or jogging, but this felt good, and every time I had to stop to cross a stream I started doing it again.

Once I got to Arch Cape creek I had to get my feet wet, even though it was low and the sand was high. I was wearing my jambu with socks, which is nice even when your feet get wet. The stream was only up to my ankles in the deepest parts. I walked around on the other side and got some nice pictures of the arch. It was chilly and rather foggy. After I’d had my fill of looking I started running back to the house, and then my knee, which had been so happy all week, started to act up. It didn’t act up yesterday on the Oswald West hike, even though last year it really didn’t like it. So I don’t know if it’s the cumulative effect of all the hiking and running, or if it’s just the running. But it is not 100% cured, which is sad.

When got back to the house Tim was up and Dave, who had been up when I left, had done most of the packing. We finished up the rest of the packing and loaded the cars, and were on the road just before 10, and home by 11:15. We did the unpacking and I got caught up on this bonus blog post. We have reservations at Meriwethers at 1:30 for a late lunch with Tim before we put him on the plane for Santa Cruz. Then it is bread and water for the next month to recover from all this eating!

The End 

Day 8 - The End of the Road

We’d made a plan to get up early again to go to Indian Beach for more walking, but the weather was cool and foggy when I woke up. I did catch a glimpse of the blue moon (is it still blue now that it’s August?) before it sank into the cloudbank over the ocean. Dave got up not long after and we decided to change our plans. I put on warm socks and my Jambu and headed down to the beach to walk out to the big rock, which I did with some wading. It was very cool, lots of starfish (for this year) and some of the biggest mussels I’ve ever seen. It was weird to be out on the beach so far out into where it’s usually ocean. I wanted to take a picture of the house from the beach to show how far out I was but the sun was already up so it washed out every shot I wanted to take. On the way back I took my shoes off and took some pictures of my feet in Closed Stance.

When I got back Tim was still sleeping. We woke him up to see if he wanted to go for a walk (he’d said he might last night) but he did not. So we dropped Dave’s car off at the southernmost parking lot for Short Sands Beach, and drove to the turnout for the Neahkanie mountain hike, except we walked towards the ocean rather than towards the mountain. We walked down into the meadow and then out to the overlook, where once again Dave walked out onto a very high narrow ledge and I tried not to look. Except I did look long enough to take a picture. We walked back to the meadow and continued on the path back into Oswald West (a section of the Arch Cape to Falcon Cove trail, and eventually got to the bridge that means you’re almost to the parking lot, or not, depending on which of the interconnecting trails you take. We took the trail that goes past the restrooms.

Where we get pictures

When we got home Tim was up and had had some leftovers for breakfast. We hung out for a bit and then headed to town for lunch at Bill’s. Here’s what about Cannon Beach on a Saturday when it’s over 100 in Portland: don’t go there. What a zoo! All our parking lots were full. Eventually I got out of the car to go save a table at Bill’s, while Dave and Tim continued looking for parking. As it turned out there was plenty of room at Bill’s (now that Tim can sit on the adult side) and they found a parking spot moments after I got left. So that was good. Not as good was that they were out of the American Billsner, but I settled for the Irish Stout.

After lunch we went to Bruce’s and Tim got a lot of taffy and some licorice. Bruce’s was also very crowded, but we had patience. Then to the Explorastore, then to Mariner for a toothbrush and Hogwash for Tim, and then home. Faithful readers will recall that Hogwash is an entirely artificial beverage that Tim keeps trying to like. This year’s porker pink lemonade was not the drink that would let him do that – it has a taste almost exactly unlike lemonade, as if someone mixed citric acid with some sickly sweet something that has no calories. Why does he keep trying it? Why do we keep buying it? Perhaps it is time to let go of traditions which no longer serve us.

At home it was nap time for the guys. I did some blogging and made a nice collage of my closed stance photos, and then I took a nap. I woke up about 4 and they’d been down to the beach flying

kites and were tossing the baseball back and forth. Jen arrived about then and we went down for a short walk on the beach – it was very windy. Tim forgot to bring any hair ties and while they were flying the kites that was a problem, because you have your back to the wind. I say, get a haircut!

We came up after a while and I had a shower, and then there was time for trouble before dinner. It was a very close fought game, with many reversals of fortune. Dave won first and then I won second, which seems to be the best I can hope for these days. Tim and Jen had a very tight battle for 3^rd and 4^th, but Jen got the winning pop. It was very exciting.

We took the Stealthmobile to town because it holds 4 adults quite nicely, and I was able to parallel park in only 3 tries. We’d dropped Dave off at Castaways to get us on the wait list, and after we parked he showed up with the bad news that it was a two hour wait for a table. We called Irish Table but it was the same there. Fortunately Dave thought of the Bistro, and even though we’ve already been there twice we were able to get seats at the bar and have a very good dinner – they are making some of the most interesting food in Cannon Beach right now. I ordered a southside, and Jen ordered a French 75, and the bartender (who remembered us from our previous visit, when he was our waiter) had to look both of them up on the internet. I had the buttermilk blackberry cake for dessert and I could easily have eaten two.

We came back to the house and Jen headed home, even though it will be hot there and it’s wonderfully cool here. I guess I am glad she wants to spend time with Josh but it would have been fun to have her here for the evening fire and games. As it was we played 2 games of pepper in which I not only lost but also played the wrong card so that Dave and Tim each won a game, and farkle, at which I did not sparkle. Dave almost had an amazing come from behind win but missed by 200 points. We had a nice fire and tea during the games, and now are rounding out our evening by the fire. It’s the end of the vacation – thanks for coming along.

Day 7 Adult Children - or - Things that make me happy

Today needs to start with Dave & I noticing yesterday on the way to Warren House that the restaurant on the corner that was Ira’s, among other things, has been torn down. Neither of us can remember if we’ve seen it not there before, so I am making this note.

Also last night I forgot to mention that we prepared for Big Walk Morning by taking two cars in to dinner/theater and leaving Dave’s car in the public parking lot overnight. So this morning we did some more preparing – loading sandals and shorts into my backpack – and started off.  Dave headed down the stairs to the beach for a 5 mile walk in to town; I jumped in my car (not noticing that I forgot my hat, which was too bad), drove to Dave’s car to drop off the backpack, and then parked at Indian Beach in Ecola State Park for my 3 mile walk to town. Dave had done most of his walk in bits over the past week, but my walk was completely new for this trip. 

You have to zoom in on this one

And it was amazing – the rock formations are very cool, as are the huge numbers and types of birds roosting on them. There’s a giant arch which I was hoping would be accessible, but it was still way out in the water. But I found a smaller arch in the same area, and almost got to it – it was a little too nervous-making scrambling over the rocks without someone to call the coast guard if I fell & hurt myself. I saw an amazing number of whole sand dollars – one place had 5 of them within just a couple of feet of each other. And I also saw quite a few starfish. The sand was high enough that none of the places that I was worried would be difficult to get through without getting wet were a problem.

 I was feeling pretty good about the whole thing until I got to Chapman Point and the bird rocks, which is the last set of rocks before the wide beach that has Ecola Creek running through it. I thought I could go around between the two furthest out rocks, but there was a channel between them. I was unconcerned, and headed toward the next opening. A nice young man with a backpack came over and asked if you could get through to Cannon Beach without getting wet and I told him sure, no problem. Then it turned out that it was a problem, and the only way through was the channel. So we went through it. It came up to my crotch. He was yelping and complaining about it being cold, but I didn’t think it was very cold. On the other hand I was wearing long pants, warm socks, and hiking boots. But the pants got soaked and the boots filled with water, so I don’t think it made a difference.

We parted ways before Ecola Creek, which I waded through – it was barely up to my boot tops. I squished through town (waterproof boots are as good at keeping water IN as they are at keeping it OUT) and changed into my shorts and sandals. Dave got to the car just as I was putting on my sandals and changed into his birks. We decided to go get my car right away, and were able to convince the ranger not to charge the $5 daily use fee for him to just drive me to the parking lot. I’d parked my car in a shady spot and it was still nice and cool. We drove back to town (Dave got the same pakring spot) and went to Pig’n for our post walk reward. I discovered last year that neither Tim nor Dave love Pig’n, but they are happy to go there just as I am happy to go to Bill’s. There was a wait to get in, but we have no screaming children, so we just waited – even though there is no cell service.

There is wifi in the Pig’n, so once we got in we had some screen time to get caught up. We had our usual breakfast – I get three pigs in blankets and give one to Dave; he gets eggs, toast, hashbrowns and 4 bacons and gives 2 bacons to me. I love the Pig’n and my only complaint is that they still have a picture of the chai on their menu even though they haven’t had it for years and it makes me want some.

We headed back to the house in our separate cars, and I stopped at the Tolovana Inn where I will be the Fitness Gal for the Waves of Mercy, Rhythms of Grace retreat October 2-4. I checked out the room where we will be meeting and it will be great for Nia – they have a sound system so I will be able to have both music and a wireless mike. I can’t wait to teach Beautiful there – I have a good feeling about it. Sign-ups end soon so now would be a good time to register, by the way.

When I got back to the house Dave had taken all the wet stuff out of his trunk, so I started a load of laundry and rinsed my boots inside and out and put them out to dry. Then it was time for blogging and relaxing and looking at the ocean. It’s hard to reconcile sitting here in a sweatshirt with the 100+ degree temps they’re having just over an hour away.

Top=coast, bottom=Portland. Clearly you get better gas mileage in Portland

We hung out at the house until 2:30, and then it was time to find out just what 105 degrees feels like in Portland and pick up our younger son at the airport. Since his flight got in at 6, we had the pleasure of driving through Portland in very bad traffic. But we took the Stealthmobile with its variable speed cruise control (you set the max speed and the distance between cars, and it speeds up and slows down as necessary) so it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. We got to that airport about quarter after 5, so we went to Stanfords and had a drink while we waited. I had a gimlet, which is my new drink.

We picked up Tim, whose resemblance to Jesus keeps getting stronger, and headed over to 23Hoyt. Josh was already there (Jen had an end-of-class party) and we had a very yummy dinner. Adult children are worth the wait! It’s amazing to me how smart and fun and great to be around they are. It was also interesting to see the contrast between them – Josh has drill this weekend, so he had the super short military haircut and no beard at all. But they are definitely related.

Tim drove us back to the beach, and we’re still alive. It’s nice to have him here.

Day 6 Ends with a Mystery

Where does the time go? I feel like we just got here and it is day 6 already. I woke up early (6 am!) to a full house and a minus tide – what a nice feeling. So I left right away. There’s a big rock between here and the Hug Point parking lot that even at the lowest tides has been inaccessible, but with the sands as high as they are I figured it would be exposed, and I was right. Except. In the very low tides there are pools that form, and the rock was completely cut off by these pools, which range from under a foot to a couple of feet deep. 

Not a problem, I thought – although I was wearing my hiking boots, I’d left my crocs by the stairs, so I could wade out to the rock, check it out, and walk back to my crocs. Step one, boots off. Step two, wade into a shallow place to cross. Step 3, YELP loudly and jump out of the water really fast and grit your teeth as the pain races all the way up to your hip joints – it would seem that overnight we had a major water temperature change. Dang that’s cold. Try again a few times. Give up. So instead of plan A, I walked up the beach to where there was a log, cleaned off my feet as best I could, put my boots back on and walked to the rock Wahii, about 2 miles to the north. My toes didn’t thaw until I was almost there. It was an interesting walk because it was kind of foggy, and when I got close to Arcadia Beach the sun came over the cliffs and lit up the fog, which was very pretty but made it almost impossible to tell where I was in relationship to known landmarks. Especially since I was way far out into where the ocean would usually be.

The Rock Wahii doesn’t have a name; the rock next to it is officially called Jockey Cap and they’re both at Silver Point. WAHII stands for With A Hole In It, and it’s an impressive thing – a large monolith with a hole that goes all the way through it. Today the tide was far enough out that I could walk all the way around behind and look through it that way – something that doesn’t happen very often. There were a few starfish hanging out, which was encouraging.

I headed back to the house and texted to see if anybody was up. Josh and Jen were already on the road, and Dave was just leaving for his walk. He was willing to change his plans to meet me at Arcadia beach and walked from there, while I drove back to the house and had some breakfast. Tracy woke up not long after, and went off to meet Dave at Tolovana and walk to Haystack rock from there.

When they got back, Tracy packed up and headed out. I took a nap and Dave read for a while. Then we went in to Warren House for lunch – it’s my favorite lunch spot, with Bill’s beer and tasty food. We sat on the deck at the little corner table in the shade, because it was another hot day. They didn’t have any of the yummy American Billsner, my new favorite Bill’s beer, but they had a nice Irish stout that I helped Dave drink.

After lunch we went in to town to visit the distillery and walk around. They had the taffy wrapping machine going at Bruce’s, so we watched that for a little while and had a sample (hot cinnamon). Town was a mess – even our secret back lot was full, although we did find a spot. We got out of there quickly and went home for more naps. After napping Dave took another walk, and I danced through Clarity with the music.

Dinner was the Bistro again, as they’re the only restaurant downtown that takes reservations. We had an early dinner because it was our theater night. We saw a play called “It could have been anyone of us”, a strange murder mystery where the audience votes to choose the killer and victim during the intermission. Live theater is always fun, although it was warm in the building and I had to take another nap during the first half. Then back to the house for our 3^rd night in a row without a fire – it’s just too warm.

Tomorrow is The Big Walk morning. Stay tuned for photos and tales from the sand.

Day 5 - People come to visit

I started out the morning by making reservations to go see my new niece. In the nothing is ever easy category, the flight I wanted to take to SFO wasn’t available to purchase using miles online, so I had to call Alaska Airlines and purchase it over the phone. The agent was very nice, and I especially liked when she was spelling out my confirmation code… F as in Foxtrot, T as in Tom, Y as in Unique. Wait, what?

Today was open house day, with several people coming out to visit, but the first wasn’t expected until after 10 and ended up getting here after noon. So we had a lovely slow morning – Dave went for a walk while I did my singing practice. Even though the tide was about halfway in, he was still able to walk around the front of hug point with only a little wading. I had a very nice practice. When he got back we had some more quiet time, then got showered up and ready to go in to town. He went in to get us a table at Bill’s while I looked in Ter Hars to see if they had any leisure pants – the ones I got there many, many years ago are wearing out. They didn’t.

A few minutes after I got back to Bill’s and got my beer Tracy got there, and we had a nice lunch. I got the chili dog which was good but really, when you’re at Bill’s you should get a burger. After lunch we were going to go to CB Distillery but they are closed on Wednesdays, so instead we went and found a geocache. It was one that we’ve found twice before, but never remembered to mark that we’ve found. Now we have.

We got back into town and I stopped in at Sea Soles to see if they still had the fabulous sequined flip flops that I saw when we came here July 3^rd. They don’t – phew! That saved me some money. While I was there Jen called to say they were almost to town, so I sent them to the house. When I got there Jen was studying for a test and Josh was reading on the deck. Dave and Tracy stopped in town to get a bottle of rose for sipping on the deck.

We had a mellow afternoon of sitting on the deck sipping rose and drinking iced tea, going down to the beach, and napping (I think I’m the only one who napped). Jen and I dug a small hole down by the wet sand and I taught her to make dripstone, although it was very windy and sand kept blowing in our faces. We went to Newman’s for dinner and introduced Tracy to some family favorite songs, like Baby Monkey, Shopping Penguin, and the Arthur CD on the way home.

 

It was pretty warm here today – not compared to inland, of course, but warm for Cannon Beach – so when we got home we opened up all the windows and even turned on the fan. It was a good thing we cooled it off, because we had a hotly contested game of trouble between Josh, Dave, Tracy and me. I lost. Then Josh and Dave and I played some pepper. I lost. I did a very good job of being a good sport about all that losing, and Josh did a good job of showing joy in its pure form when he won the last game of pepper. Dave won everything else. It is fun to have a full house, especially with the second bathroom.

Confidential to SFO: you have 3 weeks to prep Avery for the Exploratorium

Day 4 - Mossy Ferny Rocky Fungi

Up earlier this morning, but then a slow time getting caught up on the computer and watching the waves. Dave was determined to have some morning deck time as it was a gorgeous sunny morning, but even though he wrapped up in a blanket it was just too chilly to sit out there and read. I went through the second half of Clarity, still with no sound – it is a fascinating way to do the routine. I’m excited to begin learning it for real. I am curious about the 3^rd song, Nostalgia Worship – the choreography I remember is not what’s on the video.

Eventually we made a plan to go into town and eat lunch, then do some geocaching. Lunch in town remains challenging since most of our favorite places have closed. We ended up trying Tom’s, which has the advantage of speed – you order and pay at the counter, and then can leave right away when you’re done. Dave had the fish tacos, I had the clam strips and fries. They were both ok but I don’t think it’s going to go on the regular rotation.

Next stop: Clatsop Loop Trail in Ecola State Park, with lots of fun geocaches along the way. Here’s what about that, though: on all the websites we found before we went on the hike, it was described as an easy, family friendly hike of around 2 miles. Liar, liar, legs on fire! While it is a wide, easy path, it’s more like 3 miles, and it’s a 700 foot elevation change – if you go on the loop in the direction we did, it’s a straight climb up with only one switchback – neither easy nor family friendly. And that’s another thing – we think the loop would have been better travelled the other way, which has switchbacks so the climb isn’t so steep, but the sign sends you the steep way. And last but not least, there are numbered signposts all along the trail with the classic Lewis & Clark picture on them – and absolutely no guides to tell you what they mean. Prize offered to the first person who finds one. There’s a short side trail to a view of the Tillamook Head Lighthouse, but I chickened out about halfway down – too much up and down. Dave said it was a good view.

The geocaches were really, really fun. They had names like “stoney” (a stone), mossy (the geocache had greenery glued to the top) and so on. My favorite was fungi, a rather artificial looking blob stuck to a tree with Velcro. We misread the list and missed a few, so a return trip is in order. This time I will be mentally prepared for the climb and will get the waypoints into the GPS before we leave, avoiding (we hope) some crabbiness on my part. Also with any luck there will not be an obnoxious young man yelling at the top of his lungs for the last part of the trip. Faithful readers will recall that I’ve had some knee troubles on hikes in the past, and I am happy to say that the exercises I’ve been doing to fix that seem to have worked, although my tibialis anterior on both legs are crazy sore.  I’m in good shape, but more for dancing than walking.

We got back to the house and Dave took a short nap while I messed with the GPS. Then it was time to head off to the Stephanie Inn. The big change there is that they’ve added “regionally sourced ingredients” to the top of their menu (possible to compete with Blackbird, whose full name is “Blackbird Locally Sourced Ingredients”, I kid you not) and made it seasonal, rather than changing weekly. They continue to have the weird “prix fixe” menu where you choose 3 things from the menu (appetizer, entrée, dessert) and the chef throws in an amuse bouche and a palette cleansing sorbet course and charges $16 more than the combination of the most expensive three things on the menu. Dave had that, and the amuse bouche and palette cleanser (passion fruit sorbet) were my two favorite things we ate until my bowl of 3 scoops of frozen deliciousness (salted caramel icecream, pinot noir-blackberry sorbet and bittersweet chocolate sorbet) came. I could easily have nommed down another bowl or two.

Back to the house for a super-rare occurrence – a sunset that you could watch all the way down to the horizon. Dave claims he saw a green flash; I do believe they exist, but I didn’t see one tonight. Then a long, long twilight with the sky turning the most beautiful colors of blue. You don’t get the cool color show you get when there are clouds, but sitting here typing up this blog and watching the blue get deeper and deeper makes me very happy.

We have lots of guests coming tomorrow which will be fun. But now I have to get the rest of the geocache coordinates into the GPS.

For next year: How to use the GPS: Use MARK to get a position, then edit it to be the one you want to go to. Then use FIND to track to it. After you click on FIND, move the cursor to OK and press ENTER to get to the list, then scroll to the place you want. Use the PAGE button to toggle all the views. It’s cool if you reset the data before the hike to get distance & altitude.

Day 3 - Where are my leisure pants?

Beautiful blackberry blossoms

It was after midnight, so the coast guard helicopter that hung out around the point just to the north of us on and off from 1 to 2:30 am belongs in day 3. We didn’t know why it was hovering and shining its searchlight, but Dave and I both worried that they were looking for an escaped convict. He closed all the windows in the house except the ones in our bedroom just in case. He left ours open, I guess, so that we could hear the desperado(s) climbing in and make preparations. It turns out it was two 20 year old females from Canby out for a moonlit stroll in eel infested waters, or something like that– here is the link.

Half of the trail has been tamped down in this photo

Because of the interrupted sleep, or maybe because we had built up a sleep deficit, we both slept in until 9. Which was nice, except then practically your whole morning is used up! We ate our morning cacklin’ and headed up to Astoria to hike the Fort to Sea trail at Ft. Clatsop (and kudos here to Ben Klau for his comment about Mlustard, which has forever changed my relationship to the name of the fort and the county it is in). Our plan was to do just the first portion of the hike, from the visitor’s center to Kletchup Ridge. Which we did. What was unexpected is that they have made all sorts of new trails which are not on the map, all of which intersect (much like the trails in Oswald West SP) and all of which will someday be marked with trail maps and signs. 

Not a helpful sign

Right now most of the intersections only have the names of the trails, which is helpful except you don’t know where they go. All the stands for the trail maps are up, but they’re blank. We went out on the Fort to Sea trail but took the Kwis Kwis trail on the way back (but not the Kwis Kwis Extension, because we didn’t know where it went). The Kwis Kwis trail is longer than we thought, and although it's quite lovely we were ready to be done by the time we got back to the visitor center. They were also “paving” the first part of the Fort to Sea trail – laying down clay-like dirt and then tamping it down with a tamping down machine. It was cool to see.

Not going here

It was a gorgeous day, perfect temperature for hiking. But by the time we got back it was after 1 and we were starving, so we headed to the Ft George Brewpub in Astoria, which took a long time to get to because traffic in Astoria is terrible. The food and beer were good, but probably not worth going back for. After lunch we went to the glassblowing place next door and watched them blow some glass. The highlight was when they took a blob of glass and pulled it out in a long string onto a vase as if it were melted chocolate. Very hot, very cool.

We got home a little after three and it was beautifully warm and sunny. Dave read and took a nap on the deck wearing just swim trunks (and sunscreen) while I did my voice lesson practice. Then we went down to the beach for a walk. Dave walked up to the carriage road and waded around in front of it, and I got completely into the water and played in the waves. It felt wonderful but I got thoroughly chilled and wouldn’t warm up until partway through dinner.

Dinner was at a new place – Blackbird in Manzanita. We sat at the bar overlooking the kitchen and ate wonderful food – the standouts were a quinoa and farro salad with fresh chick peas; deep fried cauliflower with two amazing sauces; and a Caesar salad with radicchio instead of romaine and white anchovies. They only have two choices for dessert and we got both of them – a chocolate pot de crème and a buttermilk icecream. Both good separately, heavenly together. It was the kind of place where, when Dave asked our server to explain the difference between the two Sauternes on the menu, she brought him a sample of each. I did embarrass myself by pressing my French press coffee too soon, causing the waiter to run over exclaiming in horror, but we pretended not to be from around here to make us all feel better. It was a beautiful clear night driving back from the restaurant listening to the cooldown song from the Clarity routine with the sunroof open. It got even better once we changed into our leisure pants – you know, the pants with the loose waistbands. It was hot when we got into the house so we opened all the doors and windows and had our screen time looking out over the ocean, but now Dave has built the fire and put on music. We are content.

Ooo, I forgot to mention that while we were hiking we came up with an idea for Dave’s next sabbatical – a trip where we stay at the 4 historic national park lodges – Lassen, Crater Lake, Yosemite and Death Valley – and then hop on a repositioning cruise from San Diego to Seattle or Vancouver BC. Or start with the cruise. Sounds great – we can take the “Cannon Beach and Seaside Shopping” shore expedition from Astoria.

Confidential to Creekwood Place: The golf card game?

Day 2, mostly sunny

The view from the living room

Two things that didn’t get mentioned. 1. After a very dry summer, it rained yesterday morning, which was delightful. And 2. There were 3 games of trouble last night. Dave won 2 and I won one of them so quickly we didn’t even notice it. We got a new game board and we think it isn’t as much fun to play as the old one.

Then there’s a third thing, the flea line. And the identification of things. First, the identification of things. The dried up jellies are not jellies at all. They are Velella velella, a cosmopolitan genus of free-floating hydrozoans that live on the surface of the open ocean. The jellies with the radial lines are water jellies or crystal jellies – neither or which we usually see. The jellies are really fascinating because they’re super translucent and pretty thick, so the broken up bits of them look like glass with very round edges and catch the sun in beautiful ways. For more information about these things check out this link. The barnacles are pelagic gooseneck barnacles. So we have two unusual species of jellyfish-like creatures, plus the unusual gooseneck barnacles, plus the crazy high sands. And that brings us to the flea line. There are always sand fleas, but this year there seem to be more of them. They congregate at the debris line, and there are so many of them that if you walk along there it feels like your feet are being bombarded. It’s kind of icky.

Since I was up by 5:30 every day last week, my internal alarm is set way too early. I managed to sleep in until 7, and we had a slow morning of reading, Dave working on his model ship, and me dancing the first three songs of Clarity with the sound turned off, which Debbie had suggested during the training last week. It certainly helps me to focus on the moves, and I think I’m also picking up some body cues off the teacher that I wouldn’t notice with the music.

Lunch was, of course, Bill’s. Oddly they didn’t have any of the usual beers, but we each found something we liked. We sat in the not-for-minors side which is the best thing about having adult children, although next year when Ben and Joan bring Avery we’ll have to go back to sitting on the other side. It will be worth it. After Bill’s we walked around town a little, particularly enjoying the earrings and fused glass at Dragonfire. Then suddenly I was exhausted and needed to go home for a nap, so we headed home after a quick stop at Mariner. The one new thing in town is that the wine shack now has expanded into the space next to it that used to be a junk store; they have some salamis and cheese there but it’s a little sparse and not very interesting.

The last set of stairs before the beach

We both did some major napping. As I often do, I went the full advanced napper route in the bed, while Dave started with reading on the deck and moved to the couch. I think we both slept for about 2 hours. What eventually woke me up was the sun shining in on me through the skylight and making it very hot. I rolled over to the other side of the bed, but then the sun moved over there and it was time to get up. We changed up some dinner reservations (I think it’s all stable now) and then headed off for a walk on the beach, marveling at the high sand and the jellies. The sand is so high that the rocks in front of the carriage road are completely covered, and it’s only a couple of feet from the sand to the lowest part of the road. We were a little nervous about getting cut off, but what eventually turned us around was the rain. It’s a mark of how dry this summer has been that neither of us had even considered that as a possibility. So we got to Arcadia and turned around. There was no problem getting over the carriage road on the way back, and the rain didn’t last very long at all, so it was a good walk.

We took quick showers and called Irish Table about 6 to get on their wait list. They gave us a 7:30 slot, which was perfect as it gave us time for two rounds of Petanque out in the front driveway. In both games I took a large, early lead, and then lost both of them by 2 points. I don’t seem to be able to keep my concentration through the whole game. We learned to play Petanque in Macon, France and it’s been a great find – it’s like bocce (in fact you use bocce balls) but doesn’t need a court.

By the time we finished the second game it was time for dinner. Irish Table is one of our favorite restaurants in Cannon Beach and it didn’t disappoint. I had a mushroom and sweet potato wellington, and Dave had lamb shepherd’s pie – both super yummy. I need to remember, though, that the raspberry sorbet is just not worth ordering, especially since you can get the cookies without it. The waiter recognized us as people who have come there before, which is always nice.

We came home and Dave made a nice fire while I did some blogging. It’s odd and a little sad to be here without any children, but we are enjoying ourselves anyway. We need to find more games that are good for two people.

Confidential to BOS: you can just comment on facebook if that’s easier.

We're HEERRREEE

Leading up to day 1 – Nia blue belt with Casey Bernstein and Debbie Rosas (founder and co-creator of Nia, or do I have that backwards?). So I got home from dancing Casey’s routine Slumdog Millionaire at 7:30 or so on Friday, then spent Saturday morning doing laundry, grocery shopping and getting ready to go. It’s just the two of us this year – Tim will fly up for next weekend, and we’re hoping Josh and Jen will be able to come out during the week. We’re open for other visitors as well. We were worried that we’d be sad, but we brought so much junk that the house feels full.

We got here a little after 4, and there are pretty much no changes in the house at all, which is kind of weird. We decided to bring two cars for flexibility, but without the van there was some concern about everything fitting. Especially since we both feel the need to bring everything we might possibly want. For example, in order to wear all of the sweaters I brought, I will have to wear a different one every day, and two on some days. Fortunately the stealthmobile, my little Subaru Impreza, fits an astonishing amount in the back with the seats folded down.  

We unpacked and then started figuring out our dinners. This is the second year we’ve come during the really crowded part of the summer, and if we do it again we need to remember to make dinner rezzies earlier. We made reservations using Open Table at Blackbird in Manzanita and the Stephanie Inn, but neither of them were the times we wanted. Then I called both places and got reservations when we wanted them. I don’t know why you have to call, but I’m glad I was brave enough to do it.

We went for a short walk on the beach before dinner and whoa, was it weird. For one thing [sand report alert] the sand is incredibly high this year – high like I don’t think we’ve ever seen it before. There are no exposed rocks in front of the cave to the south, and the little inlet behind the triangle shaped rock to the north is almost completely filled in. The sand comes really far up on the carriage road at Hug Point as well. And when you walk on the sand there are a lot of places where you sink in when you’re walking. There’s a very low tide at the end of the week and it’s going to be interesting.

Also, when we were here last month with Josh & Jen there were a lot of jellyfish with a kind of spiky design on their undersides – like rays coming out from a central point. Now on the beach there are lots of dried up papery things that we thought might be dried up remains of those jellyfish, but they have concentric circle designs. And then there are logs covered with things that look kind of like goose neck barnacles, but we don’t think that’s what they are. So it was kind of like being on a different beach.

We got back and got changed and headed off to the Bistro, where they were able to seat us in the main dining room, even though when we’d made the reservation they’d told us we’d have to sit in the lounge. The food was excellent as usual, and the chocolate ganache pie on a pecan crust with homemade caramel sauce remains one of the finest desserts in Cannon Beach. They also have a short but fun wine list. Dave had something called a picpoul de pinet, which was very good. I had a gimlet, which may be the drink I’ve been looking for.

We came back to the house and that’s when the fun started. The door wouldn’t unlock. Faithful readers may recall that last year they installed a very cool electronic lock – you put your palm on the keypad to activate it, and then punch in the code, and it goes whirrrr and then it unlocks. Except tonight it went whirrrrr and then didn’t unlock. We both tried it quite a few times (we’re engineers, after all), with the same result. Eventually Dave took the screen off the window in Josh’s room and climbed in. We’re not sure what we’re going to do about that. Then Dave made a fire, and now we’re relaxing in front of it, listening to the fire, and the waves, and some nice music. Will there be trouble? Only time will tell.

Confidential to BOS: there are more stairs than we remember.

Confidential to SFO: hang in there – they all sleep eventually. Or move out of the house.