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.