Clear Skies and Low Tides

Morning Moon

We woke up to clear skies and a low tide, but decided on a slow morning. The Mindbody App wouldn’t let me sign up for the yoga class, and besides, it was clear skies and a low tide. So we decided to go for a walk down to the Rock Wahii. By the time we got started the tide was coming in, but we had no problem getting there and back.   We saw an interesting rock formation with lots of bits of quartz embedded in it, which is odd in this volcanic/sedimentary landscape. We also saw a man come out of one of the houses along the beach in just a pair of shorts, who proceeded to run into the ocean and splash around, much to the delight of onlookers on the beach and his family who stayed snug and warm in the house. We hope they had a warm fire and a hot biddy for him when he got back.

Yesterday when we took our walk it was right at high tide, so we were walking on the softer sand and were glad to turn around at Tolovana and walk on the road. Today with the tide being further out it was much easier walking. The beachcombing is definitely different from in the summer – many fewer shells and animals. The beach is almost as crowded though.

We had a short break (knitting!) before lunch, then headed over to Bill’s again. They had a sour wheat beer with raspberries (berlinerweiser) that was so good that Dave had to get it for his second beer. We both had bacon cheeseburgers; I got mine without cheese. One of the things I like to do at Bill’s is make a face on my hamburger bun with ketchup.

 

After lunch we visited more of our favorite places, starting with

getting a “sipping chocolate” at the chocolate café. This is a misnomer; it’s more like a warm chocolate pudding. We got the mayan version this time, which has delicious spices in it. I think this will be a thing. We also visited several galleries and ended up at Bruce’s, where I got a nice supply of salty licorice and salt water taffy.

We got back to the hotel and it was time for reading and napping (Dave) and, you guessed it, knitting for me. I finished the hat to the point where it’s time to take the live stitches out of the provisional cast-on and graft the sides together. This is so terrifying that I spent some time making a test swatch to try it out and came to the conclusion that it can’t be done. I’m hoping I’m wrong.

For dinner we had reservations at Bridgewater in Astoria, and although we’d been having reservations all day about driving that far, we couldn’t think of a place locally we wanted to eat that took reservations. So we drove out and unfortunately the food was just as excellent as we remembered, so we’ll have to make the drive again. Standouts were the warm escarole salad with confit duck leg; Hungarian mushroom soup, and a spicy roasted cauliflower that was just on this side of too hot.

When we got back to the hotel it was a beautiful clear night with a nearly full moon and a very, very low tide, so we went for a short walk out to where the ocean was in the bright moonlight. Then back to the hotel to watch “3 days of glory”, a movie about the 2016 harvest in Burgundy. We know how to have a good time!

We're off to see the Wizard

I woke up first – the bedroom is super quiet. What’s not quiet is filling the tea kettle, so Dave was up soon after I was. I was still too full to eat breakfast, which is saying something. We spent a relaxed time doing some online shopping (it was black hole Friday at Oceanside Photo and Telescope), then headed out for yoga. It’s so fun to go to yoga with Dave! Christen decided to hold class an hour later and focus on twists, which felt absolutely wonderful after all that cheese and pie.

Even with the late start for yoga we had some time before Bill’s would open, so we did some black Friday shopping – mostly shirts, although Dave and I both got sweatery things at Maggie and Henry’s. We also stopped in at the toy store and got some stocking stuffers, as well as a game for us called “I Smell the Blood of an Englishman”. Most of the stores were offering treats and mimosas, and I accidentally ate a pfefferneuse because I thought it was a Mexican wedding cookie. Other than that it was a very good morning.

We got to Bill’s at 11:30 and there was already a line. Fortunately we got seated quickly and the beers arrived shortly afterwards. They had many good beers and the usual good burger and fish and chip. The whole time we were eating it was clearing up and the sky through the skylight was getting bluer and bluer, so after lunch we went for ANOTHER walk. We walked down past Haystack and came up just south of the S-curves. Next time we will go less far south, since walking on the S-curves is not our favorite. We had a lovely walk back, and stopped at the Coaster box office to pick up our tickets for tonight’s entertainment. Dave went back to the hotel while I stopped at the bookstore, and then he took a nap while I worked on Ben’s hat and there was a short but wild rainstorm. At the end of the nap and hat work, I am down to 88 rows or 1 set left, and it’s unclear if I have enough yarn to finish it. I put in a lifeline in case I have to rip it out.

Believe it or not, by the time I finished knitting (and a little typing) it was time to get ready to go to dinner. Our standard dinner place before a show is the Bistro, which is good food whose menu hasn’t changed in two years, except for the part where they slowly but with great determination take each of my favorite items off the menu. Since one of the things they no longer serve is my favorite dessert –a chocolate ganache pie in a pecan crust that was absolutely wonderful – we had time to go back to the hotel for pie before the show.

We love the coaster and last summer’s Musical (of Musicals) was memorable and very funny. This year’s Christmas choice was The Wizard of Oz, not one you’d usually think of when it comes to Christmas shows. It was a bit much for the Coaster folks – too long and a little clunky, with too much singing. It did have the requisite cute children, and the Winkies singing their signature song (Oh-we-oh, we ohhh, ohhh) in monk hoods was a personal favorite. But they’ve done better. Meanwhile when we got out it was late and a beautiful night – the clouds were clearing and we could see the moon, which is full or close enough. I went for a walk to finish getting my steps.

One funny thing about this place is that the gas fireplace puts out a lot of heat, so we have to keep the door open most of the time to keep the temperature bearable. That’s nice since that way we can hear the waves.

Thanksgiving 2018

In what I hope will continue to be a Thanksgiving tradition, I started the day by teaching a song at Tripti’s gratitude Nia Jam.  Dave had suggested Mr Roboto by Styx, since it has the words “Thank You” in both English and Japanese. It was great fun to teach it and to watch everybody bring out their best robot dancing. I was especially exciting to get a chance to dance with Aaron Frye and his family – it’s only taken 6 years to get him to come to a class.  Now I need a new impossible goal.

I didn’t actually start the day at Nia, I started the day with knitting. I am making a hat for Ben, and it has to be ready to finish by next Tuesday because that’s when the class to learn how to do the kitchener stitch to finish it is. I also learned provisional cast on and german short rows for this hat. What I mostly learned is that I don’t like taking group classes and I really don’t like having a deadline for when things need to be done. I worked on it before class, and also after lunch, when I managed to completely mess something up which took an hour to fix and isn’t all the way fixed yet. I am hoping it is fixable. (ed. note: it is)

In between class and lunch there was packing, in which I took out shirts to pack but didn’t actually pack them. So the after lunch part of the day was a little rocky. Fortunately it is black Friday tomorrow and Cannon Beach has plenty of shirt options. Lunch was not rocky, it was delicious tuna sandwiches made with homemade bread and pickles and tuna caught locally and canned with local olive oil and sea salt (not by Dave, if you were wondering. At least not yet). Josh and Jen are in Connecticut with Ira, and Tim is having Thanksgiving with Alyssa, so we get to eat whatever we want.

Once we were on the road it was all good. We listened to a little Stan Freberg (the “Early Years”) and I had a small but effective nap, pretty much missing the Thanksgiving section of the CD. This year we are staying at Schooner’s Cove, which is slightly more centrally located and has a bedroom separate from the living room/kitchen area, so I can make tea in the morning without waking Dave up.  The downside is that it’s a long narrow room, darker and more cramped feeling than the rooms at the Waves. We are reserving judgement.

It was supposed to be rainy, but it wasn’t raining when we got here so we went for a nice walk. It was very windy, although not too cold. The tide was way far out, so we walked to Haystack Rock. As always there were lots of people on the beach all bundled up. After our walk we had our traditional cheese and charcuterie Thanksgiving dinner which was yummy, especially the stilton and pata de cabra cheeses and the little container of figgy jam.  Also I love the smoked duck breast.

Once we’d cleaned up from dinner (this place has a dishwasher!) it was still not raining so we headed out on another walk, through town down to wayfarer, and then back on the beach road. For the second year we looked in on the folks having the wonderful Thanksgiving feast at EVOO and were glad not to be there.

We finished the night with pie and TWO Garfield holiday specials, both Thanksgiving and Christmas. Why, I remember when all they had was wood burnin’ cats. What will they think of next? By the end of the second video we were stuffed and exhausted, so off to bed.

Day 8 - I make it to the Rock WAHII

Looking through the Rock With A Hole In It

We're in the rock!

I have a dream of riding a beach bike all the way down from midtown to the house, and today’s low tide seemed like my best chance. The trick is always Hug Point, so I did some reconnoitering yesterday and sadly came to the conclusion that because of the low sand it wouldn’t work – the pool in front of the point is so deep and wide that it connects to the water even at the lowest tide. Instead, Dave and I walked to the rock Wahii, thinking maybe we could walk all the way around it. Once again the low sand intervened, exposing a fantastic rock garden but preventing circumnavigation. We walked around the front, and I scrambled most of the way through. There were starfish everywhere.   Afterwards we walked around to the other side and I got water in my boots, as is traditional. Jockey Cap was accessible as well, but it’s not that interesting so we didn’t stop there.

As we walked we talked about what an excellent vacation this has been. Both of us feel like there was not quite enough lying around doing nothing. We think 1 trip to Astoria where we have a beer at Fort George, lunch at Buoy, hiking, ziplining, and/or the maritime museum, and then dinner at Bridge Water would be a good thing to do, especially if the weather is not good.

We stopped at Arcadia for a geocache, then took the carriage road as the tide had come in enough to make the sand route impossible. I can’t remember if I mentioned that the stream from the waterfall bends way around to the north.

The beach was already very crowded when we headed up to the house at 10:30 and then to town. We parked downtown and walked to midtown to meet Julia and Kevin and Julia’s mom and stepdad at Pelican for lunch. We were early so we stopped at Icefire where they were blowing glass. They now have a sales associate who talks incessantly about what the glass blowers are doing. We had to get to lunch, so we didn’t stay until the end to see what they made.

Lunch was fun, and I especially enjoyed my sweet potato-quinoa cakes. We sat outside and by the end of lunch it was actually uncomfortably warm, which is pretty unusual. We’d parked in downtown so we could walk around after, but it turned out we were too tired and town was too crowded, so we zipped back to the house where it was not crowded, the ocean was an amazing shade of blue green,  and the temperature on the deck was perfect for typing or napping under a blanket. We had a wonderful quiet afternoon at home, and my shawl is now almost the size of a small potholder.

Dinner tonight was EVOO, which was fun as always. Usually we get all dressed up and are too hot and uncomfortable, but tonight Dave wore a short sleeve shirt and I wore my black tank top dress with flip flops and it was just right.  An interesting food trick was minced raw cauliflower mixed with grated parmesan cheese in the caesar salad. Bob and Lenore, the chef/owners, continue to not know who we are but recognize that we are regulars.

 

Now we are back, stuffed to the gills and sitting with a fire looking out at one last beautiful sunset. Last night’s tiny fingernail moon has enlarged to a storybook crescent with Venus shining brightly just a little below and to the side. It’s always hard to leave but especially hard when the weather is so perfect!

A note about things we forgot: nothing. A first!

Day 7 - Now we are two, but one of us is upside down

I misread the tide table & thought today’s super-low tide (-2.1) was at 7:30; it was actually at 8:30 but that worked out perfectly.  I was a little worried that we’d be cut off at Chapman point, but it turned out I had the geography mixed up in my head. We were even able to walk out to one of the bird rocks and see lots of puffins flying around. Puffins look a lot like penguins; they have very short stubby wings and have to flap very fast to keep from sinking. They’re fun to watch.

We took two cars, left one at Les Shirley park, and were on Indian beach by 7:30. The sands are super low everywhere, including on the walk from Indian Beach to Les Shirley park, which is what we were doing. This was one of my favorite walks for many years, but Dave had never done it and I hadn’t done it for a few years either. Some of the coolest rock formations are along this walk, and we saw endless gobs of starfish in all sizes and colors. It was a fantastic walk with only a little boulder scrambling where the low sand allowed the water to come all the way to the base of Ecola point.

We came off the beach at the end of 5^th street, near the statue of Lewis and Clark with Sacagawea. There’s a geocache nearby that we’ve been to twice, but both of us remember a boardwalk or wooden bridge in the area, and maybe a fence. Those things were not there. It is confusing and a mystery.

Here’s what: Cannon Beach on a sunny day when it’s hot in Portland is a mess.  We were off the beach by 9, and it was already more crowded than I have ever seen it. We drove up to get Dave’s car in the indian Beach parking lot, and on our way out at 9:01 there were already 5 cars lined up at the pay station and more on their way in the whole time we were driving out.  More about this later.

We headed home and since the tide was still waaay out I went to visit the local rocks, including a

walk around Hug Point. When I got back there was time for a shower and then off to lunch at Warren House, which is not Jen’s favorite because of the Manhattan clam chowder. Also today there was chili, but they put corn in it, another cardinal offence. We left my car downtown for later use, and barely found a spot even though it was only 11:20. Dave drove us all down and we had a lovely lunch, including a visit from Crackers the seagull, who turned his beak up at lettuce but was glad to eat a bit of tomato.

After lunch Dave drove us back into town and headed back to the house for some relaxing. Meanwhile Jen and I went to Cannon Beach Distillery to pick up our allocations of the new Sunset Whiskey, but had to forego tasting it because we needed to go stand on our heads.

If you haven’t noticed yet, I’m a big fan of Cannon Beach Yoga Arts, so when I got an e-mail from Christen advertising another handstand workshop I was all over it. Jen said she’d come too, which made it much more fun, especially since there was a lot of poking each other in the ribs and hips which would have been really weird with someone you don’t know. The class was led by two 20-something students from the circus school in Quebec who were so earnest and excited I found myself believing I could do it too. And while I did not end up balanced on my hands in the middle of the room I did come away with exercises that make it possible that it could happen. Also being upside down seems to release happy chemicals in the brain and so were all laughing and grinning like fools by the end of it.

Then, oh my, we had to drive home through Cannon Beach which was an absolute madhouse. The wait to turn left at Pelican (nee Doogers) had cars backed all the way up to Irish Table, and the incoming traffic was backed up all the way under the bridge. We were glad to get out of there and want everyone else to stop coming here. We were here first! Sadly when we got home it was time for Jen to head home to get ready for her next adventure, a road trip down to LA with Dave. It seems very big and empty to have only the two of us in the house. On the other hand now we each have our own bathroom.

After Jen left Dave went down to the beach, and I did my usual read, write, knit. I haven’t mentioned the weather much because it’s been uniformly good: foggy in the morning, burning off by lunch, and maybe returning at sunset. The water, though, is its usual bone-chilling self. In the meantime Josh had stopped by our house in Forest Grove, and Dave asked him to put up the umbrella for the bees. Josh took the opportunity to get dressed up.

Dinner tonight was the Stephanie Inn, which continues to be very good food in the house of a stuffy grandma. They just don’t get the whole service/ambience piece, but my smoked salmon nicoise salad with pickled fiddlehead ferns might be the best food I’ve had all week, and that includes last night’s crab cheesecake. The most fun thing about our dinner was our waiter Peter-of-the-blue-eyes, who reminded us of Lurch from the Addams Family and managed never to appear unless we were in the middle of a conversation. I kept expecting him to say, “you rang?” He was very kind and brought me a taste of the sorbet when I couldn’t decide between it and the cheesecake. I think they’ve gotten a new pastry chef, because the sorbet was merely good, when in the past it has been superb. I went with the cheesecake.

Now we’re back in the house for our next-to-last sunset.  It is good.

Special after-dinner addendum: As you might know, one of us is always keeping pretty close tabs on the moon phases, and last night just before sunset Dave found the most tiniest fingernail sliver crescent moon ever. It was perfect, but not photographable. We played a game of Carcasonne, which is fun with two people, and then watched the wee crescent moon slip down into the fog.

Day 6 - Celebrity Sightings

The bridge and stairs up from the beach. It was foggy in the morning, but cleared into a sunny day.

First thing this morning the tide was *very* out, so I ran out to the starfish rock (just to the north, usually surrounded by water) to see if I could get to it and see if there were starfish on it. The answers were no, and who knows, because I forgot to put my contact in or take my glasses.  I did take a picture and in it you can see that there are in fact at least 2 starfish on it. On the way there I also saw a very small bird sitting on a deck chair. I had to run there and back since it was close to time to leave for yoga and I didn’t want to be late for Dave’s first public class. We were in fact not late, and Christen was delighted to see him. Both of us enjoyed class and it was fun to be the one who is there with her husband.

After yoga we came home and Jen and I went for a walk down to Arch Cape. We were able to get all the way across the creek, but as Dave reported yesterday the sands are so low that it’s not really possible to get to the arch without a lot of scrambling over barnacle encrusted rocks. We had flip flops on so that didn’t seem like a very good idea, but we were able to barely see the arch from where we were. On the way down and back I imparted much of my beach wisdom to Jen. She didn’t seem to mind too much. And now she knows what to do if she’s caught in a rip tide – do you?

 

When we go back there was just time for a quick shower before Time to Leave for Bill’s. In the summer the timing of when to go to town is very important – if you get there after 11:45, parking and finding restaurant space becomes iffy. We arrived in good time and got our favorite table. While we were waiting for our food the taffy making man from Bruce’s came in for a beer. Jen suggested I get his autograph, but I didn’t. It was exciting to have a celebrity sighting!  I had the 3 piece halibut fish’n’chips, which our server called the “wee “ fish’n’chips. I mention it here not only because it was the perfect size lunch, but also because I love calling things “wee”.  I also had a glass of the kolsch, which is my new favorite type of beer – kind of a gateway to IPA. Anyway, the wee lunch and wee beer left space to stop at the chocolate café for their sipping chocolate, which is kind of like warm dark chocolate pudding and is the best thing ever. I don’t know why they call it sipping chocolate since you have to eat it with a spoon. It comes in a wee tiny cup and the three of us shared it and got enough.

After that we split up to do some shopping. Jen and I went to Rachelle M’s, a new clothing store, where we liked everything and could afford nothing. Then we went to the bookstore which we love, and now we love it even more because behind the counter was another celebrity, this time from the Coaster! The fabulous Cameron Lira in the flesh! We had to wait there a long time because a man was making her look up an author whose name he couldn’t remember and then when they did find his name they had to look up every book he’d ever written even though she had already told him they didn’t have any of his books. But once she got freed up we were able to get a selfie with her, which was very exciting and apparently something of a new experience for her. She asked if we’d liked the show, and I told her we laughed so hard we had to pee the entire time. She took that as the compliment it was intended to be.

We headed home for some downtime. Dave actually got a nap on the deck. The wind has continued strong and the ocean is full of waves and looks so inviting, but it has gotten much colder since the wind started. Jen also did some very strong napping, which gave her amazing waffle marks from the pillow. I knit and read and wrote and did laundry.

Dinner tonight was Bridge water bistro in Astoria, which is very beautiful and has very good food, especially the crab cheesecake appetizer, which was so good that Jen had it again for dessert.  Dave had a chardonnay from Idaho which was quite serviceable – who knew there was wine in Idaho? The restaurant sits almost under the big bridge, and we enjoyed watching the ships go by and especially enjoyed that they did not have a large garage-door opening in the wall so we weren’t freezing. Our server’s name was Tiffany, which seemed not to fit her at all. She was very funny and took good care of us. Now we have 3 places we like to eat in Astoria, but don’t want to go there 3 times. We’ll figure it out.

We got done with dinner about 20 minutes before sunset, but we (mostly I) were too stuffed to sit in the restaurant anymore. So we drove home during sunset and got home a little after.  Now we are happily digesting to the sound of the waves.

Day 5 ends with a musical

I had a wonderful slow start to my morning, knitting and sitting looking out at the ocean. Dave walked down to the Arch at Arch Cape and reports the lowest sand he’s ever seen. Jen and Tabetha walked through the thick fog to Arcadia Beach, and I brought them home. Tristan slept in, and when we got back from Arcadia beach he and Tabs took off for Portland.

Yesterday Jen left her water bottle at Pig’n,  so she decided to hang out here and go to town to get it. This let her go to Bill’s for clam chowder for lunch. Dave and I headed up to Fort Clatsop, with a stop at Fort George for lunch. They had a wonderful kolsch with matcha, which I mention here because it’s my favorite beer ever and I want to memorialize it in case they don’t have it again.

After lunch we headed to Fort Clatsop to do some hiking. We hiked on 4 trails: Fort to Sea, Kwis Kwis, Kwis Kwis connector, and Clay Pit to make a big loop. We should have worn shorts – it was a beautiful sunny day, temps in the 70s, a little warm for hiking. The trails don’t really go anywhere in particular, just walking in a beautiful forest. Except the clay pit trail, which goes by the location of where the Lewis & Clark expedition got clay. We got to the end of it and wondered how we missed the clay pit, then realized that the unlabeled marker we passed must have been it. All we could see there were big plants, and in fact it was so nondescript we didn’t even take a picture.

 

Dave drove home while I napped. Jen was home hanging out on the couch. Dave bundled up and read on the deck for a while. It’s cooler here than in Astoria, and there’s a hazy remnant of this morning’s fog in the air. It feels like this day didn’t have much going on, but somehow it felt very busy, and suddenly we needed to leave for dinner and I hadn’t had a shower yet.

We powered through that and got to the Bistro more or less on time. The Bistro has been a reliably good restaurant, but tonight was an off night, at least I hope that’s what happened. When we got there my first thought was disappointment because the menu really hasn’t changed, but then it turned out it HAS changed, in that they no longer have my favorite salad dressing AND they messed with the chocolate ganache dessert, widely known as the best dessert in Cannon Beach, but not anymore – whose idea was it to put cherries in the chocolate ganache? Also the service was very weird, with the servers running (literally) back and forth but somehow no food coming. So, hmm. We shall see.

Fortunately we were done in plenty of time to walk over to the Coaster Theater for “The Musical of Musicals: A Musical”. It was the best show we’ve seen there. We think it would have been even funnier if we’d gotten all the references, but as it was we were laughing pretty much non-stop. I offered to get Jen a Coaster Cookie but she was too full.

Now we are back at the house, sitting and watching it get dark, listening to the sound of the waves. The sky is slowly getting darker and the trees are turning into silhouettes.  Venus is shining brightly through the window, and it’s lovely and quiet and peaceful. Not to mention how wonderful it is to have three comfortable chairs.

Day 4 - plus 2, then minus 1

Annual Chair Photo

Dave and I left the house about the same time this morning – me for yoga, him for the walk into town. I had an excellent class, he had an excellent walk, and we met up outside the yoga studio with only a short and very pleasant wait for me. The wind and waves have both kicked up since last evening and it’s a beautiful sunny day at the beach.

When we got back to the house the kids were up, and not long after it was time for them to go to yoga.  I had set up a private lesson for Dave with Christen, and Josh and Jen went to. It gave them a chance to be beginners together and not worry about not knowing what to do. Jen had done yoga with Christen before, and Josh did yoga with Tabor as part of swimming dryland, but Dave had never yoga’d. They all really enjoyed it, and Dave might come to class with me on Friday. I parked in midtown since Josh and I were thinking about beach bikes after lunch, and walked in to town to return my shoes and meet the yogis when they came out. They were pretty blissed out. We went to Pig’n for lunch which seems pretty perfect to me – bliss out, then pig out. Since we had no beer with lunch, we went to Osborne's for ice cream afterwards.

After lunch we decided not to bike. Instead we split up into couples and wandered through town. Dave and I walked back to midtown and on the way stopped at the Greaver gallery, which we’ve passed forever but never gone into. The dad popped out and said, “all the art is done by my family. We’re all working in the back. Call if you need us” and disappeared, which was much nicer than when you’re the only people in a gallery and the salesperson stares at you the whole time. They had many really enjoyable pictures of cats and moons and Cannon Beach scenes.

Before lunch I watched part of a TED talk about Joy, which they defined as a burst of feeling good. It said that certain things – circles, bright colors, an abundance of small objects – make us feel joyful. So while we walked through town I was testing that theory and in my limited testing I would say it’s true. Especially big daisies, which are brightly colored, round, and have a multitude of petals. Check it out in your area.

We all got back to the house at the same time and did our various pursuits. Mine is knitting a shawl.

I hope to be done with it by the time we go on our cruise in 2020. Dave was determined to nap but with the wind it was cold on the deck. He ended up in a down jacket, hand-knit wool hat, and blanket. After a while he gave up and came in. Josh challenged Jen and me to Carcassonne, no farmer version, and proved that he could make it so neither he or I would win.

While we were playing Tabetha and Tristan arrived, so all the kids went down to the beach. Dave practiced recorder and I read “Misty of Chincoteague” and took a shower. What a heartwarming book! We hit Castaways  for dinner and enjoyed ourselves very much. After dinner Josh had to head back to Medford, which is sad. The rest of us played games and looked for Mercury and enjoyed the sunset and the fire in the fireplace.

Here’s a food note: at Castaways, get the special(s). They are reliably a cut above. The flambéed dessert is pure sugar, do not get it.

Day 3 - Josh tries to kill me

Up early again for a nice chat to The Bubster on her way to The Geezers. Glad to report all is well there, if a bit busy. Out here we were out of the house around 9 to head out to Ecola to hike the Clatsop Loop Trail and do the puzzle cache along the trail. This was our third time hiking the trail and it was good fun to do it with Josh and Jen. As the name implies it’s a loop trail up to the top of a rise, with a little spur off to the side to get a nice view of the Tillamook Head lighthouse. We got to the viewpoint and were met with a blank view of fog instead. But as we stood there the fog thinned and the lighthouse appeared, and then it disappeared again. It was a very good special effect. The trail is also notable for having two very distinct personalities – on one side the trail is very wide and smooth and steep, basically an unpaved road. On the other side it’s very narrow with lots of overgrown stretches and switchbacks. We have always gone up the wide way and down the narrow way, and we were thinking it would be interesting to go the other way since we notice we tend to see less scenery on the downhill side.

We solved the puzzle and Jen found the cache. On the way back to the car I noticed a bald eagle sitting in the forest. We drove out past there and it was causing something of a traffic jam. We were not pleased as by then we were all pretty hungry. The parking lot had been almost empty when we got there around 9:30; by the time we left at 11:30 it was very full and there was a good sized line (6-8 cars) waiting to get in at the pay station.

Lunch was Pelican, which is not one of Dave’s favorites but which the rest of us like. We got there before noon so there was no problem parking or getting a table. It was still overcast and humid, and we ended up sitting at a tall table near one of the big open doors. Both they and Buoy have big doors that they open so you are completely freezing while you wait for your food. Once it comes you don’t notice anymore, but w They have a big tide clock on the wall, but it’s wrong, which is weird. It had high tide at 1:00, when other sources had it as early as 11:42. I know it’s wrong because by 6:00 the tide had already turned and moved up the beach, which it shouldn’t have done until almost 7. These sorts of things disturb me, so Pelican may be off the list. However,  Pelican is conveniently located near the Midtown farmer’s market which is 1-5 on Tuesdays, so we stopped by and got some cherries and bread for dinner. We headed to town and got a parking spot in the secret back lot so we could go to Ecola seafood and get some smoked mussels and smoked salmon also for dinner. Then we came back home, realizing too late that we need more milk.

e might want to get a regular height table in the warm section next time. We had a very perky waitress and the food and beer were both good.

Josh and I took a nap while Jen and Dave did Art. Once I woke up Josh and I went down to the beach to “work out” – read, Josh tried to kill me. We did horrible exercises for a very long time. I’m already sore.  I do most of them at work, but not for that long. Afterwards I went for a walk out around Hug Point. The water is very warm, and the sun was mostly out.  I saw 1 starfish on the rock to the south, but that’s all.

It was home dinner tonight – fruit salad, cheeses, charcuterie and smoked seafood. It was nice to not have a schedule and the fruit salad was yummy. Meanwhile the wind has come up for the first time. It’s been so windless and the ocean has been very calm, like a giant pond. I like the wind. More bits and pieces: Dave has been having fun flying his drone off the deck. We’ve been having trouble with the circuit breaker tripping and there not being hot water. We put a down payment on a cruise to an eclipse and Antarctica. Josh’s work people can’t live without him and keep calling.

After dinner Dave and Josh went to town for milk, and then we hung out and relaxed until sunset. I was trying to knit but it didn't go well and I kept having to start over. It was still fun though. Then it began to clear out just before sunset, and we saw the green flash! It was unusually long and wonderful. Then we played two games of Carcassone. Jen won the first one by using one of the advanced play options, so the second game we outlawed the advanced play option. That made it so I won. I am having the winningest vacation ever.

Here are some other pictures for your enjoyment.

Mom Pets the Slug

Beginning the hike

Josh is Next To the tree

Jen is ON the tree

Dave is IN the tree

The Eagle is IN FRONT OF the tree

Mysterious lighthouse

Car lot at Sunset