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 The thing is most of the shops we love have closed and been replaced by more touristy young people shops, so there’s not as much shopping for us.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