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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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