Land Ho!

Day 3 – Cruising the Tracy Arm

Dave says I need to mention that he wants to remember to bring real Kleenex on our next cruise for cleaning his glasses. Apparently HAL facial tissues are kind of scratchy.

I started the day catching up on some blogging since I woke up early because of the time change. This morning was stretch and abs with Steve, who was a little more creative than Angie. We ate breakfast with a nice group of folks. Everybody but Dave ordered eggs, though, so the food was very slow in coming. We had a busy day planned so I’d told Steve that I needed to get started with boot camp right at 10, but he got involved in something else. So we rescheduled it for tomorrow. This actually worked out ok because (1) I am extremely sore as it is and (2) that way I was not rushing trying to get to the Mariner lunch. I realize that I’ve now done two meals in one paragraph, but that’s pretty much what the first part of the day was like.

The Mariner lunch was very enjoyable, but what was interesting is that on our way there we passed by the 4 star mariner reception. 4 star mariners have some enormous number of cruises under their belts, and on the Hawaii cruse there were so many of them they had to hold the reception in the queen’s lounge. There were only 4 or 5 people at this reception, which may be another confirming point – folks who know cruising don’t go to Alaska on this ship.

After the mariner lunch, or more technically brunch, it was pretty much immediately time to head right over to the culinary arts center for our hands-on cooking demo, followed by eating the food we prepared. Yes, eating again. There were twelve people in the class, and we broke into groups of 3 people each. I was on the butternut squash and leek soup team, Dave was on the salmon cakes team, and there was also a berry cobbler team and a glazed salmon team. As happened last time, the most interesting thing about the class is the amazing variation in cooking skills. Also as usual Dave ended up doing most of the cooking on his team, since it’s difficult for him to stand back and watch people make a complete mess of things.  What’s also interesting is how little teaching the chefs do – we keep thinking they will do more teaching about how to chop and things, but they don’t. Turns out we may enjoy the straight cooking demos more than the hands on ones. We finished up by eating (or in our case, tasting) the food we’d prepared. It was pretty variable.

Afterwards we headed back to our cabin to bundle up for cruising the Tracy Arm. This is a trip into a long inlet with lots of neat glacial features. We were excited because they were going to make the rope deck accessible to passengers – it is the furthest forward point on the ship. Unfortunately it was also very crowded, so we headed up to 9-forward, the open deck in front of the gym. It was not crowded. But then we realized we have this awesome verandah with comfy chairs (and easy bathroom access) right outside our room, so we ended up sitting there. It’s very scenic and impressive, although I did have to take a nap for part of it. Some of the scenic features are the many waterfalls pouring down the steep slopes from the snowfields, the volcanic features shaped by the glaciers, the nearness of the land, and the icebergs in the water. We tried not to take a picture of each iceberg, since we have several hundred of them from our last Alaska cruise.

Around 4 we could see a big glacier in the distance, so we went out to 9 forward and then down to the rope deck. As we were walking out to the rope deck there were people streaming off of it. Apparently the captain and the pilot had decided that there was too much ice in the water to proceed, and we were turning back. It was disappointing. But it did give us a chance to go back to the cabin and get another nap in.

Once we’d woken up, we weren’t quite sure what to do with ourselves. Most of the usual activities had been cancelled due to the scenic cruising, which was already over. We sat and chatted in the room for a while, then decided we’d like to make reservations at the Pinnacle Grill, the ships’ high end restaurant. We’d enjoyed it very much with the boys on the Mexico cruise, and somewhat less on the Hawai’i cruise. They didn’t have the times we wanted, which actually surprised me – I didn’t think the families and large groups that make up the majority of the passengers would Pinnacle. But there was room in the Cannaletto, the Italian specialty restaurant that takes up a corner of the Lido restaurant. We’d never been there before, and figured it wouldn’t be any worse than sitting in uncomfortable silence at table 21. So we went ahead and made a reservation.

There used to be a group called the Adagio Strings, but now they’re just called Adagio. We thought it might be fun to go to the explorer bar to check them out, and it was. It’s a piano and violin, and while it’s not my favorite kind of music (especially the violin), it was good to do something different and also very enjoyable. Then it was time to go get changed for the Canalleto. A note here about that – in general the dress on the ship is Very Casual, and most nights the dress code is what they call “smart casual” – no shorts or jeans, no tank tops. I like to dress up though, so I got dressed up and we went off to dinner, which was just delightful. The food is pretty standard Italian, but the wait staff and host seem to just be having a good time up there. One of the waiters has clearly been working on his Italian accent and loved to say “mozzzzarrrrrrela”. Also it came with fresh cotton candy for dessert, and what could be better than that? A highlight of the meal for me was the mashed potatoes with a little balsamic vinegar drizzled on them. I never would have thought to do that, and it was good.

After dinner we checked out Nathan Temby in the piano bar for Billy Joel/Elton John night. There weren’t any seats when we got there so we ended up leaning against the wall just to the side of the piano, which was great because we could watch his hands. I love that. Also we knew all the songs, including the “burning out his fuse up there alone” line from Elton’s Rocket Man, so we had a great time singing along. Then off to the show, which was Barnaby, a comedian and juggler and singer. He’s no Joel Mason, but it was a very good show. Then back to Lynn and the HALcats for a little dancing and more singing along, and finally a walk around the ship in deep twilight – at 11:30 at night. The ship spent the night anchored about 8 miles from Juneau, which was kind of weird, but I guess they need to not cause a cruise ship jam.

Tonight’s towel animal: Butterfly. Or Spider.

A day at sea

Day 2, cruising towards Juneau

We’re always within sight of land but there are some low swells anyway, so the ship is rolling nicely. I woke up before the alarm and went to meet the new fitness center folks, Angie and Steve. They were quite disorganized, and Angie was very crabby and stressed. But I did enjoy stretch class and abs class, once I got used to the strangeness of it not being Mark and Matthew. Breakfast, the usual oatmeal for me and bagel & lox for Dave. Since there’s no Zumba, we were able to linger over breakfast. Our table partners were a married couple and their friend, who had met 51 years ago when the husband was stationed in Germany and the wife and her friend were teaching on the base. They were with a group of the folks who had taught with them – apparently they have reunions every so often. I refrained from mentioning that I was born the year they all first met each other. It’s nice to be on the other side of that sometimes.

Next item up for me was boot camp. Yes, again. Since the ship is so crowded it’s hard to get a SEB or time on the machines, I decided to do boot camp again. I enjoyed the camaraderie last time, and it’s pretty adaptable to folks at different fitness levels, so even though I’ve done it before we figured it would be ok. But when I got there, it turned out everyone else who had signed up had backed out, so it was only me. I decided to do it anyway – Steve and Angie will take turns working with me, and it’s like having a personal trainer. Angie was much less crabby and stressed, and the workout was very good. I’d say it was fun, but that’s just not the right word. About ¾ of the way through they rang the fire alarm for a crew drill, and I tried to convince her that it meant I should go lie down in a lifeboat. She wasn’t buying it. Also she said that Mark had taught us the wrong ab workout, it was supposed to be 4 different ab exercises done in sets of thirty – 120, instead of 66. She just laughed when I turned to her during the second set and told her that I hated her. But no pain, no gain… or maybe given the availability of food on the ship it should be no pain, much gain. Dave had come up and ridden a SEB until a treadmill opened up, and when I got back to the room he was in the shower. There wasn’t time for a shower for me, so I just put on my beloved pink HAL sweatshirt and we headed down (way down, did I mention our cabin is on the 8^th of 10 floors and we’ve challenged ourselves not to use the elevators?) to the Queen’s Lounge, now set up in its other configuration, the Culinary Arts Center.

Last cruise we’d really enjoyed Chef Pablo, and hoped he would be back. But Your Party Planner Amanda had told us yesterday the classes would be taught by Sous Chef Rob (interestingly, not Your Sous Chef Rob. Apparently he’s more committed to his work than to us). He turned out to be a Brit with a cold and a good sense of humor, and we enjoyed watching him and Amanda make Halibut Caddy Grandy and chocolate-raisin bread pudding. Once the demonstration was over and I’d managed to stand up (boot camp day 1 is particularly brutal on the legs) we went back to the cabin so I could shower, then off to lunch. We shared the table with two sisters and the food was very good, so we’re feeling a little more hopeful about the food. In particular Dave’s tilapia and my tuna were nicely seasoned and perfectly cooked.

Our big afternoon activity was the navigator (low-end) wine tasting with Cellar Master Zoltan. He’s from Hungary and is responsible for there being better wine on the ship than the last two times we’ve been on it. But the tasting was not a good activity – it took over an hour and a quarter to taste 4 wines (which all fell into the not bad category),with way too much talking about attack and legs and tears and minutiae that people who drink that caliber wine don’t really want to know about. Come to think of it, we drink a much higher caliber wine and we didn’t want to know about it. The whole thing could have been done in half an hour with time left over for questions. The premium wine tasting is on Friday after Ketchikan, and I for one will not be there.

Actually our big activity for the afternoon was taking a HUGE nap, me on the bed and Dave on the full-length couch. Between getting up early for stretch class and staying up late with the HALCats, the afternoon nap isn’t just a good idea – it’s the law. After our excellent naps, I went to check out Tai Chi and Dave went to check out the other HalCats. It used to be that generally the HalCats played in the Queens Lounge, and the Neptunes played in the Ocean Lounge. Not so this cruise – there is a second group of musicians, also called the HalCats, playing in the Ocean Lounge. We don’t know why, and Dave said they weren’t very good. He did like that you could sit in the Ocean Bar, his favorite indoor place on the ship to sit and watch the waves go by.

While we were in the cabin relaxing before dinner, we got a call from the dining room saying they were moving us to a new table, 21. It was formal night, so we got all dressed up, and when we got to table 21 it was one of the long 8 person tables, with two people sitting at opposite ends of one of the sides, not speaking. Nearest us was Olympia, and at the other end by the window was Earl. Earl was hard of hearing and not inclined to chat, and Olympia sat with her arms folded and refused to look at us. So we weren’t feeling very encouraged. While we were eating our appetizers Dave and John, an older gay couple, showed up and sat at the end of the table with Olympia, who took off her frosty white jacket and frosty persona and began talking softly and animatedly with them. Earl was not dressed up, and is married to Olympia. Dave’s guess is that she refused to sit with him because he wouldn’t dress up. I think he’s right, and I can imagine the way she was feeling but it was extremely uncomfortable. Eventually Dave and I gave up on trying to make conversation with the rest of the table and just chatted with each other. I may see about being reseated. Fortunately, the food was very good.

Our before dinner entertainment was Matt in the Crow’s Nest, and after dinner we went to the show, which was called Braodway Blitz, starring the Oosterdam singers and dancers. We enjoyed the show and also enjoyed seeing the capabilities of the stage, which is completely mobile, with sections that rise and sink and even rotate while rising and sinking. Then we went over to the Queens Lounge for the good HalCats, and danced our feet off. They were playing 50s and 60s music and it was very fun. I enjoyed the dancing even though I was wearing possibly the highest, pointiest heels I’ve ever had. It turns out the solution to not walking like a man is a couple of glasses of Chateauneuf-du-Pape and a glass of champagne. In the heels and floor length dress the elevator ban was lifted, so we rode the midships glass elevators by our cabin for the first time, and also noticed that all the elevators now have carpet in them with the day of the week printed in large, friendly letters. Very helpful.

We finished dancing when the band quit at midnight. Fortunately, the clocks get set back an hour tonight. But our walk back to the cabin was fraught with tension… would tonight end in another crushing disappointment? Would our bed have nothing on it but advertising and chocolate? Or would tonight’s crowning moment be when we came into the bedroom and discovered…

Tonight’s towel animal: stingray!

The Adventure Begins

Day 1 – Boarding the ship

We’d decided to do the whole HAL pre-cruise routine except for having them book our flights. That meant that we had pre-arranged transport form the airport to the hotel, and from the hotel to the ship. Given the amount of luggage, it turned out to be a very good thing! We’d gotten an instruction letter when we checked in, so following a ride on the SEB (Stupid Exercise Bike) for me, we went down to the HAL desk in the lobby & checked in, then had breakfast at the hotel. At 11:10 we went down and checked out, and at 11:30 boarded the bus to the cruise terminal. We had a very competent HAL tour coordinator who shepherded us with brisk efficiency through the chaos of the Sheraton arrival/departure area – no small feat, it was a total zoo. Very impressive. Our bags had been picked up earlier and would meet us on the ship

Check-in was check in, what can be said about it? It took longer than we wanted it to, although for the most part the lines moved quickly. We were on board by a little after one, and immediately headed to the front desk to do our business – signing up for the ship tour (3 hours!) and a cooking class. Then it was up to our room to drop off our carry-ons, and down to the dining room for the Mariners welcome aboard lunch.

OK, first, our room. We had gotten a stateroom guarantee – that means you’re guaranteed a stateroom in whatever category you pay for. We paid for a lower-end verandah cabin, and were upgraded to a to top-category standard verandah. Then a day or two later they sent an e-mail offering a paid upgrade to the next level of cabin – a verandah suite. Using the Sami Sandage method, we immediately said “sure, we’ll try that”. So we are in what seems to us to be a palatial room – full sized couch, separate desk with a window overlooking the verandah, tons of drawers, large bathroom with two sinks, full size whirlpool tub and separate shower. And the two big upgrades, oversized bath towels that you can actually wrap around yourself and personalized stationery. We feel extremely pampered.

Next, the people. This is our third time on the beautiful Oosterdam. The first time was our Christmas cruise to Mexico, when the ship was pretty much filled to capacity, with 3rd and 4th occupants in many of the rooms. Lots of families, lots of young kids, many teenagers. The ship felt crowded, it was hard to get an exercise machine in the gym or an appointment at the spa or a cooking class or just about anything at all, and the food was mediocre. Then on our Hawaii cruise, the ship was much less full. Very many fewer kids – 20 vs the 200 on the Mexico cruise. The average age on the ship was somewhere between 65-70, and unless you got stuck behind someone with a scooter or a walker, you could go anywhere and do anything. This cruise, unfortunately, seems to be much more like the Mexico cruise, but colder and rainier. Once again the ship is very full, again with some 200 kids, and it’s hard to get places and get appointments. But since we know some tricks (the most important one being sign up early), we’re doing fine.

After lunch we wandered about the ship, reacquainting ourselves with it and looking for familiar faces (none – as near as we can tell, the entire complement of staff and crew, including the entertainers and the spa/fitness center staff – have completely changed). At 3:15 we had lifeboat drill, which had many more references than either of us remembered to tying your life vest straps so that you wouldn’t trip. Many more. Could this be a reference, I wonder, to the Costa Concordia’s captain’s claim that he tripped and fell into a lifeboat? After lifeboat drill our baggage showed up, so we unpacked it. This was much easier in our giant stateroom since we could get past each other, and also because of the many shelves and drawers. Before we left, my friend Rhonda-the-piano-teacher, who has much cruise experience, came over to loan me some warm wraps and give me some advice (stop walking like a man!). One thing she said is that I was supposed to get a mani-ped with bright nail polish and not wear pantyhose. So at 5 I headed up to the spa, where for the next 2 hours Edith did my feet and hands and dished all the “downstairs” dirt on the ship. Turns out she and the other manicurist are the only two people who interact with customers left on the ship since the Hawai’i cruise, and they’re leaving soon. It also turned out she’d done my manicure last time, so we were good friends right off. She told me about all the dramas (there’s so much drama, I feel like I should always have a bag of popcorn, she said) and how it felt working on the ship and we just had a fantastic time. She also told me that the young male cadet (he looked to be about Tim’s age) we’d seen during lifeboat drill was a girl. What???

Next, up to the crow’s nest to hear Matt Murphy, Chris’s replacement. He was very good and we enjoyed listening to him, but couldn’t stay long because we needed to dress for dinner. When we got to the dining room, they led us straight to table 7 – the same orphan’s table we had last cruise! Unfortunately there were only two other people there, cousins, and they were planning on changing their seating to sit with the rest of their group. But we remembered that on the Hawaii cruise we didn’t get assigned to table 7 until the second day, so we’re hoping for more tablemates. Dinner was mediocre at best; I had a completely overcooked veal chop and Dave’s was forgettable also. We’re worried that the food will be the same low quality it was on the Christmas cruise.

After dinner it was time for the welcome aboard show, which was pretty standard stuff except for your cruise director John completely blowing the joke about cruise weight gain – he started with “you come on as cargo” rather than “you come on as passengers”, the finished the usual way, looking confused. But he’ll do fine. One sad thing about Your Lifestylist Louise turning into Your Lifestylist Jeremy is that Jeremy loves Tai Chi, so he does 2 Tai Chi classes a day instead of one Tai Chi and one Zumba. I will miss the Zumba.

Following our usual routine, after the show we headed to the Queen’s Lounge to check out the HalCats. Turns out the singer this time is Lynn, and she is way better than Vivienne ever was. Because of the younger demographic, there was much more freestyle dancing and much less formal ballroom style dancing. It was fun to watch and fun to listen to, and we might need to get out on the floor ourselves.

Then it was bedtime, where we faced our first (and hopefully last) really crushing disappointment of the cruise: No towel animal! We’re hoping that it’s just that it was the first night and the cabin stewards were rushed. We’re trying to take the enjoy-whatever-comes attitude of the Australians we met in Seattle, but no towel animals might be a deal breaker.

Baseball and Ice Cream

Day 0 OK, first thing. Warm clothes take up much more space. Somehow we have more luggage for this cruise than we did for the 2 week Hawaii cruise. Fortunately we made good use of luggage carts and bellmen, and got all 5 bags (plus 2 carryons) safely from home to hotel. Once we got to the hotel it was pretty much time to head out to Safeco field. Dave had discovered last night that the Dodgers were in town for interleague play, and we went on line and found affordable seats that looked like they’d be pretty good. We took cab to the park from our hotel (didn’t know you could hit 50 mph in downtown Seattle, but apparently you can) and our seats were only a couple sections from the entrance. And they were amazing seats – usually when we go to a game I feel like we’d see it better at home on the TV, but these seats were practically on top of the Dodger’s dugout. And Clayton Kershaw was pitching for the Dodgers. It was a good game too, with a couple home runs, 3 double plays, and even a double steal. Dodgers win 8-3. Also instead of the loud drunk people we always end up sitting in front of, we had a row or two of older gentlemen and their sons who were both knowledgeable and very funny – better than many professional commentators. All in all probably the most fun game I’ve ever been to. Then we took a cab to Elliot’s on the waterfront, where even though we were a half hour early for our reservation and even though they were jammed, we got seated almost immediately. The food was very well prepared and very tasty, although no really outstanding flavor combinations. We started with a dozen oysters. Dave had the Copper River sockeye salmon, and I had crabcakes and a smoked salmon spinach salad. The crabcakes were perfectly seared. What was outstanding was the dessert – an espresso icecream with espresso bean-chocolate flakes. Absolutely irresistible. Dave also had some PX, which made him happy. I still think you might as well have a glass of Nyquil. Meanwhile outside our window a large sightseeing boat was loading up with what seemed like about 200 kids for prom. It was great theater watching them walk down the gangplank, then stop and have their pictures taken. The two slim young Asian women sitting at the table below us by the window, who ordered and consumed an extraordinary amount of food, also got sucked into watching it. It was really addictive. We finished the evening with a nice 7 block walk up (and I do mean up) to our hotel, including one block which was stairs. Dave stapled our luggage tags onto our bags and we did some reorganizing, and now it’s off to bed so that tomorrow will come more quickly.

The last day

Day 4

First and most exciting thing is that Dave did indeed figure out the alarm system, so no more beeping in the night. Second thing is that I made it about halfway through Tomatoland and will probably finish it today. It has way too many numbers and long descriptions of people’s qualifications, but it is worth reading. Or I could just summarize it for you, so far: don’t eat tomatoes in the winter unless you know how and where they’re grown, and don’t eat tomatoes from Florida ever.

Dave and I both woke up about 8:30 and came out to look at the ocean. High tide is moving later in the day, so there was actually some beach visible when we woke up. It was a little windy, but still overcast, and warmer than it’s been. I spent some time looking online for the correct way to do one of the boot camp exercises – form is everything, and procrastination is good – before disappearing into the bedroom to complete week 5. The best thing I can say about it is that it was good to be done. I had saved a glass of chocolate milk for after but forgot about it & had cacklin’ instead, which made Tim very happy because now he gets the chocolate milk.

Here’s what’s weird. Slowly but surely, all of our favorite lunch places have closed, so when I’d finished my workout & showered and we were thinking about where to eat lunch, there wasn’t really anyplace we wanted to go. Midtown, Heather’s, JPs… all gone. Warren House is tasty food but I don’t like eating inside there all that much, and it’s too cold for the deck. So we decided to go to Bill’s again – Dave always wants to go there and Tim wanted to try their giant burrito. So we got Tim up and headed in. I had a giant chef salad which is clearly meant for two people. Dave had the red beer, having temporarily given up on the 2x4 (oh, and a burger). Tim had the burrito which was really enormous. He didn’t quite make it all the way through, though he made a valiant effort.

After lunch we walked up to Bruce’s for some licorice and a milk chocolate coconut haystack for Tim. We were going to stop at El Mundo, but it has completed its going out of business and is now George Vetter photography – an entire store dedicated to photographs of Cannon Beach. We didn’t go in. We did swing through the North By Northwest gallery, home of our favorite Christopher Burkett photos (at $5,000 to $7,000, we just visit them) before heading to the chocolate café. The plan was that I’d get a hot chocolate (which I did) and Tim would get a chocolate milkshake, but Tim had been so defeated by the burrito and haystack that he didn’t even want to get one to take back to the house. I drank some of my hot chocolate but am mostly looking forward to reheating it for breakfast tomorrow.

It looked like it was trying to clear up while we were in town, but when we got home it had given up. Dave, not to be deterred, grabbed the warm blanket and went out for some reading and a nap on the deck. He still has some sudokus from the ship and we should have brought them – it would be funny to have a picture of him in a deck chair doing a Sudoku, just like on the ship, but wrapped in a blanket and with gray skies and seas instead of blue. After napping a little he came in and napped on the couch some more. Meanwhile I finished Tomatoland, which was ultimately unsatisfying – it just sort of petered out. But the message remains: don’t buy or eat tomato-shaped objects – if it looks like a tomato, but doesn’t smell or taste like one, you’re using your money to support bad things.

Once Dave woke up from all that napping he was feeling the need to get out and do some walking, and the tide had gone out enough to make that possible. We booted up and headed down. The problem is that even though there was a very low tide (-1.5) scheduled for tonight, it wasn’t until 6:30-ish, when it is too dark to see the path to the beach and also you run the risk of raccoons. Speaking of raccoons, Dave and I haven’t seen any, but Tim saw one last night while we were out. Anyway, we made our way down the path to the beach and over to the waterfall, which was considerably diminished after only one day without rain. It was still way bigger than it is in the summer, and also still heading off to the north rather than straight into the ocean. This, combined with the boulder garden, makes it almost impossible to get to the carriage road with dry feet unless you do boulder hopping, which I didn’t want to do.

I finally gave in and just waded through the water, filling my boots. It wouldn’t be a trip to the coast if I didn’t have at least one instance testing how water-resistant my boots are once the water is inside them. I was somewhat pleased to discover that they’re just as good at keeping the water in as they are at keeping it out. Dave chose the dry boulder-scramble route. The sand seems low to me at the entrance to the carriage road – it’s something of a scramble to get on it, and there’s a pool of water in front of it. We walked to the end and took a picture. By this time the sun had set, and Dave was getting a little worried about being able to see the boulder garden well enough to chart a course back. So we headed back, and this time both of us did the boulder scramble. I would have gotten back without getting wet, except I was already wet to the knees so it was not really a big deal.

Once we got back I played on my kindle and Dave and Tim took turns blowing my hair around with their helicopters. Speaking of helicopters, we saw a coast guard one today – it came from the north, then turned around out over the ocean in front of the house and went back. We don’t know what that was about. At 6:15 I called the Irish Table, which doesn’t take reservations for groups less than 4. If you call them before 6, they tell you to call after 6. So I called and my buddy Sean said there were no spaces until 8:15. I was crushed, told him that was too late, and hung up. We called Tim in to conference about what to do. Tim’s take on it was there was no point in eating anywhere else, and we should wait until 8:15. So I called Sean back, and he took my cell number in case something opened up. Tim decided he’d better have a bowl of cacklin’ to fortify himself for the long wait. Tim hasn’t figured out that since he is not getting any exercise at all, his food capacity has dropped in a big way. We started a game of bananagrams that ultimately fizzled out – I got the last tile, which was a Q, but had no U’s at all, and Dave and Tim were both stuck and not inclined to redo their letters. Fortunately it didn’t matter because Sean called and said we could come at 7:15, which was totally excellent.

We got there a little before 7:15 and they walked us right in to our table. The restaurant was basically empty – what seems to happen is that they end up doing several seatings throughout the night. It was nice that we got there before most of the folks, because our food came unusually quickly. I had the mussels, of course. I started with a salad and a piece of bread, both of which I should have skipped (although they’re both very good) because 1) even though it’s called an appetizer, it’s a considerable mound of mussels and 2) you want to eat at least 2 slices of bread that you’ve soaked in the mussel cooking liquid and 3) they had pumpkin bread pudding for dessert. So I ate way too much. Dave and Tim both ate too much too, because everything there is really, really good. It’s not fancy food, but it is so well prepared and imaginatively cooked that it’s really a special treat. Also something that was funny is that they had lamb chops served over champ. Not knowing what champ is (it’s mashed potatoes cooked with leeks or scallions) was one of the things that lost us our food trivia crowns on the ship. We didn’t have any – it was too painful. Dave and I also each had a hot biddy, while Tim watched enviously.

We got home and had a quiet evening of watching the fire and reading. I also put in some serious buckyball time, which I hadn’t done yet this trip. I figured out how to split the cube, and twice I even split that, but that was the end of my success. Now Dave is fighting with the fire which keeps filling the room with smoke, and it’s about to be bedtime. No towel animal again tonight.

Black Friday

Woke up this morning to partly cloudy skies and no wind at all. The waves still seem bigger than usual, but as I’m looking at them I wonder if it’s a perspective thing – the tide is very high in the mornings, so waves that would normally be much further out are close in. Who knows? It’s odd, though, to have the wind completely gone. We did get up twice last night at the expected times with the alarm, and one time when the wind was blowing the heavy rain in through the open window (although that could have been one of the times we were already up with the alarm, I don’t remember). Winter weather at the coast really is moment by moment.

We got milk yesterday, so I could have some cacklin’ for breakfast, which was yummy as usual. We had two gulls on the deck, so I went out & shared some cacklin’ with them also – one of them was willing to sit on the railing and try to catch them when I threw them. My aim’s not too good, and the gull was not that in to it, so many just flew past onto the yard. Maybe when we come back in the summer there will be a cacklin’ bush! I started reading Tomatoland, an actual book I took out from the library. I’ve been reading books on my kindle or phone or kindle app on my laptop, and I have to say that a physical book is not as convenient, and certainly requires more dexterity. So far also I’m not sure I’m going to enjoy the book – the writing isn’t very engaging. I’ll work on it a while longer.

Dave got up not long after I did and applied himself to the alarm issue. He found the alarm manual online by doing a google images search, and according to the manual when it does the 5 beeps it means “trouble”. Yeah, we kind of figured that out already. He also set the time correctly so now if it beeps it will do it at 8 am, 6 and 9 pm – much more civilized. I called Debbie, and she said she’d call the alarm company. I went in the bedroom to do some stretching and Dave kept working on the manual, and eventually found out how to get the alarm status. He got the status, which said everything was ok – apparently there was not really any trouble. Interestingly, the asterisk which had been flashing on the display went away – so maybe we have solved the problem. Dave called Debbie and told her never mind.

All the calling and beeping woke Tim up, so he got up and showered and we headed to Bill’s for lunch. We got there a little early – they don’t open until 11:30 – so we walked up to Bruce’s to see what was happening, and also to see if any restaurant had gone in where JPs used to be. Oh boy oh boy, Newman’s is opening a Japanese/sushi restaurant! I can’t wait to go there with Josh and Jen in January. Of course Josh and I may have to try it out before then. At Bruce’s they were not doing anything interesting, which seems to be the case lately, hmmm. Maybe they’re outsourcing? But they did have a 1 lb gummy bear on a stick, possibly one of the most disgusting candy items I’ve ever seen.

After a short stop at the toy store we headed to Bill’s, which had its usual pre-opening line. They opened up at about 11:35, and I’m thinking the perfect arrival time is 11:45, so you’re not in the bubble. They had a cherry porter, which Dave tasted and found a little strange, so he ordered his usual 2x4 instead. Both last summer and today he wondered if they have changed the recipe for 2x4, because it used to be his all-time favorite stout, and now it’s not. Has the recipe changed, or has he found others he likes better? We didn’t ask. Tim was starving and grumpy, so I didn’t even try to take the traditional picture. But then it happened – we ordered too much food. Tim didn’t even finish the onion rings. So maybe he was just grumpy and not starving. While we were at Bill’s the weather continued to clear up, and it was only partly cloudy when we left – nice!

After lunch we went by the Wine Shack to see who will be tasting tomorrow, but there was no sign up and Mr Wine-Know-It-All, the proprietor, was on the phone. Although we wandered around the store for what seemed like a long time he never got off the phone or asked if he could help us. Oooo, that makes me mad! Eventually we just left, and hit the Mariner for cool whip and Oinkin’ Orange Hog Wash. We wanted to give the Hog Wash another try, but it turned out to have the exact same ingredient list and be not quite as yucky, but yucky just the same. Tim wants to keep trying other flavors though.

We came home and I called Margaret, and then we headed out for our annual shopping trip to Nehalem. While I was on the phone it had completely cleared up and it was nice to drive in the bright sunshine. Nehalem was a little disappointing because my favorite store, which had wonderful hats and clocks and bamboo purses, has closed and is now some funky new-age shop. But Dave found an excellent wine colored sweatshirt-weight garment, so the trip was worthwhile. Also we visited Hal’s Emporium, Hal’s dollar-ish discount store, and Hat’s general store, which taken together are the most amazing, wide ranging, amusing, horrifying, spectacular collection of junk ever assembled. From fake gladiator helmets to expired bags of that weird candy they have at dollar stores to evening wear, if Hal doesn’t have it, it’s not been made. My personal favorite was “The Patriotic Blue Star”, a large plasma globe with a flag backdrop and a blue star centerpiece where the plasma lightning would come from, billed as “an interactive symbolic light sculpture”. It was reduced from 19.95 to 9.95, and I almost went for it. Maybe we’ll go back tomorrow.

By the time we were done in Nehalem the fog was starting to roll in, and it was completely foggy by 3:30. So it was nice that we had that sunny interlude (and we got gas at the Shell station by Nehalem Bay State Park, which was also nice). We headed home for afternoon nap and typing and buckyballs.

Tonight’s dinner venue was the Stephanie Inn, which we knew ahead of time would be the weakest of our weekend dinners. Tim had decided in advance that it would be his home alone night. I just can’t understand why a teenage boy would want a night away from his parents. Anyway, my spinach salad and Dave’s seared scallop appetizer and curried lentil soup were both very good, but the entrees just didn’t measure up to the past two nights. Both very good, but missing that whatever that takes food from very good to excellent. One of the things we really like about the Stephanie Inn is that they have optional wine pairings with each course, and the pairings are very well done – in particular, my spinach salad paired so perfectly with the prosecco it came with it was a little like a primer on pairing wines – both the salad and the prosecco were good on their own, but together they made something special. I had a huckleberry sorbet for dessert that was not just very tasty (and not too sweet, which was a surprise) but also visually entrancing – gorgeous, deep purple wine colored spheres.

On the way home we had to listen to some crow’s nest music – they’re in Ensenada tonight. It was so good we ended up sitting in the car finishing up Marc Cohn’s Walking in Memphis. This also gave Tim time to hide so we couldn’t find him and he could oink like a pig when we got in. He had enjoyed his pesto dinner from home and even done all the cleaning up. After changing into my loungewear I very much enjoyed getting on facebook and seeing pictures of Josh with practically all my east coast family (ok, no aunts or uncles or cousins, but how much can you do in one day?). Then it was game time. We started with pepper, which I usually don’t enjoy very much but I won the first game very fast. It even worked out how I visualized it, which never happens. So I was in a very good mood through the next many games, all of which I did not win. Tim won more than Dave, but Dave won plenty. Dave’s heart was not totally in the game, because for some reason even though he won the first game of trouble we played a couple of nights ago, his loss in the second game has totally bummed him out. It was winner take all tonight, and Dave won, but it was a completely hollow victory because Tim and I were locked in a totally epic trouble battle – I had 2 men still in home, and he just needed a 1 to get his last piece in for the second place win. I got all my men out and ended up sending his one man back to home and winning second place – but it was such an exciting game that I feel that I was the overall winner and Dave still feels like he needs a rematch.

Afterwards Dave and Tim had Oreo time, but I have eaten enough today already. We’ve got Christmas music on the jambox, and I’m going to make a cup of tea and try to get in to Tomatoland.

Turkey Day

Woke up at 8:30 after a rough night last night to an amazing high tide and windy, stormy skies and seas. The water is coming all the way up the beach onto the rocky areas, and the wind is blowing the spume off the tops of the waves. I wonder how far the storm extends. I wonder if it’s reaching the Oosterdam, halfway to Ensenada. If it is, and I were there, you know I’d be sloshing in the pool. But I am happy to be here watching this beautiful world.

You may be wondering why last night was a rough night. Two things. First, when we got in bed we discovered that they have put fleece sheets and pillowcases on the bed. Yes, fleece – it’s the next step up from flannel, I guess, and it is very strange. First of all it just feels weird, and secondly Dave was afraid his flannel pajamas would interact badly with the sheets and he’d get strangled. Fortunately that turned out not to be the case, and we fell asleep to the sound of the ocean roaring outside the window, one of our favorite things. Unfortunately we didn’t get to stay asleep very long. At 3:20, the alarm decided it had waited long enough for someone to pay attention to it, and started in on its beeping again. We shut it up again, but not with the same “ah that’s taken care of now” feeling as before. When we got back in bed it was almost impossible to fall asleep because it was pouring rain again, and it was like being inside a drumset because of the big plastic skylights. We did get to sleep, though, until the alarm system went off again a little after 6. It hasn’t gone off yet again, but we’ll be disturbing somebody’s Thanksgiving to get it taken care of.

Today was a bootcamp day for me. Dave was a little nervous that if I did it in the living room the whole house would collapse. No, he’s not making a comment on my size – the supports under the house are questionable at best. So I did it in our bedroom, which isn’t much off the ground, and I shook the house less than the washing machine on the spin cycle, which I think is a compliment. Today was day 3 (both here and on the ship, interestingly) and as I’m trying to do the burpees with the pushups it was pretty hard. But it felt good. Dave took his shower while I was stretching, and I took mine after his. Then we woke Tim up (at 11!) and headed in to town for lunch at the Pig’n, a Thanksgiving tradition since last year. There’s nothing like pigs in a blanket for lunch on Thanksgiving to make you feel thankful. We all ordered what we wanted, and Tim ate what dave and I couldn’t. Once again Tim was disappointed that we wouldn’t let him order any Hog Wash, a low calorie energy drink aimed at kids.

Don’t worry, Tim’s disappointment didn’t last long. After brunch we headed to the mariner market for milk and tea, and while I was standing in line I heard the folks in front of me talking to the cashier about Hog Wash. “You have Hog Wash?” I asked excitedly, and they pointed me to the cooler behind me. It was so exciting – what kind to get? I decided on the Blue Raspberry as the least likely to contain natural ingredients. Tim was very excited when I got back to the car, but he was driving (we’d found out on the way in that Dave left his wallet in the house), so he had to wait until we got home to try it. The weather was pretty extreme, very windy with gusts of heavy rain, so Tim drove pretty carefully for the most part, except for when he was on the ramp onto the highway. The van is not a Ferrari, it just sounds like one.

Once we got home it was Hog Wash time, and boy, was it awful. Sweet, loaded with both cane sugar and aspartame and more chemicals than you can imagine. After I tried it I had to make spitting noises for quite some time. Bleah, bleah, bleah. Dave and Tim later googled it and found that this flavor is widely known as the worst of the hog wash flavors, so we may need to try another. The hog wash segued into a relaxed afternoon of reading and napping and relaxing, which was very nice. Also watching the storm come and go, which was pretty amazing – at times it would just be blowing and raining like crazy, then it would slow down, then it would start up again. Sometimes the wind would be screaming so loud in the hall it sounded almost like a siren. Dave put a towel on the floor in front of the front door because the wind was just blowing right through. (As a side not, Gordon Church, the owner, has been planning on replacing the front door for some time now. He is searching for the perfect door. The suspense is almost too much to bear.)

Around 4 it cleared up again and the tide was well on its way out to a surprisingly low -1.4, so Dave and I put on our boots and headed down for a walk. It was funny because even though I’d showed him a picture of the waterfall full of water, when we got there he was just blown away – the reality is way more impressive than the picture. Once again there were several waves that came up way higher than any of the usual waves. We tried to get to the carriage road, but the sand is really low, and the water from the waterfall made it pretty much impassable if you wanted to have dry feet, which we did. Dave got lots of great pictures of the cloudy, sunset colored sky reflected in the wet sand. It was an invigorating and enjoyable walk.

When we got back to the house I had time for a short call to the Bubster in MA, and then it was time to get dressed for the Nehalem River Inn. We went there a couple years ago with Rhonda the evil piano teacher and her husband Tracy and had a really good time, but neither of us could remember much about the food except it had been fine. Once again Tim got dressed without complaining – that is a nice change this year. We headed out at about 5:30, and the weather was awful – buckets of rain and lots of wind. This is kind of scary when you’re driving on the poorly lit twisty road with barely visible lines and a sheer dropoff down to the ocean on your right. But Dave did good driving, and we found the restaurant (it’s just past the Nehalem Winery over the bridge on the left). Tim was sort of stunned when we got there, because on the outside it looks like we should have been riding our Harleys and wearing our jeans and leather jackets. Inside, though, it’s a very nice restaurant, and we were seated at the same table we’d had before.

The dinner was a 3 course prix fixe menu, with 2 appetizers (butternut squash soup or arugula salad), 3 entrees (turkey dinner, red snapper, and quail) and 3 desserts. Dave and Tim had the soup and turkey, and I opted for the salad and quail. The appetizers were all very good, although last night’s butternut squash is still the champ. What wine with turkey and quail? We considered a pinot noir, but ended up with a 2009 Domaine Drouhin ‘Arthur’ chardonnay – an excellent choice. My quail, with “vanilla scented root vegetable hash, brussel sprout petals, and a duck confit-carmelized onion puff pastry”, was simply spectacular, just amazing, indescribably good – so much so that I ate the whole thing, which I don’t usually do with entrees. Dave and Tim’s turkey was good too – very good – but I think mine was the best. Dessert was also yummy, and the coffee was very good. A memorable meal for sure, and no cleanup!

Fortunately it had stopped raining when it was time to drive home, and since it’s Christmas music time I enjoyed playing a selection of my favorites (Dasher Dancer Prancer Vixen! Huh!) on the way home. And of course when we got home it was time for some Punkin’ Chunkin’ on the discovery channel, another tradition since last year. This is where people build giant contraptions to throw pumpkins across a field. There are several divisions of machines of increasing power, concluding with the air cannons, and it is strangely compelling television. We were all pleased when the novice air cannon team with the outsize budget (and the word ‘Yankee’ in their name) lost by 4 feet.

Afterwards it was time for farkle, at which, honestly, nobody sparkled. Where’s Josh when you need him? There were a few good rolls, but mostly it was 50s and 100s – painful. Tim won the first game by quite a bit, and I won the second one in a cliffhanger – Tim needed 3,000 points to tie, but farkled at 2300. We all agreed, though, that they were two of the lamest farkle games ever.

Here is what is hanging over our heads tonight. The alarm went off yesterday at 5:20pm, 3:20 am, and just after 6 am. Then it didn’t go off all day until exactly 5:20pm. So we’re wondering… do we get a complete night sleep tonight? Stay tuned, and Happy Thanksgiving!