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.