Day 5 - As The World Turns

I've always found tides to be fascinating - the fact that the position of the moon in the sky can have such a great effect on the water level.  We've had a good series of low tides in the mornings, and they're slowly getting later as the moon progresses through its phases.  And with the high sand, it makes for some very interesting walks.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.  First, an update from last night.  After returning from the Irish Table, we lit a fire and I finished last night's blog.  After that, we felt the need to do some Yahtzee practice after Rachel beat us so badly the the night before.  Actually, we felt sure that the dice were just out of practice since we got so few good rolls.  Although I am currently reading a book about statistics and probability, either I still don't get it or the dice don't.  Both Tim and I played the odds and still wound up with bad rolls.  By the end, we were both rooting for each other and against the dice.  We played 2 games of Yahtzee and each won one, but I suspect that neither of our winning scores would have beaten Rachel's from the night before.

We then decided to retire to the back room to watch the first Harry Potter movie.  I asked Tim if he'd seen it before and he reminded me that Rachel had taken him to watch it when it was first released.  Unfortunately he had to leave the theater after the book in the restricted section of the library screamed.  He hasn't seen it since.  Fortunately he made it through to the end this time!

Back to today - I slept in a bit this morning and didn't wake up until about 7:20.  Low tide was at 7:41 and I thought I might do my big walk into Cannon Beach.  However, Tim was still fast asleep and I didn't know if he would be awake in time to come and get my once I'd walked to CB.  Then I had a brilliant idea - I'd drive to CB, leave the car there, and walk south to the house.  Tim and I could take the second car into town and lunchtime and retrieve my car.  This way I didn't have to wake Tim up or wait for him to actually drive up to CB to get me at the end of my walk.  Brilliant!  I got dressed and gathered my stuff and got into my car and headed to CB.  Hey, at 7:45, the town was empty.  I was just about to park when it hit me - Rachel has the second car at home.  This isn't going to work.  Oops.  Feeling stupid, I drove back to the house.  All was not lost however, as I walked south to the arch of Arch Cape.

Usually you need to hit the low tide just right to get there, but with the sand so high, it was easy, and in fact you could get around the point further to the south after the arch and keep walking.  This was tempting, but by now the tide was coming in and I really didn't want to get stuck.  This was just as well, since by the time I got back to Arch Cape Creek, the tide was high enough that I had to do a bit of climbing to make it past the point.  I calculated that you want to hit that point no later than one hour and 40 minutes past low tide.  I may leave myself more time and walk further south later in the week.

There are tons and tons of sand crabs this year.  Literally tens of thousands.  Many are dead, but many more are in the tide pools jockeying for position to burrow into the sand after a wave comes.  Tim suspects that the population may be increased due to all the other dead things on the beach.  There were also several Dungeness crabs that looked like they'd gotten stranded on the sand and were easy pickin's for seagulls.  I gently poked one and it was still very much alive although reluctant to move.  I picked it up and carefully placed it in a tidepool and it immediately perked up and walked (sideways of course) to hide under an outcropping of rock.

I returned to the house around 9:15 and (surprise!) Tim was awake.  We had a slow morning reading and showering until it was time to leave for Bill's.  Yes, it's just a plain grilled hamburger, but both of us agree that there's just something amazing about it.  I ordered a chile pepper beer and Tim ordered an IPA.  The chile beer was amazing, and Tim and I traded.  I drank his IPA and then ordered another Chile beer.  Yum!  After Bill's we did some Wek shopping (because you can never have too many) and came home and spent a few hours reading on the deck. It's been raining, cloudy, and sunny today, but mostly the weather cooperated for our time on the deck.

After much reading and napping, we decided it was time for dinner.  Since mostly what we've been doing is eating, drinking and napping, we decided on something lighter for dinner.  Fortunately, the Bistro fits that bill with great salads and lighter entrees.  We arrived about 5:45, hoping to beat the crowd.  We were told that something at the bar would open up in about 10 minutes so we waited outside.  Sure enough, in about 10 minutes we saw the glass blowers from Ice Fire leaving and we took their place at the bar.  Clearly we were the only tourists in the place.  At one table sat the owner of the North by Northwest Gallery and a bunch of her friends, and later the owners of the Ocean Inn came in and regaled everyone with how George Clooney had just stayed with them.  Most everyone seemed to know each other.  There was a guitar player strumming and singing and every once in a while we'd all join in singing.  It was like a cruise only with better food and wine.  Speaking of locals, I forgot to mention that the chef/owner of Castaways was in line just in front of us to get into Irish Table last night.  It's good that Cannon Beach business owners support each other (and can afford to), and high praise for Irish Table too.

In between the singing, we managed to actually eat our delightful meal - I had the walnut and pear salad and the seafood stew, and Tim had the green salad and lasagna.  And of course dessert (hey, we're still on vacation!).
I'm now sitting out on the deck under clear skies watching the sun sink closer to the thin cloud bank on the horizon.  Probably won't be a green flash tonight, but wonderful anyway.

On tap tonight is more games and probably the second Harry Potter movie.  Thanks Jen!  And for those who are wondering, the Chardonnay is doing well, fermenting away.  I think I'm going to call this one "Open Cluster Cellars Chardonnay, Arch Cape Edition".

That's all for tonight.  Rachel arrive tomorrow afternoon, so you'll likely get a joint blog from both of us.  Until then...

Day 4 - I See Dead Things

Rachel is back home for a few days, so this is Dave and I'll be guest blogging from the coast.

First, a note about last night - since Rachel had to get up and leave for work early, that left me and Tim to enjoy the fire and look out over the ocean late last night.  I turned off the lights so I could see the ships on the ocean.  It was very nice.  The next thing I knew, Tim was patting my on the shoulder, "Dad, time to go to bed."  Yes, I'd fallen asleep in the chair.  But it's not a bad way to fall asleep - a fire burning down in the fireplace, the sound of the waves outside, and a nice view of the lights on the ships at sea.

Rachel left about 6:40am, and I guess her leaving woke me up.  This was fine with me, as the tide was out and I was happy to get some walking in.  I headed down from the house at about 7:00, right at low tide, and walked about 2 miles north to Rock WAHII*.  Along the way, there were a heck of a lot of dead things on the beach.  Along with the usual dead seagulls, jellyfish, Dungeness crabs and star fish, I came across a dead seal or sea lion (I didn't get close enough to check the ears).  Sad.  But I had a nice walk and saw a few sea stars that were not dead.  The numbers are way down from previous years due to the wasting disease, but I'm told that they are starting to make a comeback.

After walking the 2 miles back from Rock WAHII to the house, I woke Tim up and took a shower while he ate breakfast.  Our plan was to head to Tillamook for the morning.  We got on the road about 10:00 and arrived at our first destination just before 11 (after seeing a dead deer on the side of the road).  Pelican Brewing was started in Pacific City, but recently built a second brewery and taproom in Tillamook.  Their website mentioned tours, but didn't list any times.  As I mentioned, we got there before 11, but they weren't open yet and their signs didn't give any hints about tour times, so we decided to hit the cheese factory first.

Faithful readers will no doubt remember that our family has had many exciting times at the cheese factory in the past, including witnessing the famous cheese jam of 2004.  What most of you don't know is that in spite of the fact that I make cheese at home, I've never quite been able to figure out the cheese making process at the cheese factory.  Tim laughed at me when I admitted this to him.  "Are you serious?", he asked.  So we were bound and determined to figure it out this time.  But first, I must mention that the side of the factory that is packaging the cheese had a new wrinkle to it.  They were cutting the cheese into wedges instead of the usual rectangles.  My theory is that this is their "artisan" line of cheeses and they wanted us to believe that they came for a cheese wheel instead of the 40 lb blocks of cheese.  They don't - they just have the cutting wires set at 45 degrees instead of 90.  Fascinating.

But, back to the cheesemaking side.  I've never been able to figure out how the curds become a block of cheese.  Tim pointing out the pressing towers and then I saw the explanatory note that the towers hold several hundred pounds of cheese curds during the 30 minute pressing.  At the end, they drop down and are sliced into the 40 lb blocks that we see being vacuum sealed for aging.  How the curds get into the towers in the first place is still a mystery, so I guess we'll have to go back another time.

After the cheese factory, we went back to Pelican Brewing for lunch.  Apparently they don't yet offer tours, but given that the restaurant is actually in the brewery, we got to see pretty much everything while we ate.  It's counter service with a smaller menu than the Pelican in Cannon Beach (and lower prices!!).  Same beer, of course.

After our burgers and brews, it was time to head to the Tillamook Air Museum.  It's housed in a WW II era blimp hanger, and has a lot of cool old planes.  They have long had a Super Guppy (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aero_Spacelines_Super_Guppy) parked outside, but they've opened it up to the public so we got to walk around inside it.  It was very cool.

When the boys were young, I used to take them to the museum, and their favorite part was sitting in the cockpit simulators.  It was always hard to get them out.  Well, some things never change!

After the air museum it was time to head back home to Arch Cape.  I read for a while while Tim watched mountain biking videos.  I had a nap too, which is what I do in the afternoon at the coast.  Sadly Josh couldn't get off work early, so he didn't come out to join us for dinner as we had all hoped.  Tim and I decided that if we left right at 5:15, we might get into The Irish Table.  Well, after waiting in a large line of people, we did snag one of the last tables on the outside deck.  It was a bit chilly, but they had blankets and turned on the heater.  Fortunately the sun finally came out and we got warm and had an absolutely wonderful dinner.  I had the halibut, and Tim had the steak (now Wagyu instead of Piedmontese).  He also had the usual chocolate pot for dessert, and I just had a hot biddy.  Yum.  We're back at the house watching the waves, and all is good.  We miss the rest of the family, but we had a great day.


*Rock with a hole in it.

Day 3 - Three's Our Crowd

How can it only be the third day?

Two things I have forgotten to mention:

1.          --Yesterday I saw a snake on the path down to the beach. It was black and moving very fast. I don’t mind snakes but I wish they wouldn’t suddenly start moving.

2.       --We hit blackberry season just right. We’ve eaten all the ones that can be reached from the bridge.

We all got up before 8 because we’d planned a hike in Astoria, followed by lunch. We were out the door right about on time, Tim and I in my car and Dave in his. We left Dave’s car at the Sunset Beach end of Fort to Sea Trail, and mine at the Fort Clatsop end, right near Fort Mlustard. Last year Dave and I had done the 2 mile (ish) hike to the overlook, so this year we set up to do the whole thing. It was a cool cloudy morning, so we all wore jeans and long sleeved shirts. Shorts, or lightweight long pants with short sleeved shirts under a lightweight sweater would have been better, because it cleared up along the hike and we were all a little warm. Also we forgot to bring the right kind of water bottles and a daypack from home. 

That’s about all that went wrong, though, because it is a very fun hike over the forested ridge and then down by the Presbyterian Church at Camp Rilea through meadows and along a creek that might be the Skipanon River. It goes under Hwy 101 and has all of these things along the path to keep cows from escaping – they’re like fences made of interlocking L’s that you walk through. I can’t describe it at all and we didn’t get any pictures of them, but some of them were quite narrow. Also I ate quite a lot of blackberries as we went along. The information about the trail says it’s 5 miles, but once you’re on it all the mile markers say it’s 6. It was long enough.

After the hike we went to the Ft George brewpub and had tasty food and beer. Tim had forgotten his ID so he could only have tasty food. While he was in Canada he developed a taste for poutine, and was pleased to find it on the menu. Dave found the prices more reasonable than Pelican. Tim drove home and as we approached Cannon Beach it went from being a beautiful sunny day to completely clouded over, but after we all settled in for reading/blogging/napping it began to clear up. Then it clouded back up while we were sleeping. I went for a walk on the beach anyway. I am trying to get to the big rock to the north, but I think it’s not going to be accessible this trip. I think I may have seen a starfish on it – the only one I’ve seen so far.

Cauliflower for dessert? Absolutely!

After my walk we all got cleaned up and headed down to Manzanita for dinner at Blackbird. This is the third summer they’ve been open, and the second time we’ve been, and it may be the best restaurant around. We had four appetizers – fried cauliflower, roasted Brussel sprouts, radicchio ceasar, and green chick pea/quinoa/farro salad. The Brussel sprouts were the weakest, in the same way Katie Ledecky’s weakest event is the 200 free – they all just crushed it. For entrées we split the mussel pasta and the green garlic spaetzle – the latter was so delicious that Tim even ate the mushrooms in it. They only have two desserts, a buttermilk ice cream and a chocolate pot de crème, both of which are small and spectacular. Tim supplemented the desserts with another order of the fried cauliflower – its two aiolis, one with cilantro and one with harissa – are so good that we had to mop them up with bread during the appetizer course. Sometimes restaurants suffer from what we call second time syndrome, where the expectations are so high from the first visit that the second, while good, is still disappointing.  In this case, either we’d forgotten how good the food was or it’s gotten even better, because this was one amazing dinner. It would be worth driving out for.

When we got home I had to do some packing and preparing, because I head to work early tomorrow morning. I’ll be at work Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, returning for our dinner at EVOO on Thursday night. This having a job sure gets in the way! I’m hoping we’ll have a guest blogger to keep us all up to date on coastal happenings. In the meantime, I am going to enjoy the fire in the fireplace and the sound of the waves.

Trouble Addendum:

As faithful readers no doubt recall, we are big fans of the game Trouble. A couple of years ago I bought a new one, because the inside of the old pop-a-matic was so scratched up you could hardly see the number on the dice inside. The thing is, the new one seemed to have a non-random distribution – pairs of rolls tended to end up adding up to 7 and repeating (4,3;5,2;6,1). Tonight we played one game with the new set, then one with the old. We sat in the same place for all three games, and Dave was yellow, Tim was green, and I was blue. This is a picture of the point in the second game (on the old board) where we realized something had gone wrong. Can you tell what the difference is between the two boards is by looking at this picture? When we realized what I’d done it made me laugh so hard I forgot to breathe. We gave this game up and played Yahtzee, which I won definitively, just as I had won the first game of trouble. They won’t miss me when I’m gone.

Here is a bonus picture of the chardonnay, fermenting in the shower.

Day 2 - All My Children

Where We Are

OH!  I forgot to mention the new couch in the master bedroom., which is a deep red and works just as well for laying clothes on as the old one. I can also report that the slightly different sleeping arrangements – Tim in the room that Josh used to sleep in, and the girls in the room with two twin beds – worked fine last night. We wondered if Tim might wake up in the middle of the night, get confused about where he was, and crawl into the bed he’s used to, which would have been something of a shock for Tabetha. But nothing of the sort happened, and we had an uneventful night. It was a little odd at first because they’ve put a memory foam topper on the bed Dave and I sleep on, and it takes some getting used to. It’s kind of like sleeping on a giant marshmallow, but I think I like it. Neither of us had back issues from it, which I was concerned about. And there’s a new bedspread too.

Dave and I both work up a little before 8, and after a power breakfast of a hard-boiled egg and some dry Cacklin’ (we forgot to get milk last night) I headed in to town for some yoga. It was supposed to be a 90 minute restorative yoga class, and the first 15 minutes or so were very restorative. But I was the only student, and the teacher was a sub who has done teacher training in power vinyasa but never taught adults, so after that it got to be a fairly active vinyasa flow class. Karen the teacher, who is a real estate agent in her real life, gradually got more relaxed and the class was very fun. She did new-to-me variations on two of the asanas*, and I liked them both very much. After class I bought a birthday muffin for Tabetha and some milk and came back to the house.

Everyone was up and the girls had been  for a walk on the beach, and it was almost time to meet Josh at Pelican Brewing, the brewpub which has gone in where Doogers was in Midtown. Josh’s plan to come out on Sunday worked out well for Dave, because he could bring the grape juice. Since we had such a warm, early summer, Chardonnay grapes are already ripe, so the juice Dave ordered had to be picked up today. That’s why we now have a fermenter full of wine-to-be in the bedroom.

There was a little confusion about the plan, so Josh ended up dropping the juice off here before joining us at the restaurant. We had a nice lunch, although like Wayfarer the food, while good, isn’t worth what they’re charging for it, and Dave and Tim prefer the beer at Bill’s. The funny thing is that now that Tim’s hair is shorter and his beard is just stubble, he got carded. In fact the server even said to Dave, “Is this your son? Is he over 21?” When he had his long hair and beard he never even got asked for ID. Jen and Tabs always get carded, but Josh, who arrived later, did not. I offered to show my ID to the server but he was uninterested.

After lunch Dave and the girls went in to town to get candy and gin and watch some glassblowing, while the boys and I went home for a nap. I napped on the bed, which meant waking periodically to move over as the sun’s angle through the skylight shifted. The town people got home about the time I had to get up because the whole bed was in the sunlight, and I spent a while blogging while Josh and Dave went down to the beach to play catch and everyone else continued napping in the darker, cooler bedrooms. Eventually I also went down to the beach and had a very nice walk in the waves.  The nice thing about low tide in the afternoon is that the sun makes beautiful patterns in the water, which I find endlessly fascinating.

Dinner was at Castaways, which has moved into a new building but otherwise remains unchanged. Our favorite appetizer was the crab fritter, and my favorite drink is the blueberry ginger something cosmo. Dave and Tim would like it recorded that they’d prefer a spiciness level of 3. We had an early dinner so the travelers could get home at a reasonable time, which meant that Dave, Tim & I were home before sunset. Although it was beautifully clear, there was a cloudbank on the horizon so no green flash, and also no high-clouds-turning-pink, which is sometimes the consolation prize for no green flash.

After some post-dinner recovery time (leisure pants for me - this is the third day in a row of eating way too much) we embarked on the games portion of the evening. Two games of trouble (I didn’t win), one game of Sushi Go (I won, mostly because Dave and Tim had never played before, and it’s a little complicated to learn), and one game of farkle that had more discussion of statistics, strategy, and probability than I ever remember having in a game before. Dave won, despite Tim’s last-minute strategic efforts. It was very hot in the house when we got back, so no fire tonight. It is beautifully clear, though, and the stars are lovely - just like our kids.

Tim is lovely too, just not pictured here.

*The two variations were: in Warrior II, bend over with hands on either side of front foot (use blocks), back hip pushing forward, front hip pushing back to open the hips & low back. The other was cat/cow with toes turned under during cow. I was also reading old blogs and rediscovered crunches with knees to one side, shoulders parallel to the floor.

Day 1 - The First Weekend

Tim flew in last night, and we had dinner at 23Hoyt, where I ate too much.

Brown Belt training at NiaStudio ended yesterday, but beloved trainer Caroline Kohles stayed an extra day and team taught with Debbie Rosas, founder and creator of Nia. So I made the pilgrimage in to the mothership for the 10:15 class. It was very fun.

Afterwards I met Tim and Dave at Cornerstone for lunch, then headed to Safeway for some shopping.  This is the first time in many years that Oreos have not been buy one get one free, but I bought two packages anyway – one for Tim and one for the rest of us.  I got home a little before 2:00, packed and showered, and we left for the coast at 2:50. Tim and Dave had loaded the cars, and I got to have Tim in my car for the drive out.

Nothing new at the house to report, but it is good to be here. I went down to the beach as soon as we’d unpacked (which took almost no time at all) but my camera battery was dead, so no photos. I can give the sand report, which is that it is very high. And the starfish report, which is very low. It was a warm sunny day at home, but cool and foggy here. There were a lot of people on the beach trying very hard to have a good time and pretend it was a nice day.

When I came back up Jen and Tabetha had arrived, so we sat and chatted for a bit before heading out to Wayfarer for dinner. Wayfarer food remains at a level of slightly better than good, but their prices are much higher than the food warrants. The desserts are excellent, though. Tabetha and I each had a cylinder of chocolate cake, chocolate ganache, and coffee mousse that was truly excellent, and Dave had very good ice cream.

After dinner we came back to the house. Dave made a fire, and we played 3 rounds of Chronology – an fun and generally fast moving game of putting events in chronological order. You might think that I’d be handicapped by my scanty knowledge of history, but many of the questions are sufficiently obscure to give everyone a fighting chance. Enough of a chance that I won the first game, although it was very close. Dave won the next two.

Because most of us are working it’s going to be a strange week – Josh will only be here tomorrow, Jen and Tabetha only on the weekends, and I’ll be working Tuesday-Thursday.  Dave did a masterful job of getting all our meals organized. It is very, very good to be here.