Saturday, with some downtime.

We both woke up early and decided to head up to Ecola for some geocaching. I wisely ate breakfast (more cookies in milk) and we got in the car for the first time since we got here on Thursday. We’d been incredibly lucky with the weather, but it was chilly and gray on our way out, with rain predicted in the afternoon. We wore raincoats. We’ve gone on this trail before to geocache, but there’s a new bunch of caches. Also, now we know that it is a very steep up and down climb, so we were prepared and not crabby. There are 14 markers on the trail, and at each one there’s a photo on a website that you match up and assign a number to. At the end of the hike you add up the numbers and that’s the address of the cache. We took the side trail to the lighthouse viewpoint as well, which was fantastic. It was a good hike, we didn’t get rained on, and we got to do a treasure hunt as well. We also discovered that there’s a trail from Seaside to Ecola that’s on our to-do list.

When we got back it was time for lunch, and because Dave skipped breakfast he was very hungry. It was time for Bill’s, where we got some scoop on the relationship between Bill’s and the Smokehouse, and why there was molasses stout (the assistant brewmaster ordered it just before he was let go). We had reservations for Castaways for dinner, which the food and drinks are great but the desserts are not, so we shared a phenomenal pumpkin cheesecake with a molasses-gingersnap crust. I will remember it forever.

After lunch we did a little wandering through town, then back to the hotel for some Scrooge (Alistair Sim version), napping, reading and knitting. We also played 2 games of Fluxx, which is more fun with more people, and made our 7Cs reservations for next year. Then it was time to eat again. Dinner at Castaways was a little slow – they were shortstaffed – but very good. I also had their strawberry-hibiscus lemonade without the vodka, and it was really, really good.

When we got back it was clearing up and feeling warm, so we went for a walk on the beach. The moon’s about ¼, and was making enough light that walking on the beach was easy. It was also very very windy, so we shouldered our way down the beach towards Haystack. The sand was blowing across the beach in ghostly waves and it was exhilarating (and tiring). We turned around at the creek at Midtown, and it was very fun being blown back up the beach.

We finished off the evening with pie (for Dave, making up for his lack of breakfast) and more seasonal videos. It was another good day.

Friday, with a video

I’m not really in the mood to write, but I also want to remember all the fun things today. I started with yoga with Christen, lots of planks. Also a twisted pigeon at which I failed so badly that she and I both started laughing in the middle. Dave read on the porch. It was a beautiful morning so when I got back we had a little breakfast (carrs whole wheat biscuits in milk for me!)  and went for a walk on the beach. We made it most of the way to Haystack before the sky turned threatening and we headed back. On the beach were many of the weirdest looking things, like tubes. When you step on them the squirt! Thanks to Sally we think they are pyrosomes  (http://www.opb.org/news/article/massive-bloom-of-pickle-shaped-sea-creatures-fills-the-pacific/).

We walked back through town and discovered that there was no line at Cannon Beach Distillery, so we stopped in and bought their new whiskey. As we were headed back to the hotel Dave got a text from Kevin and Julia saying they were at the distillery, so we went back and did some tasting with them, then off to lunch at the new Cannon Beach Smokehouse restaurant. It was fun but no need to go back.

Many people out to see the sunset!

They headed off and we did a little shopping, then back to the room for naptime (Dave) and knitting (me). When Dave woke up we went for a short walk to see the sunset, then came back and got ready for dinner at the Bistro, where the food is always better than we expect it to be. Except now they do this weird thing where they kneel down by your table to talk to you, which is kind of creepy.

After dinner we headed to the Coaster Theater for a strange but wonderful adaptation of a Christmas Carol. The singing and dancing were worse than ever, but the overall effect was magnificent.  Particularly Marley’s ghost, whose makeup and demeanor were an all-out homage to David Bowie in Labyrinth.

We’re hoping for more downtime tomorrow.

Thanksgiving at the coast

6 years ago (it was a Wednesday) I tried a new class at the local gym. I wrote that it was a weird kind of dance class but I liked it. Today, I celebrated my 6^th Niaversary by team teaching in that same room. Tripti has gathered a great group of folks -  it was super fun teaching and dancing with a large group of enthusiastic people. Also today was my first day with my fitbit flex 2, which said I took about 4,000 steps during the class.

Usually we make reservations far in advance for Thanksgiving dinner, but for some reason this year we didn’t. By the time we got around to it nobody had any room. So Tuesday I stopped at Zupan’s and stocked up on cheese and charcuterie, and we brought a wonderful bottle of Domaine Drouhin Chardonnay.  It occurred to me when I got home that I should also have picked up some pre-made thanksgiving food, but it was too late. So instead we had a traditional thanksgiving meal of jumbo Hebrew National hotdogs, baked beans, and sauerkraut. Then we finished packing up (there are families who go away for a month who take less than the two of us packed for the weekend) and headed out to the Waves Motel.

When we got there it was mostly sunny, so we went for a walk on the beach down to Haystack rock and back through town. There was a lot of kelp. Town was deserted, but beautifully decorated. Once we got back we unpacked and had our dinner. It was wonderful! The sun set as we were eating dinner and we think we saw a green flash.

After dinner we watched the movie Coraline, which was weird. And I did much knitting on the front of my second pillow. Then we went for another short walk, on the beach and back through town. The folks at EVOO had been sitting down for dinner at 4:00 when we went out for our first walk, and they were still eating at almost 9:00. We think our way was better.

Back to the hotel for pie and A Garfield Thanksgiving and knitting.

Sorry about no photos. Too full of pie.