An extra day - and a lost menorah

We were up early – Dave and I especially early because the folks next door started moving their car and loading up around 4:15. We had planned a pig’n breakfast as our before we leave tradition, although last night we had second thoughts given that we finished stuffing ourselves with pie after 10. It worked well for Josh and Jen to have a big breakfast before they left so they could drive non-stop to Medford, so we all accompanied them – after all, a little overeatin’ never did us any harm. Early Pig’n works well as there are no lines and the service is fast, and the food is delicious as always (although Sam’s apple crepes were a disappointment). It wasn’t scheduled to rain for a while so we walked there and back, which was nice.

The rest of the day was quiet – the three of us headed out for a walk, but it was very windy and I just didn’t have a windy walk in me. So I went back to the house while Sam and Dave kept going, and put on a little Nia and danced. By the time Dave and Sam got back it had started to rain, so I was glad I’d turned around.

For the rest of the afternoon we read and relaxed and Sam worked on school assignments. I finished A Gentleman in Moscow, which I enjoyed very much except I’m not sure I liked the ending. I also mostly finished (1 row left!) the banded bottom section of the sweater I’m working on, which was exciting.

We headed out for an early dinner at Mi Corazon, probably for the last time. Their ceviche is delicious, but everything else is overpriced and underwhelming. They also have a minimum amount of money for each person to spend, plus no splitting checks, no this, no that, and even though there are 3 tacos in an order of seafood tacos, and 3 different kinds of seafood, you can’t get one of each. I like the art, and the space is bright and pretty, but the overall vibe is not welcoming. Also maybe the heart theme is a tad overdone – is it really necessary to make the rice into heart shapes and even cut the cheese and cactus slices to match?

We’re still working on separating the house from the weather, since we’ve driven to most meals. It’s hard to remember that the house is really centrally located and all of Cannon Beach is in easy walking distance. The house is really great and it’s fun to walk around the slanty floors and look at the uneven beams and imagine how the house has settled over the years.

Bonus: We got packed up and home easily (no traffic on a foggy Monday morning!) and Dave took Sam to the airport while I laundered and did the grocery shopping. Since we spent the extra night at the coast, we missed the first night of Hanukah. When I went to get out the menorah it was nowhere to be found. We spent half an hour searching through closets and cabinets. We both remember putting it away last year and thinking "it's early next year, we should put it where it's easy to get at". After much fruitless searching (and by the way, the earliest Amazon can get a menorah here is Saturday) and several DIY ideas (birthday candles stuck to a plate; votive candles on blocks) we were in Josh's room about to go through the closet (it wasn't in Tim's closet or under his bed) when I remembered the three drawers full of seasonal apparel in his dresser - and there they were, right next to my chanukah leggings, tank tops, and sweaters. If I hadn't retired. I would have gotten them out right after Thanksgiving. Don't put things away where you'll remember them, folks. Put them away where they've always been.

Recovery & relaxation

Today started with a nice walk on the beach for me and Dave – we walked down to Mo’s and back and only got drizzled on a little. The weather has not been great, but that doesn’t seem to have much effect on the number of people walking on the beach, at least when it’s just a heavy drizzle. While we were walking we were having the usual last-full-day, don’t want to leave feeling when it it us – we’re retired! We might not have to go home! So when we got back to the house Dave e-mailed the rental people and we were able to extend for one more day, hooray! Meanwhile Sam headed to Sleepy Monk for coffee, and Josh and Jen went to Lazy Susan for real breakfast. Jen had gingerbread waffles, which sound delicious.

I decided to start a new, smaller and easier puzzle, which Sam joined in putting together. The weather got steadily worse once we got back from our walk, turning into real rain with a strong wind. It makes it especially nice to sit in the house with the fire turned on and the grass waving on the dunes. But eventually it was time to head to yoga. Yes, yoga – a dream come true for me to have a private yoga class with my long time teacher Christen with my family. She did a lovely slow steady class with lots of hip opening stretches that left us all feeling stretched and calm – it was just wonderful. I thought it was cool when I was the person whose husband came to yoga – class with husband and kids and niece is just fantastic.

Continuing on in the same excellent vein, we walked through the storm over to Bills where we immediately found a table on the minor’s side. We had delicious Bill’s food and beer and watched people’s umbrellas turn inside out. After lunch Dave drove home while the rest of us walked to Bruce’s, where they had restocked the licorice wheels and salted caramels. We all then made our way home through the gale (turns out my warm waterproof boots are only mostly waterproof). A nice feature of this house is a mudroom, which we made full use of – we were 4 drowned rats! We threw all the wet clothes in the dryer and turned on the fire and got back to some serious relaxing.

I had the perfect relaxing garment!

Since we’re a party of 5, reservations were a little tricky – for Stephanie Inn the choice was 5:30 or 8, for Bistro, 5:30 or 7:15. We went with the earlier for Stephanie and the later for Bistro, so we had a nice long afternoon. I had the idea that everyone would puzzle with me but it turned out pretty much nobody did – Sam gave up pretty quickly and Dave ended up helping for a few pieces at the end. So that’s what I did all afternoon. Dave finished the book we’re reading (A Gentleman in Moscow) and everyone else read or played on their switches. Jen did epic napping. Meanwhile it rained and rained. We had a short intermission for some more fortified wine tasting – sherry this time. We had an amontillado (just a glass, not a cask) which was in my opinion absolutely terrible – it was so acid and rotten that my jaws clamped together and I had to work to loosen my cheek muscles. We also had a px, which everyone but me thought was very nice. I’m just not a fan of fortifieds so far,

Eventually we headed out to Bistro – my boots were still soaked through – and had a very nice meal. I would say that Josh’s pork porterhouse was probably my favorite. Sam continues to enjoy ordering a bartender’s choice non-alcoholic beverage and had a very pretty red-orange drink. Bistro (memorable meals of honorable mention) is another of those restaurants that flies a little under the radar – consistently very good, sometimes amazing.

A note about the location of Capt. Kellogg’s house – it is centrally located, almost exactly halfway between midtown and downtown, but it’s not actually close to anything. And because it’s been rainy, we’ve been driving pretty much everywhere. That makes it feel like it’s not really conveniently located at all, although the drives are all very short. So it’s hard to tell how we feel about it.

After dinner we had to sit around and rub our full bellies for a while, and then it was time for the final wine tasting and pie extravaganza. Dave had saved the best for last, so it was port – a young vintage port and a 20 year tawny, representing the two main styles of post. They were both appreciated by most people – once again I was not impressed. After tasting both I got out the madeira which is still my favorite, and we finished off all of the pumpkin and most of the pecan pie. We finished out our evening with that old favorite, Garfield’s Christmas, and headed off to be singing “a little overeatin’ never did you any harm”. 

Much eating!

 A slow day in general, not much to write about. Rainy and foggy, with Haystack Rock appearing and disappearing as the day went by. I started my day with Pilates in the bedroom, which involved lying with my head under the table for the side kick series and was a nice start to the day. Reading and knitting until 10:30, when we headed to Astoria for lunch at Bridgewater. Lunch at Bridgewater goes on my list of things that are good to do; not having to drive there and back in the dark is a big plus and the only downside is that the crab cheesecake is not on the menu.

We took two cars, even though it’s not the tool museum, so that Jen and Sam could stay in Astoria and do some shopping. Josh drove home which was nice, especially since he got the car backed in to the parking area in the house in a way that made it easy to get out. It cleared up for a short time at 3, so Dave and I went for a walk on the beach to Necus’ park and then through town. Town was busy but not crowded and we had a nice walk. The thing is most of the shops we love have closed and been replaced by more touristy young people shops, so there’s not as much shopping for us. There was a moment when a car drove by and a man said loudly out the window “Look! They have a soap and candle store!” which of course is such a touristy place thing to have and that made me laugh very hard.

Dave headed home at Madison St, and I continued on to Icefire where they have gotten much more kitschy, but still had many interesting things to look at. The woman who has been blowing glass there since the boys were little will be retiring soon and they are thinking about expanding the studio and having more glass blowers working there.

I got back to the house at about the same time as Sam and Jen, and there was more reading and playing on Nintendo switches and knitting until it was time to head out to the Stephanie Inn. They have gone back to their 2 seating, 5 course prix fixe menu, which is what they had the very first time Dave and I went there. We were seated in front of the fire, which is also what I remember from our first visit. (An aside here – the gas fireplace here is called a heat & glow, and the logs look like wood and actually glow like burning wood, which makes it the nicest gas fireplace we’ve ever seen). The food, drinks and the service were delightful. Highlights included Sam ordering a non-alcoholic cocktail – “Bartender’s choice” and getting a delicious version of the pear martini and the atomic tomatoes. Dave ordered the wine pairings and when our server brought the first one (Argyle brut) she asked if he was “familiar with Oregon wines”, which made us all laugh and led to some nice conversations about wine and also her bringing a list of the grapes in the port. It was a good time.

 

We got home and decided to do our escape room. It was a level 3, which is too hard for us to do without looking at the help cards. With the hints we identified the perpetrator, but the game ends with the missing papers not located and the perpetrator handed over to the police, which is not a satisfactory ending. There was a lot of good collaboration and many aha moments, but by the end of the two hours (!) everyone was ready to be done – and we didn’t get our fortified wine tasting taken care of. So we have much work to do tomorrow.

Today was not very photogenic, so here are some pix from yesterday.

And a video

Thanksgiving at the Cap'ns house

The rest of today...

When Josh was in college he went to Ira & Shelly’s for Thanksgiving several times, and after the first year Jen went with him. Apparently they have a traditional breakfast that they make, and Josh and Jen made it for us today – it’s called Stromboli and this one was made from Pillsbury crescent rolls, deli meat, eggs and roasted red peppers. It was very yummy and we nommed it down. We think it is a good Thanksgiving tradition, especially with a green salad with a simple oil & vinegar dressing.

After we got that cleaned up we had relaxing and Dave telling us about the history of Cap’n Kellogg (turns out he was a river boat captain, which is not as exciting) and the house (it was built when Cannon Beach was just becoming a vacation destination, and remodeled and expanded in the 60s) and working on the puzzle until it was time to get the turkey in the oven – Jen and Sam got called in to make the stuffing just as we were putting the last pieces in the puzzle. Once the turkey was in the oven there was even more relaxing and also Dave and I went for a walk through the empty downtown. When we got back everyone was still relaxing. I did some knitting, and Dave walked back to the Mariner market to get an analog probe thermometer – we forgot the digital one.

At one point during the afternoon the fire turned itself off, which made us all very nervous since we like having a fire. Fortunately after it had cooled off we were able to push the button and start it again. And I used a size one needle to fix the whistle cap of the tea kettle, which someone had put on upside down, although even after I fixed it it still doesn’t whistle.

Everyone but me helped with getting the table set and the rest of the side dishes done, and then we had our festive meal. It was all very yummy, and the oaky, buttery Stag’s Leap Kalia chardonnay went very well with it. The 2011 Shea Homer was no slouch, either. All in all dinner got done very smoothly – Dave loved the convection oven – and nobody had to do too much work. Cleanup went smoothly afterwards since Dave had thought to bring a large collection of leftover containers.

After dinner we played games for a while, then it was time for pie (pumpkin and pecan) and 2 of the 6 fortified wines we brought. We decided on a malmsey style madeira and a ruther glen muscat from Australia. We all liked the madeira (more madera m’dear?) but the muscat was just a sweet syrup bomb. Good for putting on or in things, we decided, but not to drink.

The house is working very well.

Crab Shack Part 1

 

We slogged through the afternoon-before-Thanksgiving traffic and picked Sam up at the airport (after a UPS miracle in which we needed to leave the house at noon and the delivery which was scheduled for “before noon” actually happened), then drove to our Cannon Beach rental, the historic Captain Kellogg house (1905) currently DBA the Crab Shack. Oh my goodness is it a sweet little house. It sits on Ocean Avenue, which is the gravel drive that runs along the dunes between midtown and downtown, and has huge windows that look out on the ocean and the dunes, and a lovely view of Haystack rock. Inside it has 3 bedrooms, 1 down 2 up. We’ve taken the 1 down because it has the en suite bathroom (although the bed is so close to the wall that you have to turn your feet sideways to get in and out) and Josh and Jen have the other kingsize bed in the front room upstairs, where the view is breathtaking. Sam kindly took the room with the queen bed.

We unpacked and headed over to Castaways for dinner (Castaways is my favorite!, says Sam). As we were leaving I looked back at the picture windows and thought they weren’t level. We decided it was just that the shades weren’t pulled up correctly. Josh and Jen met us there. We did excellent ordering (covering 5 of the 7 entrees) and enjoyed our food and drink very much. Dave’s oaxacan style pork cheeks were the definite winner; I should have gotten the jerk chicken instead of the beef stroganoff.

Back to the house to sample the pies (what if they needed to be replaced?) and watch Garfield Thanksgiving, then time to hang out.I got out the Boynton Hidden Cows puzzle which is way harder than I thought it would be, but we worked on it and got much of it done. Jen is a very good puzzler so we let her do the hard parts.

Our bed has a memory foam mattress. It feels so weird when you sit on it and it just… subsides.

Things we forgot, or thought about but didn’t bring: Dave’s pirate flag, a jacket for Sam, long underwear, the hat Lynn made for Rachel, canned cranberry sauce.

Thanksgiving morning: 

Dave and I were up first, of course, which is another good reason for us being downstairs.  We went out to the living room and turned on the fire, then spent some time looking out the windows. In the light it is obvious that the house is, in fact, on a tilt – the line of the windows isn’t parallel to the horizon. Which explains why most of the doors, including the cabinet doors, have latches on them – it’s not to make it seem more nautical, it’s because none of them would stay closed otherwise.

We had a little breakfast and went for a walk on the beach. We were able to find the beach thanks to the very good directions in the house how-to book: Go out the living room door. Head west. It’s supposed to rain, but it was partly cloudy and very windy. The sun was peeking out from between the clouds on and off, and the tide was about halfway out. No sand report due to the height of the tide. We walked along the beach down to Tolovana with the wind blowing fiercely into our faces. When we turned around it was like having a gentle hand pushing you from behind, which was nice. Meanwhile Sam walked over to Sleepy Monk for some coffee and then got a little lost coming home, but found her way after we sent her the address. We found out later that Josh had seen her walk past, and then when she walked by again he opened the window and called out “Are you looking for this house?”

I want to pause here a moment and talk about the loss of wolves, the apex predator who would normally keep mammals of the order Artiodactyla- the hoofed mammals with an even number of toes on each foot, and the suborder Ruminanti (cud chewers) such as cows, deer, and elk – in check. Because this year we’ve had a tough time with them – the drive to Lava Beds in August, when both cows and deer tried to crash into our car; my car’s unfortunate encounter with one in September, and seeing herds of elk when we stayed at Schooner’s Cove. I mention this because we had a very close encounter with a small herd this morning as they were out for a morning run on the beach. It’s one thing to see them in the distance or from a car; it’s a completely other thing when you’re on the beach and they thunder past.

We got back from our walk and the kids were out on a quest for canned cranberry sauce and ingredients for grandma salad. It turns out that neither the sauce nor the mini-marshmallows for the salad are available in Cannon Beach. Josh says he’ll be ok. The view from the chairs in front of the window is enchanting, and the people (and dog) watching is the best. Dave says I shouldn’t wave at people but I think it’s like being on a boat.

More New Traditions

Normally at the end of a vacation we get started packing and moving out right away. But checkout here isn’t until 11, and it’s another gorgeous day – clear, warm, and not very windy. So instead of our usual plan we got up and got moving right away… down the street to Pig’n for breakfast. We got there about 7:30 and were seated right away, and the food came before my tea had cooled enough to drink! We have our standard Pig’n order, although we discovered that it’s too much food for breakfast – a bacon and half the hash browns got left behind. It reminded us of the time Ben and Joan came to visit and Ben ordered too much food…

We were out of Pig’n by 8:30 and headed down to Haystack rock which was looking very good. The lowest tides have been in the evening, but the morning tides are low enough for most walks. We walked through town to just south of midtown, being deeply impressed by the line at Sleepy Monk coffee. What’s amazing is that Bald Eagle coffee just a block away was open and had no line at all. I made Dave cut through someone’s yard to get to the beach access we used when we were at Elliott Way cottage. I don’t know why but I like to revisit the beach access paths. We walked back up the beach and crossed Ecola Creek where it fans out on the sand – without getting our feet wet! The combination of high sand, low tide, and a dry summer all came together.

After a lovely morning of being out we got packed up and then settled back into relaxing  - me sitting at the table in our room with the screen door open, reading and typing and watching the waves, and Dave down in his happy place on the lawn. We checked out at 10:59, then walked through town a bit before having a classic lunch at Bill’s and then heading home. We want to remember that room 54 is the best room, with room 56, our current room, a close second. After a couple of absolutely perfect sunny days it is hard to remember that it’s not always like this here. What a great time we had!

A Glorious Day

I packed for this trip Tuesday night, and did a pretty good job of it too, except for the part where the pants I grabbed were actually shorts, which often aren’t that useful on the Oregon Coast. After writing and posting the blog, I headed to town to see if I could find some pants. And I did! Ter Hars actually had a pair of jeans that fit perfectly, and while I was there I found a great looking outer shirt. Lots of winning! Once I got back to the room it was already time to head to Warren House for lunch. They open at noon, even though their facebook page and signs at the restaurant all say they open at 1 because of staffing shortages – which are an epidemic of their own. Warren House is running a limited menu too. It doesn’t include my favorite thing, the smoker’s salad, but Dave and I shared some steamed clams and a reuben and I must say it was a very satisfying lunch.

After lunch I walked on the beach to the whale, and then down through town (popping in to the yarn
store to say hi to my yarn) to Bruce’s, where I got some salted licorice and some salt water taffy. It was so sunny and warm in town I felt hot in my jeans and turtleneck. I changed into shorts (aha! They did come in handy after all!) and a t-shirt and a light denim shirt and then Dave and I headed down to the beach to do some exploring. Dave wished he’d brought his plastic Birkenstock knock-offs, which he bought as a make-do thing at Freddy’s for going to the Cape and which have turned out to be indispensable. But I digress. We left our shoes at the beginning of the sand and went north. It was pretty much high tide, and as we started across Ecola Creek a wave was rolling in and making the water level higher. It turned out not to be a big deal as its been such a dry summer, and the creek was only about knee height. The water was also not too cold, although there was stiff wind blowing that made me wish I’d put on a warmer overshirt. We ended up walking along the beach all the way up to the rocks at the north end. Up at that end are also a bunch of huge, huge houses. What do they do with all that space? There was a trail that looked like it would cross over the ridge and get you onto the other side, but it was closed for erosion control. Too bad. 

On the way back there was a huge flock of seagulls which I thought it would be fun to try to walk through – I had envisioned waves of seagulls rising in front of my and squawking angrily, but instead what happened is that gulls within about a 5 foot radius around me would scatter and land out of my path, muttering gull curses under their breath. I left a path between them and felt just like Moses.

One really nice feature of Schooner’s Cove(or, as Dave calls it, “The Resort”)  is that they have a lawn between the sea wall and the hotel, with lots of chairs, picnic tables, and even a few barbecue grills scattered around – and a hose for washing off your feet. We washed off our feet and sat down in two of the Adirondack chairs to let our feet dry, and ended up sitting there for a long time. You can put your feet up on the seawall like an ottoman, and unlike every deck or balcony or porch we’ve ever sat on there is no railing right at eye height, so we had a wonderful view of the waves. Also, the 2^nd street entrance to the beach is just around the corner, so there was a constant stream of people to watch. 

Dave went up and got us some fizzy waters and we had a delightful time. Eventually he headed up and I went across the creek and back to see how high it was now that the tide had gone out enough not to be raising the level, and it was exactly the right height to make you think you could cross it without water going over the tops of your boots, except if you tried doing it the water would definitely go over the tops and you’d have to walk back to wherever with squishy wet socks. Fortunately I was barefoot, so it was just fun.

Then I joined Dave upstairs for some relaxing until it was time to get cleaned up for dinner. The drive up to Astoria was uneventful until the very end. Before we got to the bridge that crosses from Warrenton to Astoria there was a sign saying “crash ahead megler bridge closed”, which made me get on google maps right away because I couldn’t remember which bridge was called what. It turns out that’s the big bridge across the Columbia to Washington, and people were stuck on top of it which would be one of my worst nightmares come true. We were hoping most of the people up there were thinking, “oh, cool, I’ve always wanted to be able to take my time and see the sights from up here” and not just repeating the names of various deities and practicing their deep breathing over and over. It took about an hour for things to start moving again and another half hour for traffic towards Washington to clear out. We were only minimally impacted – just before we could make a left turn down onto the dock area we got stopped in the line of traffic. Fortunately there was a parking lot to cut through so we got to dinner in time.

Bridgewater Bistro has been a favorite for a while – we ate on their back deck last year with Josh and Jen. They have put up some clear wind shelters and we had a very good dinner from their reduced menu – the crab cheesecake never fails to disappoint, and I very much enjoyed my fish cakes. They reminded me a lot of codfish cakes from my childhood, which I remember as being lots of filler and not a lot of fish. They also have very nice small desserts, so you can go home full but not stuffed.

It was a glorious clear night and low tide when we got back, so we booted up and went for a walk down the beach, coming up by Surfsand and walking back along the beachfront road. It’s always fun to do that since most people don’t shut the curtains on their big picture windows so you can check out all the houses. We remembered a path that brings you out right by the back yard of Schooner’s Cove and came up for tea and relaxing. And that was our day.

New Traditions?

 
What to do after they sell the rental you’ve been going to forever? Well, one idea is to go to a hotel nearby – in this case, the Schooner’s Cove Inn, which has the advantage of being pretty much in the middle of “uptown” Cannon Beach. Dave came out on Tuesday, but we had our Wellness/Safety Fair & Employee Appreciation gathering at work early Wednesday afternoon, so I stayed at work to pick up my 5 year pin in person. I also won a UV sanitizer for my phone in a raffle, so now I can sanitize my phone (is that a thing, even?)

I had an easy drive out  – the least traffic I’ve ever seen, as it was a cool drizzly day. I had to pass exactly two cars the whole trip, and once I’d gotten settled in we had dinner at Pelican. For the first time ever I was disappointed in the Pelican menu. They had neither the walnut tacos (not surprising as they were a rotating special but MAN were they good) nor the sweet potato quinoa pattie over a salad, which was an unpleasant surprise as I thought that was a menu staple. But we had a flatbread and roasted cauliflower and it was good. I had a Happoshu beer (a Japanese-style beer containing less than 67% malt content, in case you were wondering) which was quite nice. We walked to and from the restaurant, and on our way back Dave took the short route to the hotel while I walked all the way up to Bill’s through town to see what was what and also hoping for a small sweet snack. It was about 7, and pretty much the entire town was completely shut down. It made me want to open a dessert place that is only open in the evenings and has small cookies. Once I got back to the hotel we had a nice evening of reading, made perfect by finding a packet of two Milano cookies in the snack bag I got at the party.

The second best thing about Schooner’s Cove (ok, it’s the 3^rd, because the first thing is that it has floor to ceiling windows that look out over the beach and Ecola creek) is that the bedroom closes off from the sitting area and is dark in the morning, so I slept in until after 7. Then we got moving pretty quickly, because the tide was pretty much out according to my tide tables. We hopped in the car and headed down to Hug Point, because it had to be done. We were startled as we made the turn onto 101 from midtown to find a Huge Herd of Helk pretty much right on the side of the road. Close enough to see their fine beards, in fact. But I digress.

Here is the sand report: The Sand is High. It comes up into the cave to the south and the rock fins are all covered, and you can walk on sand in the narrow place behind the triangular rock between “our” beach and the Hug Point beach, and the sand comes right up to the dog-photo-rocks by the Carriage Road. The waterfall was probably the lightest water trickle we’ve ever seen – the sand came all the way up to the rocks. We walked down to the rocks to the south and there were tons of starfish, pretty much back to pre-starfish disease numbers.

And, to answer the biggest question of all, the house is still there, looking unchanged. When the owners sold the house I figured the folks who bought it would continue to use it, but Dave suspected they would tear it down and build a mansion. We still don’t know for sure that they won’t, but for right now it’s still there. However, the lowest segment of the path to the beach – the steep stairs – had either washed away or been removed and was now just a sandy path. We headed back towards the car and on the stairs to the parking lot we met a young man who was here for his first time from New York, and we directed him over toward the carriage road. It made me think what it would be like to be here for the first time and see these rocks and the trees growing right down to the edge of the beach and the little creeks running out to the ocean and the expanses of hard empty sand. What an amazing place this is!

We got back in the car and were heading back to the hotel when Dave noticed a beach access sign at the
southernmost end of Cannon Beach (the one on the west side of the road). We’d been talking about how the Rock Wahii was one of our favorite places but that it was a long walk from both Arcadia Beach and Tolovana. Then this beach access sign made us think and wonder. So we got off at the Tolovana exit and headed south, continuing south on the dead end road past the turnoff to 101, and eventually found a place to park near a beach access point and went down and were as close to the Rock Wahii as you would want to be – maybe 200 yards away? So we walked over and climbed over to the hole (it seemed rockier in front to me than usual, but Dave didn’t think so) and looked through and walked back to the car, all in about 15 minutes. Both of us were very pleased to have been to the Rock, and also vaguely unsatisfied, as if we’d somehow cheated. It just doesn’t seem right to have the experience of seeing the hole in the rock without working for it.

It was chilly when we set out (47 degrees!) thanks to a clear night. There was some light fog over the ocean while we had our walks, but that all cleared out and it’s now a beautiful, warm, sunny day and we have a whole day of relaxing in front of us. I’d better get started.

Pivot Day 5 - A Little Sunshine on our shoulders

I slept in a little, so by the time I woke up Dave had a plan in mind. By the time we finished our breakfast and morning tea and tidying the trailer it was just about low tide, so we headed up towards Yaquina Head. On the way there I suggested we stop at Seal Rock State Recreation Site, which turns out to be a very cool place for a whole lot of reasons. First, it has two huge columnar basalt monoliths at one end, one of which is falling over so Dave had to help hold it up (ok not really). In between then there’s a narrow passage you can scramble into. Heading south from there are many fins and outcroppingsin two rows – a taller row further out, and flatter rocks creating a fantastic tide pool area and lots of interesting rock shapes. There is also a lot of sandstone everywhere, and places where there are layers of sandstone interspersed with layers of broken up basalt. If you want to know everything about it, check this out: https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/downloads/4m90f0597?locale=en. We ended up spending a long time walking around the tide pools and climbing around the edges, but eventually we were ready to move on. 

We continued on up to Yaquina Head and walked out to the lighthouse and up Salal hill, a gentle uphill hike through thick salal bushes with fantastic views. A sign at the top of Salal Hill talked about the quarrying that had taken place at Yaquina Head to produce basalt for making highway 101. There were upper and lower quarries and once you know about them it changes how the whole place looks – the visitor center is in the upper quarry.

On the way there we also noticed a sign we’d never seen before – apparently Hwy 20 which takes off from Newport ends up in Kenmore Square 3,365 miles away. Sounds like a road trip!

Lunch was at Wolf Tree brewery, where the beer and food were both good, although my 2 sliders needed some chips or fries to make them a meal. Wolf Tree is new, just south of the Newport bridge in a little community called Wilder, and the sign by the restaurant also lists the Newport Symphony as a tenant. It’s a good place to keep in mind since it has ample parking and is outside the regular tourist areas. The road to it is across 101 from the South Beach Fish Market, which is always crowded.

After lunch it was recliner time. We both did some good napping. Once we were up Dave found a nice hike for us along Beaver Creek, in the Beaver Creek State Natural area, part of Brian Booth State Park. It’s a very different hike than we’ve been doing, through a wide marshy area and then up into the trees, with cows bellowing like a foghorn off in the distance. We ran into a man who was taking off in his kayak from the kayak launch, which looked fun. After the hike we stopped at the seal rock overlook and walked out to the overlook. On the way back we passed a man who said, “It’s impossible to get anywhere on schedule when this country is so stupidly beautiful”, and that about sums it up. There are so many little parks with trails in this area you could just spend all your time finding new places to see.

Trailer dinner again tonight – black bean salad that we brought for lunches at Lava Beds. It was mostly cloudy all day today with little bits of sun peeking through, but as we ate dinner the sky cleared out until it was pretty much wall to wall blue skies. We decided that we’d drive back up to Seal Rock and watch the sunset in the hope of seeing a green flash. Seal Rock has several turnouts and by sunset they were almost all full of sunset seekers. We walked over to the south end of the cove and Dave found a nice flat grassy spot that made a perfect place to sit and watch. While we didn’t see a green flash it was a very pretty sunset, complete with fingernail moon to the south. Dave pointed out that we’re close enough to the equinox that the sun is setting almost due west, and showed it with his compass app. Seal Rock may be one of my favorite places.

We came home and did some more Nez du Vin, including “bilberry” which is what they call blueberry for some reason. It was fun smelling blackberry as they are growing like crazy everywhere and are ripe and delicious. Tomorrow morning we pack up and head home. We are glad we got to spend an extended time here and already have a list of things we want to do next time!

Pivot Day 4 - In which our recliners call to us from afar

 

One thing we’ve noticed when we go on cruises is that for the first few days we rush from event to event – a cooking demo here, a navigation talk there, a wine tasting back where the cooking demo was, and of course lots of exercise classes for me. This vacation has felt like that, so this morning we decided we’d have some down time. It was a cold, foggy day pretty much all day, which made a relaxed morning even more appealing. I spent a frustrating but eventually fruitful time picking up the stitches for one sleeve on the cotton sweater I’m making, and we finally took the “nature trail” from the campground entrance down to the bay. There is a hotel down there – the Alsea resort – but mostly what is down there on a spit of land jutting out into the bay is the Bayshore Beach Club, a subdivision/community with a very nice clubhouse. We know about this because we walked past the club house on our way to the ocean side, where we saw a fairly large group of ladies doing water aerobics in their heated outdoor pool. It reminded us of the gated communities they have in Florida, only without the gates. Also all of the houses are houses, and weren’t built with any kind of conformity in mind at all. We did not see any houses that made us want to move here, even if there is a nice pool with water aerobics.

For lunch we headed up to Newport to eat at the Nye Beach Taphouse, where Dave had a very nice experience last time he was in Newport. Unfortunately this time wasn’t quite as nice, and we probably don’t need to go back there. Nothing was particularly wrong with it, but not much was particularly right with it. I’d give it a meh+, with the extra points for the covered patio with heaters. On the way home we stopped at Freddie’s for some groceries and at Pirate’s Plunder to get a pirate flag for Dave, but they were completely out of the classic ones. How can that be? It will have to be Amazon to the rescue.

Yesterday when we went on the hobbit trail we’d both noticed that in the other direction you could walk to Heceta Head lighthouse, and thought it might be fun. It’s a very pretty hike on the west side of 101, distinguished by the extraordinary number of ferns growing on the trees, and the larger number of the evergreen trees (species unknown) which have a number of curving branches starting low to the ground. Another distinguishing feature is that it starts out walking gently uphill, and then more uphill, and more uphill, even resorting to several short flights of the stairs that the local trail builders seem to delight in. It probably gains 400’ or so in altitude, and then dives down the other side in a series of fairly steep switchbacks and a longish set of stairs. Then suddenly you come out and there is the red turban top of the lighthouse – an unexpected viewpoint that makes the whole hike worthwhile. We missed the lighthouse being open by just a few minutes, which was very disappointing since, as Dave pointed out, what’s better after a steep hike than some stairs to the top of a lighthouse? We were pleased by the presence of port-a-potties since it meant that we didn’t have to walk down to the parking area, but it did mean that we didn’t walk past the lightkeeper’s house, which is now a B&B – how cool would that be to stay at?

Especially since if you stayed there you wouldn’t have to walk back up the steep side of the trail, which almost defeated me. I need to stop more often for rests! It was very foggy and that made it very humid, and for some reason neither Dave nor I thought to take off an outer layer of clothing until we were most of the way up. Once we did we felt better, and as we came over the crest of the ridge we both could hear our recliners calling out to us. We had a nice walk back to the car and got home to them as soon as we could.

After last night’s delicious dinner, both of us felt like we had done enough dinners out, and since we were supposed to be camping in Lava Beds (which, sadly, is now involved in the Antelope fire) we had brought some dinners to make. Dave had shredded some carrots and made dressing at home, which he augmented with cabbage and red onion (cut using his mad knife skills) for a fresh coleslaw to accompany leftover BBQ chicken and baked beans, one of our favorite meals and a nice change from too much food and dessert.

After dinner before our relaxing time we embarked on a new voyage – working our way through the Le Nez du Vin wine aroma training kit. We sniffed our way through citrus, tropical, apple and pear. The big excitement for both of us was smelling lychee, which shows up in so many wine descriptions but which neither of us remember ever smelling in person.

The forecast for tomorrow keeps changing – keeping our fingers crossed for more sun less fog.

Pivot Day 3 - Arr, Mateys, There Do Be Fog Here

Low tide was at about 8 this morning, so we were up and out and on our way back to Cape Perpetua pretty early. The Spouting Horn is the coolest thing there, but Thor’s Well is pretty cool too, and I wanted to see it at low tide. So we went to see it and it’s a big hole in the lava with and arch on one side opening out to the ocean - neat. If you were planning a single trip to CP you’d definitely want to come at high tide, but if it’s on your way somewhere else it’s worth stopping in at different tide levels to see how things look.

From CP we continued driving south to our hiking destination, going in and out of the fog and sunshine. The coast south of Newport is a great place if you want to do a lot of stopping – it seems like every mile or two there’s a public beach, wayside, picnic area, scenic viewpoint, campground – lots of places to stop and enjoy yourself. We were headed to the Hobbit Trailhead, a hike Jen and I did when we stayed in Florence that I thought Dave would like. 

You start on 101 and take a lovely twisty trail with twisty trees down to the beach (where there is an inexplicable collection of crab shells), then walk along the beach for a mile or so, cross to the east side of 101 and walk back to the start through and older forest. It was foggy on the beach, so there wasn’t much view. We did see quite a few “tin can” jellyfish corpses (I don’t know their real name). There was also some of the hummocky sand there too, which I don’t remember from when Jen and I were there. We crossed over 101 and hiked back up to the car – it’s a long, gentle mostly uphill – in the beautiful sunshine. It was fog/sun/fog/sun all day long and even into nightfall. We’d thought we might stop at the Cape Perpetua overlook, which is 800 feet above the highway on NFD 55, but CP was completely fogged in and somehow driving up a windy road in the fog to look down at the fog just didn’t sound that appealing. Two things we want to remember: 1. the way we did the loop today – going N on the beach and S in the forest – is the way to do it, otherwise you have to come up a long stairway coming off the beach and b. Heceta Head Lighthouse is 1.5 miles S from the Hobbit Trailhead and would probably be a very nice hike.

We stopped back at the trailer for a few minutes and then it was off to Newport for lunch at Newport Brewing, where the beer and Dave’s nachos were fine and my elote bowl with carne asada was delicious & also reminiscent of a Corner Store burrito bowl. We had about a half hour before we needed to check in for our next activity, so we drove up to the Yaquina Head Outstanding area where Dave went for a short walk and I took a short nap in the car. While Dave was hiking he checked his facebook and made a sad discovery – Lava Beds National Monument is being threatened by the Antelope fire and the park has been closed. So there went the second half of plan C. We decided to think about our options and not do an immediate pivot.

Then it was time to check in for our 2 hour tour with Marine Discovery Cruises. You have to check in an hour in advance because parking near there can be crazy and they want to make sure nobody misses the boat. So we checked in, and also decided we’d like to stay in Newport for another couple of days (Heceta Head lighthouse, anyone?). Dave called the KOA and while our spot was reserved starting tomorrow, there was another spot open that we could move into. This was such good news that we enjoyed shopping on the historic bayfront, scoring a Mexican style jacket for Dave and a lightweight jacket for me at the Discovery Cruise store. We barely finished all our shopping and it was time to get on the boat! I left my waffle shirt in the car, which was a mistake.

We all lined up by the railing waiting to board the boat, and had our safety drill including learning to point at someone who has fallen overboard and yell “MAN OVERBOARD”, which we practiced doing and were all quite good at. Cap’n Nick, a Newport native, drove the boat and Emma, a marine studies student at OSU, was our naturalist and also the person we all pointed at during the man overboard drill. Nick and Emma both had the same jacket I just bought but nobody seemed to think I was part of the crew.

We cruised around the harbor a little, giving way to the Northern Ram and learning to identify shrimpers and trawlers (we’d learn trollers later). We also dropped two crab pots baited with fishheads. Then we headed out under the famous Newport Bridge and out to the open sea. Which is very different in a small boat than in a cruise ship. I think it would have been a lot of fun – the sea was very calm and there was no wind – but there was a “fresh” fog (what does that mean?) and you pretty much couldn’t see where you were going – or whether that giant shape was a ship or your imagination (the former). Cap’n Nick turned us around and we went back under the bridge and cruised around the harbor and up the river, which is brackish and has jellyfish and crabs and the occasional bull shark but looks like a river. We saw California Sea Lions and learned that they’re all male – apparently the females stay in California while these males spend most of their time partying in Newport, making the barking noise which is so loud and takes so much air to make that eventually it changes the shape of their heads. We also saw some harbor seals and steller sea lions and cormorants and common murres, and we went back and pulled up the crab pots and we had caught three crabs, all of which were female so couldn’t be kept, and all of which were too small to keep even if they’d been males. Dave got to hold one. And we saw some oyster farms, where they get oysters (which we had for dinner again tonight) and also a gigantic mound of oyster shells which Emma told us the attach baby oysters to and then they only have to grow one shell. Which sounds a little suspect to me. While we were cruising along Dave got a call from the KOA that the people who were going to come take our spot had cancelled to we can stay without having to move – this is the first time in the history of this vacation that a change of plans has gone in our favor!

One thing about the tour is that you really see Newport as the active fishing town it is; about half the historic bayfront is Pacific Seafood buildings where they process fish and they have one building dedicated to making ice – they can make 500 lbs in a minute, or something like that. It’s just kind of weird and amazing that the front of Newport is all touristy and then the back side is people doing real non-tourist work.

All good sea tours come to an end (at least the 2 hour ones do) and eventually we came back to the dock. I had gotten pretty chilled and was glad to get back in the car with the seat heat turned on. We stopped at the trailer for showers and then off to Waldport and Ona’s again, where the food is excellent and we eat too much. A standout tonight were the steamed clams – they were just unusually delicious. The restaurant looks out on the Yaquina river and it’s always fun to watch the sun set and the landscape disappear. We were waiting to see stars, but as it got darker more fog blew in, so we didn’t see many. After dinner guess what, back to the trailer for recliner time!