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?