Day 2 - Upsides.

This is either the latest in the summer or the earliest in the fall that we’ve ever stayed here, and it has some definite advantages. The first one became clear this morning when it stayed dark until after 6, allowing us to get a very good sleep – earlier in the summer it gets light around 4:30 and makes for a much earlier awakening. It wasn’t raining when we got up, and even though it was high tide it was a very low high tide, and (wait for it!) the sands are so HIGH that we were able to cross behind the pyramid rock into hug point park without any difficulty. My, those sands are high. 

The fins in front of the rock cave to the south are completely buried, and the rocky place to the north which sometimes requires a scramble is barely knee high. The sand is also really squishy in a lot of places, like it’s not compacted down at all. We walked up to the waterfall which is nice and full after all the rain we’ve had. Coming back we got caught in a couple of higher waves, and I got a little water – not much – in my short Columbia boots. We have arrived indeed. There was some unexpected excitement on the way down to the beach – a small tree has fallen across the path. Fortunately we work out and do yoga and are experienced cavers, so it was only a minor inconvenience.

We came back up to the house, where the sky seemed to be lightening up. A look at the hourly forecast showed no rain until 2, so we decided to believe it and head down to Oswald West for a walk. We parked at the South lot and started out on the cedar crossing trail. Like Stubb Stewart, OW has lots of short trails that criss cross each other, so you can go a fair distance without ever going very far. We did have a moment of extreme confusion when we came off of the short sand beach trail into the parking lot and got turned around, but Dave was able to figure it out and we made it safely across the road and onto the falcon cove trail.

The section of the falcon cove trail before the turnoff to short sands has always been a little narrow, and it has clearly washed out some over the winter. Like the path down to the beach from the house there have been some trees down, and we did have to climb over one of them with not a lot of clearance on the dropoff side. Luckily it had fallen in a way that the branches made good hand and footholds, so we were able to cross safely. Once we got to the turnoff for short sands beach the rest of the trail was uneventful and quite lovely. We hiked the falcon cove trail over Thanksgiving with Tim, and the path was very crowded. This late in the season, with the weather cool and cloudy, we only saw one other group on the trails. And Necarney creek was running very full, so we got to hike along with the sounds of the ocean and the creek – these are a few of my favorite things.

We got back and it was still a beautiful day – a little hazy but mostly sunny and wonderful. That made it easy to simply sit in the black chairs and relax until it was time to head to town. We got there just in time to get the best table at Bill’s – there are only two outside tables in the front, and we got one of them. We drank Bill’s beer and ate Bill’s burgers in the sun and watched the mask wearing crowds go by. Dave had a pint of the peated porter and pronounced it, er, very good. What is a word for very good that starts with ‘P’? Perfect is a bit too strong.

After lunch we headed to Bruce’s for some necessities (salt water taffy, salted caramels, licorice wheels). Dave waited outside and was checking the weather, and discovered that it was supposed to stay not raining until 7. So we decided to keep counting on the felix felicis and made dinner reservations at Castaways. Then was the only sad part, which is that Maggie & Henry’s which is one of our favorite stores and one of the few places left in town where you could get real clothes (as opposed to kitschy tourist wear) is going out of business, and in fact only had about 40 items left in the whole store, none of which we wanted.

We headed on out of town and stopped at the Fresh Foods market in Tolovana to pick up some things we might need – hotdogs and buns for lunch on a rainy day, oreos, peanuts, and fizzy water. They had pretty much everything we wanted – it is a good market. Then we came back and it was STILL sunny, so Dave read on the porch for a while, and I got started on my wine colored sweater. After a while Dave decided to do some recorder practice, which he tried doing on the deck but it was too windy (did you know you can’t play recorders in the wind?) so he went into the bedroom, which was just as well because the first 8 rows of the sleeves cause a lot of muttering. By the time he was done practicing (and napping) I had gotten past the muttering part.

After our restful afternoon we headed into town for dinner on the lawn at Castaways. It’s semi self-serve; you order at the window and bus your own table, but they bring the food out. As always at Castaways the wait was long and the food was yummy. Dave had something called the Louisiana Mop, which was pulled pork with shrimp and andouille sausage and noodles, and it was delicious and perfect at spice level 2. I have the Korean wings and a salad and they were good too. No dessert, which is ok since their desserts are too sweet anyway and we have oreos at home.

Josh and Jen are on their way out, so the rains are scheduled to start tomorrow. We are happy to have had a wonderful day today and look forward to seeing them tomorrow. Time for oreos!

Demonstrating high sands. The place where I'm standing is often 3 feet or more above the sand. And the narrow space in front of the rock on the left side is often a deep pool.

Random squirrel.