Day 9 - caches and wine

Last night we’d decided to go out geocaching before Tabs & Jen headed back to Portland for another day of Comic Con, so we were up and out relatively early (9:15) heading in to Cannon Beach for one of our favorite caches, the downtown Cannon Beach Photo Mystery cache.  Basically this takes you from the whale north of town to just north of midtown, trying to find a series of things. Once you find them you decode the location of the cache, which used to be in a marshy bit of forest but is now along a nice paved trail. We’ve done this cache several times but it’s a fun one for first timers, and the girls had a good time finding the things.

Then we sent them off to own and went to Indian Beach, to see if the walk from Indian Beach to town would be accessible for Dave tomorrow while I’m at yoga. What’s funny is that before we even got to Ecola State Park there was a sign saying it would be closed tomorrow and Tuesday, which didn’t cause either of us to realize that whether the walk was doable or not, the park would be closed so he wouldn’t be able to get there. It’s just as well that we didn’t realize it, because we had a really fun time scrambling around the boulders at the south end of the beach. We also saw some starfish, which are very rare this summer.

Once we got back to town it was perfect timing to go to Bill’s, so we did. Town was very crowded but we had no trouble finding parking or a table. After lunch we walked down to the bookstore, then came back to the house and got thing straightened up for wine tasting. It was a beautiful day and the front room did a very good job of looking like the most perfect place on earth. We’d had quite a few last minute cancellations, so ended up with Amber, Thomas, Jen & Kirk for a very fun afternoon of sipping wine and chatting.

Dinner was at the Stephanie Inn, where the food is excellent and the ambience is… not. We always split our time there between marveling at how good the food is and trying to figure out why the overall experience feels uncomfortable. Some thoughts this time – the lights are too bright, the waitstaff aren’t very professional looking, and not very welcoming. It’s a little like dining at the home of a fussy grandma – one who is an excellent cook.

After dinner we did our new favorite thing of sitting on the deck watching it get darker. A disadvantage of being here so late in the summer is that the sun sets while we’re at dinner, and although the Stephanie Inn is on the beach the dining room looks east. So we may have missed the only green flash of the trip. It is a chilly evening and Dave has made a nice fire.

Tomorrow we head home, although I’m hoping to get in one more yoga class tomorrow morning. Then maybe a yoga class at Willamette View in the afternoon, and Nia with Debbie & the black belt trainees in the evening.  This is the end of the blog, thanks for riding along.

We should remember to bring a tea mug for me.