Day 4, Hike & Tiki

Woke up this morning and after my cacklin’ saw three unusual things: first I saw flocks of pelicans flying in long lines just over the surface of the ocean. They are all flying from north to south. I got out the binoculars to see them better, and while I was looking at them I noticed something dark in the ocean just below them – a seal or sea lion (I couldn’t see if it had ears or not). Then I went to clean up my dishes, and also the teapot from last night. I’ve been making iced tea in the tea pot, and while I was cleaning it out I noticed it has burn marks on the inside – yes, someone was boiling water and they burnt it. Although I wasn’t counting that in my original count of three unusual things, I’d have to say it’s pretty unusual. The third unusual thing was a quarter rainbow out over the ocean. It was cloudy when I woke up, but it’s slowly clearing up and so we got a nice rainbow too.

It turned out it wasn’t slowly clearing up, it was getting cloudier, and about the time we’d planned on leaving for our hike it was raining. Not hard, but hard enough that you wouldn’t want to go hiking in it. So we decided to just hang out in the house instead, and go hiking after lunch. I connected my laptop to the jambox and put on some Nia music while I did some yoga, which was very nice. When you’re doing it on your own, you can spend more time on the poses you like, and less on the ones you don’t like. Or you can leave them out altogether. I’m still pretty sore from the two boot camp workouts, so the stretching felt good.

We read for a while, then Tim got up and we headed to town for Pig’n. There was plenty of parking and we got seated right away, which is good except it makes me nervous – is the Pig’n going to go the way of Doogers? That would make me very sad. I had to laugh when they seated us, because in the next booth was the family that was one table over from us last night at the Irish Table (the dad had the lamb chops and boy did they look good). Tim and I had the pigs in blanket, which I eat rolled up. He unrolls the pancakes and makes them into a stack, and eats the sausage separately. I pointed out that you could order a stack of pancakes with sausage, but he said that he orders them as pigs in a blanket because he knows how to order that already. Dave had a half order of eggs benedict, which he said was fine, and half of my third pig in blanket, because three is too many. In the pig’n gift shop area they had the pig popper, which I thought was pretty cool. You put a ping pong ball in its mouth and squeeze it around the middle and it shoots the ball. No-one else was impressed.

After lunch it had mostly cleared up. We stopped briefly at the house to change shoes and then headed off to Arch Cape for the long awaited hike. The temperature was perfect, and aside from forgetting my camera so was the hike. It’s interesting because you climb up one side of the hill, and the sound of the ocean is behind you. Then you’re behind the hill and you can’t hear the ocean at all, and then all of a sudden you come around the shoulder of the hill and the sound of the ocean is in front of you. The part just after you come around to the ocean side has a fairly steep drop to one side, which made me more nervous than I thought it would. We were expecting a fairly steep climb down with switchbacks, but instead it’s a long, gentle slope through some fairly dense vegetation. Our pant legs were pretty damp and also a little muddy by the end. The most exciting part of the hike was when we got to the end and my car was indeed right there – we were pretty sure we had the endpoint correct, but not 100% certain. The hike was only about two miles and Tim was considering doing it again backwards, but decided not to. We got in the van and drove a little further south to see where the trail goes back into the woods on its way to Short Sands beach – we’re thinking that might be a fun hike later in the week. Then we picked up the other car and headed back to the house.

After all that walking it was time for some relaxing. Dave spent some time researching more of the trails around here, and we’re tentatively planning a hike again tomorrow. Unfortunately the fog rolled in, making it chilly and bleak looking – not a great day for going down to the beach to dig holes. I read for a while, then took a nap. Dave read for a while, then went for a run on the beach. Tim played on his phone, then took a nap. It would have been a nice afternoon to build a brio layout. After I woke up from my nap I did day 3 of bootcamp, which was just as unpleasant as I thought it would be. I did it indoors because it wasn’t nice enough outside, but Tim said it didn’t wake him up, nor did he dream of earthquakes. After showers we read some more and then headed out for experimental food.

Last summer we saw that several restaurants had changed down at the Lumberyard end of town. One was called Castaways Restaurant and Tiki Bar. Not our kind of place, we thought, imagining pu-pu platters (not that there’s anything wrong with pu-pu platters) and drunk 20-somethings. We could not have been more wrong. The name and sign are completely misleading, but on the other hand Restaurant with Good Drinks and Very Interesting Tasty Food is not such a great name either. The décor is northwest kitschy Caribbean, with tiki masks, fishnets with shells tied to them, and lizard sculptures on the walls. It’s very small – maybe 8-10 four person tables? – and the word eclectic doesn’t begin to describe the menu. Beef stew? Sure, it’s one of the specials. Jambalaya? Seared Tuna? Pork marsala? Curried Shrimp? Jerk Chicken? The chef came out several times to chat with folks, and his idea is you should be able to eat there every night of your vacation and not get bored. You’ll have to go elsewhere for your clam chowder, although they do have a seafood soup on the menu that I wish I could have tried.

We started with the seared tuna appetizer – perfectly seared, beautifully seasoned, with a peach ginger sauce and wasabi dots. Dave had the pork chop special – it had a white wine, peach and habanero sauce and mango-peach chutney. I had the east meets west – two chicken satay skewers, two jerk chicken skewers, 4 fantastic sauces, and I also had a tiki salad which was a nice green salad with candied walnuts. Tim had the jambalaya, spice level 2 (out of 4), which was sprinkled with blueberries. All three dishes were just delicious, and the service was cheerful and attentive. We could say Dayenu here, but then we would have missed out on the dessert –warm triple chocolate coconut brownie with toffee sprinkles and coconut ice cream. The brownie was just barely cooked – crunchy on the outside, gooey on the inside, completely perfect. Dave had a rum punch and I had a strawberry-kiwi mojito, both really good but missing umbrellas. The wine list is very interesting – good wine with almost no markup at all. Can you tell we all loved this place? The only downside to the evening is that we may have missed the only good sunset of the week, as the fog had completely burnt off by about 5:30.

We rolled ourselves out to the car and drove home through the clear evening with a big almost-full moon shining down. When we got back to the house Tim made a fire and we talked about playing some games, but decided it would be more fun to just sit in the dark and look at the stars or read on our various electronic devices. We didn’t even put on any music, just the crackling of the fire and the shushing of the waves. A peaceful end to a very nice day.

More things we forgot: the brios, although bulky, are nice to have. And Dave would like the camera adapter that lets him connect his cameras to his iPad.

Day 3, Cache as cache can

 I stayed up late finishing a book that turned out to be not that good – we all like happy endings, but not when they come in that neat a package. So this morning I slept in until 8, and then had a slow morning surfing the internet while watching the waves. It was partly slow because that’s the kind of morning we like, and partly slow because both Dave and I were sore from our various exercises the day before. We left the house around 10 to go geocaching around Manzanita. We found 4 caches, although technically we only found three of them. For the second one we were looking around for it when a grandpa and two kids came up and said, “Are you geocaching?” They were trying to do it using an iPad without 3G or GPS – triangulating using wireless signal. That’s why when we first saw them they were far from the cache and heading in the completely wrong direction. We’d been looking for quite some time, but we were all thrilled when the granddaughter found the cache – it was actually up in a tree. The next one we found was on a beautiful pond that was mostly dried up and filled with wildflowers. Two things we love about geocaching are that it gets us out and moving – we ended up walking several miles – and it takes us places that we wouldn’t have found otherwise, the pond being one of them.

The other place it took us was Bread and Ocean in Manzanita – after we found the fourth geocache we were pretty hungry. We walked the mile back into town and as we walked I got on yelp and this place looked pretty good. It was good, too. It’s located in the former home of the Blue Sky Café, which probably only BOS will recall. Dave learned from the internet that it’s also owned by the same person. It’s a go to the counter and order then pick up your food when they yell your name kind of place. They have yummy sandwiches and salads. We each had a half sandwich (more than enough food), tuna salad with artichoke hearts and roasted red peppers for me, turkey with a pesto and chutney for Dave and a cup of red curry lentil soup for each of us. The meals came with cookies (ginger for me, chocolate chip for Dave) which were the weak points – they weren’t bad, but our standards for chocolate chip cookies are pretty high.  We’d called Tim and told him our plans and offered to meet him in Manzanita, but he decided he’d rather stay at the house and eat leftover spaghetti brought from home for occasions like this. He also rather piteously asked Dave if hi calves were sore too.

Last year we’d gone looking for a cache called Two Bridges that we’d looked for and hadn’t been able to find the year before that. We were able to find it, and then continued hiking along the trail for a while just for fun. We knew the trail was part of the Oregon Coast Trail, but we didn’t know where it led to, or at least where that segment led to, so we’d turned around and gone back. On our way home from Manzanita we thought we’d look for the other end of it, and we managed to find it – something of a miracle, given that it’s just a pullout with a very small sign on a post in the ground. We had to stop at ACPS to finish paying (which took about 20 minutes – Debbie’s assistant quit unexpectedly and it’s a little frazzled there right now) and the trailhead for the other end is near there so we walked over to make sure it really is part of the Oregon Coast Trail, and it really is. So we’re going to do it tomorrow or whenever it’s not raining.

  

Then we came home and it’s a beautiful sunny day. I wrote, Dave hung out on the deck, and I’m not sure what Tim did. Eventually I worked up the energy to do day 2 of bootcamp. I did it in the side yard which made it much nicer, and then stretched on the deck after with the sun shining on me, a nice breeze, and the ever present sound of the waves. It was almost worth working out just to do the stretching after. Those of you who are thinking that I could have skipped the workout and just enjoyed the stretching may have a point, although the endorphins from all that work are a nice thing too. Meanwhile Tim had gone down to the beach for a walk to get things stretched out, and Dave took a nice shower. All of that felt very good.

Usually I spend as much time on the beach as possible, but this year I am really, really enjoying taking the laptop or the kindle out to the deck and sitting in the sunshine listening to the waves. Right now I’m also listening to Dave not doing well in a game of canoe – sounds like Tim is killing him. Usually canoe is more sedate, but this sounds almost as loud as a game of trouble. In general the afternoon was pretty quiet – lots of reading. I also got out my helicopter and tried to fly it. I immediately broke it, but fortunately Dave had spare parts for it. It’s harder than it looks, but also fun.

Tonight was our night to go to the Irish Table, possibly the best restaurant in Cannon Beach. The only drawback to the Irish Table is that they don’t take reservations for parties of fewer than 6. Instead you call after 5:30 and they put your name on a list and tell you when to show up. In our case, they told us 7:30, which was a little later than we would have liked (ok, about an hour later) but for Irish Table even Tim will wait. He also fortified himself with peanuts. We got there a little early and were immediately brought back to our table. There’s always a nervous moment when you get the menu and order, because the thing I like to have (and everyone else likes me to have) is the curried mussels, and sometimes they run out. They did not run out tonight, but I’m ahead of myself. They make fantastic soups, so Tim and I started with the soups – tomato bisque for him, carrot-ginger for me. Tim said his tasted like liquid lasagna, and he was right – and it was so good. Mine was equally good, if not better, sweet and spicy and just right. Dave had the lox and green salad, which I ate about half of – I figured the soup could come home (which it did, in a to-go coffee cup. Irish Table is Sleepy Monk coffee during the day, and they were out of soup containers). The salmon was perfect, just salty enough and moist and silky smooth, and it came with a salad with pickled fennel and onions and hard-boiled egg and greens. Then it was the entrees, my curried mussels in a broth so fantastic that everybody has to dunk their whole wheat soda bread in it (or just use a spoon). Dave had the fish special, perfectly prepared salmon. The flavors were very good, but not as mind-blowing as last year’s fish special. Tim, as always, had the piemontese steak with the vertical carrots and mashed potatoes over cabbage. He devoured the steak, but as always found the cabbage offensive. He doesn’t eat the carrots either, claiming that they’re just decorative.

I feel like I need to start a new paragraph here because dessert was so good. Tim’s favorite dessert there has been the “chocolate pot”, basically a chocolate pot-de-crème served with pistachio shortbread cookies. This year it was replaced by a mocha pot – same thing, but with espresso. His eyes lit up after the first bite like fireworks, and he even compared it to the Wayfarer chocolate espresso ganache cake that has been his standard of excellence for years. I had blackberry sorbet which was pretty much just ok until Dave decided he didn’t like the lemon curd in his dessert. Once topped with the rest of the lemon curd, it was yummy. It also came with shortbread cookies – one plain, two chocolate – that were basically a lesson on what shortbread should be. Dave’s scones with clotted cream and strawberry preserves completely floated his boat, and mine too. Also Dave and I had hot biddys – hot irish whiskey with lemon and cinnamon. Irish table amazes us every time we go there – the menu doesn’t change, but it doesn’t need to. The flavors are all interesting and yummy, and the food is always perfectly cooked. Service is friendly and reasonably quick. As you might have guessed, I recommend a trip there.

When we got home Tim made us a fire and we played some farkle. I lost our original farkle set, and in general this replacement set is just sad – almost 3 pair, almost a straight, almost whatever. For Dave and Tim that was true tonight, but I sparkled at farkle. I won, I won! Did I mention I won? I was so excited by my decisive victory that I went suggested we play some trouble. Dave put on Pirate music, which set the atmosphere very well. But I should have rested on my laurels. Tim won the first game without anybody even close, but I was totally dominating the second game, until Tim came up at the end and won again. I think it isn’t right. Tim reminded me that in the first game he took pity on my and didn’t honk the man I’d finally gotten out, but I still think it is wrong that I didn’t win the second game.

More things we forgot: small backpack to take hiking, and my yoga mat would be nice to have.

Day 2, a day of unusually nice weather

Day 2

Our bedroom has two skylights, and the nice thing about that is that on a clear blue morning like today they let in all sorts of wonderful light. So I was up a little before 7, which isn’t really that early but it is on vacation. The tides aren’t completely favorable this week – low tide was about 4 this morning – but they’re good enough that I got up and headed down to see if I could make it to the carriage road. My phone said it was 58 degrees, but it felt much warmer.

Here’s the plant and sand report: last summer they really went to town on the trail down to the beach and hacked everything back about a foot and a half on either side. This year the trail is still wide open, but many plants are moving in, and there are a few sticking up between the stairs and around the railings. I would say by next summer it will be jungly again.

The sand is generally high. The loose rocky places in the cave to the south and the protected inlet to the north are completely covered with sand, and you can easily walk between the monolith and the inlet to the north. The stalk of the big mushroom rock by the waterfall is completely covered with sand, and the floor of the Joel Marble burping cave is also completely sand covered. There’s one exception to the high sand which I’ll get too shortly.

In honor of Iron Man Ben, I ran all the way from the start of the hug point beach to the carriage road. Well, it wasn’t entirely in honor of Ben, because it was also partly due to wanting to get there as fast as possible – with the tide coming in every minute counts. I resisted the urge to stop and look at things and take pictures. When I got to the carriage road it was just accessible – only a little hop was required to get over a tongue of water. I went up onto it, but the tide was in far enough that waves were breaking over the low section in the middle. I am sure I will get my boots and pantlegs soaked at some point this week, but I wasn’t quite ready for it yet, so I turned around.

Now that I’d been to the carriage road and knew the state of the sand, I could take my time and have a leisurely stroll back, and also investigate the two things that needed looking at. First was the dog photo spot, which is a place where the water is digging into a soft part of the cliff face just south of the carriage road. When we used to bring the guide dog puppies here that was a great photo spot, and I took a picture of it this year because it’s getting more interesting. Although the sand is generally high, it’s low just there, exposing a series of pools that I think I’ve not seen before – very cool looking.

Also, faithful readers might remember that when we were here in November the waterfall was the fullest we’d ever seen, and the stream that came off of it turned and went north, pretty much cutting off access to the carriage road. After the dry July and August we’ve had, and even with the rain yesterday, the waterfall is back to being a watertrickle, and the stream fans out across the sand directly to the ocean. It’s so spread out that I could probably walk across it in my mesh sneakers and still have dry socks. It’s endlessly fascinating to see how things change every year.

The walk back was uneventful and absolutely beautiful, with the sun lighting up the waves out over the ocean, but the beach still in the shadow of the cliffs. I took a lot of pictures that are pretty much exactly the same pictures that I take every year because every year I am blown away by the beauty and grandeur of this place. Right now I’m sitting in the “leather” chair looking out, and the sun is lighting up the tree just past the deck, but the deck is still in shadow. We are so blessed to be able to come here. Meanwhile Dave had gotten up when I did, and when I got back he and Josh were having a financial chat over facebook. I was pleased to see a post there from the Iron Man, so at least he’s still able to move his fingers. Here’s hoping he’ll be able to climb the stairs in Giants stadium a week from Saturday.

Next up on my agenda (after a bowl of cacklin’, of course) was a little exercise, so I went into the bedroom and did the first day of boot camp. It was killer as always, but not as killer as it would have been if I’d done it on the ship. I think I’ve figured out why. When I’m doing it by myself, part of my mind is counting reps (ok, most of my mind) and sometimes I’ll do 3 or 4 reps without paying attention to form, kind of half-heartedly. So I’m not actually bending down all the way to the floor or whatever. That’s the place where you want the trainer to point it out and correct it, and that’s what I’m missing when I do it on my own. So my focus for the rest of the sessions will be trying to be more mindful of form.

 

Tim had gotten up and taken a shower before I started my workout which was good, because the part where I’m crab hopping makes the house shake. I took my shower and did a little writing, and then Rhonda (aka evil piano teacher) andher husband Tracy got here and it was time to go to Bill’s for lunch. We had the usual nervousness about getting to Bill’s at the right time, and it was a little more nervous having 5, but it all worked out. We got to town a little early and walked around a bit, then got to Bills and had our choice of tables. It was cheeseburgers, bacon burger, fish burger, fish and chips and onion rings for the table. Tracy especially enjoyed the beer – he had the dunkelweizen first, but then tried my foggy notion and had one of those also – good beer and good times at Bills. Especially when you get to say dunkelweizen.

Tim drove Dave’s car back to the house while the Rhonda and I walked around and looked in the shops. Dave and Tracy walked around and sat on the benches outside of the shops. Rhonda was especially fond of the various leopard print shoes at Purple Moon, while I was entranced by the sheer amount of fascinating stuff at Ter Hars. Tim, meanwhile, was hanging out in Dave’s car at the house, because we’d forgotten to give him a key. He said he had the windows rolled down and it was very nice, and actually what’s the difference between sitting on the couch and sitting in the car?

Eventually we gave him a call to come get us. The Ringerings went off to walk on the beach – it was nearly low tide and one of the most beautiful days I’ve ever seen here. We hopped in the car and headed to the house, at which point the need to nap became irresistible for me. Kids, unless you’re an advanced napper, don’t even try to do what I did, which is to say “I’m going to take a nap” and then go lie down on the bed. This is why most people say they can’t nap – it takes real skill to be able to do that. Since I’m a pro (like my mother before me), I was asleep in moments and slept for about an hour. I just love napping on the bed here on a sunny afternoon – the sun comes in the skylight and warms the bed, the cool breeze blows on your head from the window, and the ocean roars contentedly from down below.

Meanwhile Dave and Tim went for a run down on the beach. Yes, Tim went for a run voluntarily. The thing is that when he’s not swimming, he loses his appetite. Well, he doesn’t lose it, exactly, it just shrinks to more like a normal person’s, meaning he’s full after one hamburger and chips at Bill’s. Tonight we have reservations at Newman’s at 988, and he wants to be able to eat his meal as well as finish off what Dave and I are too full to eat. So he ran for almost an hour and was feeling pretty good about it until Dave compared it to Iron Man Ben. When I woke up I thought they were dead or at least hospitalized, of course, because they’d been gone for a long time and I didn’t hear them and they weren’t in the living room. But then when I looked on the deck they were there in the lounge chairs chatting in the sun. They’d had some iced tea and were looking very pleased with themselves.

In the afternoon the sun shines right on the deck, so I sat out there and blogged for a while. Dave went in and took a nap in the swivel chair, and Tim played games and texted. After a while the sun was shining right in my face so I came in and read on the couch. Eventually it was time to get up and put on nice clothes for Newman’s. Newman’s was its usual yummy self, although the service was slower than we’re used to. As always they had super foie gras, and everything was seasoned and cooked perfectly. Sadly, they have changed their gigondas, and while it was a very nice wine, it was not as spectacular as the Chateau St Comte they’ve had in previous years.

Tim drove us home and made a nice fire, which did not fill the house with smoke because it’s not windy tonight. It was cloudy in town, but completely clear at the house – weather is so local here. Then it was game time, and tonight it was time for trouble. Dave won the first game, and Tim won the second. You will notice that my name is conspicuously absent from the winners’ list. In both games I could not get any sixes until very late in the game, although both games were very close for second and third place. Even though I didn’t win I still love trouble – the honking is so fast and furious, and there’s the pounding on the pop-o-matic and the yelling and pointing and saying “I’ll get you Chauncy!” Tim tried saying nuk several times, but that is not what you say when you play trouble.

Dave has Glen Gould playing Bach on the jambox, the fire is crackling, and I’m comfortably full from a delicious dinner.  Things are good. If it stays clear we’re going to try to stay awake for moonset.

Other things we wish we had: colorful socks for R to wear with her Jambus, sweat pants for D to put on in the evenings when a loose waistband is required, hairbrush or haircut for Tim.

Day 1, in which we do not run a marathon.

The big excitement today is my brother Ben running his first full ironman triathlon in Penticton BC. When I woke up at 8, he was already swimming, and I’ve spent much of my day checking facebook and the ironman webpage to see how he’s doing. His wife, my terrific sister-in-law Joan, is up there representing all of us as she drives from place to place and posts updates when she sees him. He was smiling at both the swim-to-bike and bike-to-run transitions, but his grin had faded by mile 4 of the race and we’re all anxiously awaiting the update that tells us he’s done. I’m trying to imagine doing 13 plus hours of Nia, and I think it’s not a possibility even at level one.

Meanwhile the packing and driving were both very easy. I started my day with a trip to the gym for my shoulder workout, then off to Safeway to buy the important items – oreos (buy one get one free – Tim says that’s one bag for him, one for me and Dave), peanuts, cacklin’ oat bran for breakfast. When I got home Tim and Dave were containerizing the pile of things that we’d gathered yesterday, and they’d both already gotten their clothes together. I bagged the last of the dried peaches and put away the fruit dryer, then took care of my stuff. It was all so relaxed and painless that we were completely packed at 2 without even using our polite (read: annoyed) voices.

I left about 2:40, and Dave and Tim left about half an hour later with Tim driving Dave’s car. We waffled about taking two cars, but convenience won out. That way Dave and I can stay in town after lunch for shopping, or we can do one way hikes or whatever. Also it makes packing easier because we can completely fill the passenger compartment of the van, which is, after all, the largest van of its size. Traffic wasn’t bad, so I got to ACPS about 4, and spent some time chatting with Debbie the owner, who will not be selling the business after all. This is very good news, because she makes the property owners keep their properties in nice shape and is very responsive to suggestions – hence the new dresser in the big bedroom. This is the first time we’ve ever had all our clothes in drawers, and it’s very exciting. Dave has the new dresser, and my stuff is all in Josh’s room.

Dave and Tim got to the house shortly after I did, and were just as amazed at the long-awaited new front door as I was. It is covered with a swirly blue-green colored formica, and is just as odd looking as it sounds from that description. Inside almost nothing has changed – two of the kitchen chairs have been replaced with padded chairs (nice!) and the ancient TV has been replaced with a 32” flat screen TV, which makes very little difference because we don’t use it much.

It had started raining about halfway here and was coming down pretty good, so we used our foul weather routine – Dave transporting from car to door, Tim distributing inside, and me unpacking. It took less than 20 minutes for us to get completely settled in, and then another 20 minutes to type the wireless key into all the new devices. Does it really have to alternate numbers and letters like that?

Then it was off to Mo’s for dinner, where I had the steamed clams and half of Dave’s Neptune plate, and Tim had the clam strip dinner.  They have a new menu (although it’s pretty much the same food as the old menu) and that’s about it. We all think that maybe we should substitute the Irish Table for Sunday night, which would be an awesome way to start the week. After dinner we drove through town to see what was what. At least two galleries have closed, but it was the restaurant scene that was shocking – Doogers has gone out of business, and the Bistro was completely gutted by a fire in July! We stopped at the Mariner to pick up firestarters, and also some cheese for fruit salad night and some Hogwash for Tim. Tonight’s flavor was Piggleberry Punch. Tim may have crossed some sort of taste line since we were last here though. He almost couldn’t get through it. Dave and I each had a sip and spent the rest of the drive home gagging.

Ben update: smile had returned at mile 23 and he completed the triathlon in 13:15.28. Woo hoo! Joan says he ran across the finish line.

After some blogging and relaxing, and Tim lighting a fire with the sissy firestarter, it was time for the first round of games. Dave chose pepper, possibly one of the simplest games ever.  We played 3 or 4 rounds, it’s all a blur. I lost all of them by doing something stupid, except for the last one which I lost from sheer bad luck (Dave beat my blue 4 with the blue 1). The only thing that made losing so much bearable was how hard Tim laughed when I said that pigs say “Nuk”.  We were reminded tonight that the fireplace is a bad idea when it’s windy out. If we had any pigs saying nuk, they’d be bacon by now. Also for some reason Tim and Dave’s helicopters couldn’t be flown at the same time, which is weird because they can fly at the same time at home. Now it is reading and relaxing time. The forecast says the rain should be over by tomorrow.

Things we forgot: watch and bedside clock for Rachel, bathrobe and slippers for Dave, firestarters at Safeway. The green plaid blanket has disappeared, so we should bring two throw blankets.