Back in drearyweatherland

Wednesday, August 27 2008
Seattle, WA
22:25 PDT

Just typed up my few trip journal entries. The weather here has been pretty gray and rainy so far since we got back (on Saturday night).

The rest of the trip was still great. Thursday MB and I went on a little drive to the Alligator River wildlife refuge. It was nice, though we didn't see much wildlife. Just lots of birds (great blue heron, great egret, turkey buzzards, a red cockaded woodpecker, a prothonotary warbler) and a cottonmouth in the water. Forgot to mention Tuesday's dinner - veggie chili made by Ian. Super delicious. Thursday night, we had to work hard to find a place that would seat 12 people without hours waiting. Ended up at a so-so looking place that had great food. Spent some more time in the water on Fridy - my cheapo board was starting to break in half by this point. A nice day though. Joy, Ian and Benjamin left mid-day. The rest of us went out for dinner, to a place that was not bad, for the most part. Then, mini golf. At the most unimaginative mini-golf course on the planet. We got by on enthusiasm for the first few holes, but then it was like "wow, another one that goes uphill and curves a little bit". On the third hole, I got a crazy hole-in-one, and while jumping up and down in celebration, I landed wrong in my flip-flops and torqued my toes. Soon enough, my left big toe was all swollen up and I was limping around. I was worried I busted it, but it stopped swelling and didn't turn colors, so no emergency care was needed. I was limping for the next few days (still am, slightly) though - a bad sprain. Anyway, back to the ranch after that and we watched some more Olympics and packed up.

Saturday morning was clean-up, I felt a bit less than useful in my gimpy state however. Then, we all bugged out at 9:30 AM. MB and I got stuck in traffic, once again, and got to Norfolk airport around 1:30. So that gave us a few hours to sit and read before our flight. The flights were OK, no trouble, and CF picked us up at the airport. I was very happy that my luggage didn't get lost, as I'd forgotten to take my house/car keys out of my suitcase before handing it over.

Sunday was a pretty relaxed day. Took MB out to the Hi Life for dinner, which was delicious. Hello Ballard.

Got a haircut yesterday morning. A bit too short. Oh well.

Trip Journal 3

Wednesday, August 20 2008
South Nags Head, NC
22:15 EDT

Ah, stuffed. Went to a great seafood restaurant for dinner. Fried green tomatoes, fried okra, blackened yellowfin tuna. Key lime pie. Now, more Olympics. Bolt won the 200.

Got an early start in the water after breakfast. Nice, less seaweed. Low waves though. Laid on the sand for a bit with MB, then came in and had lunch on the porch. Very nice. Windy again. Went back out again after that - wow! big waves, lots of them in all different directions. Fun, to a degree. Couldn't really keep ahead of them. Came in, showered, and took a nap w/ Mb. Missed John and Serena leaving, they had a 9 PM flight. We went for a walk on the beach - very nice! Saw some jellyfish (3 to 4") dead on the beach. Found a lilttle puffer fish, stranded on shore. Still alive! It looked like a little toad, 3" long, with no legs. I picked it up and put it in the water. It washed up again a ways ahead of us - there was a family looking at it when we got there. They did the same, and it washed up again. Oh well, not the day for that little fish.

it's very windy still, so nice and cool. it was freezing in the restaurant - ugh!

Trip Journal 2

Tuesday, August 19 2008
South Nags Head, NC
23:45 EDT

Watching the Olympics. Hot today. AC is on now. Lots of seaweed in the water (sea grass, actually), and little waves. Saw two big (football-sized) jellyfish - pink - in the water with me. Beautiful, but freaky. Got a bigger board at the Food Lion last night. Much better, need bigger waves now.

Went to Jockey's Ridge dunes - huge sand dunes. Very cool. Ran down the big, steep one twice. fun! on the edge of control.

Awesome moon rise tonight - very orange, nearly full.

Trip Journal 1

Monday, August 18 2008
South Nags Head, North Carolina
18:30 EDT

Ah. Wonderful. The house sits right on the beach, less than 50 feet from the water. As far as rental houses go, it’s not bad. People here: Me, MB, Mariss, Kelly, Kari, Mike, Michelle, Joy, Ian, Benjamin, John, Serena.

The beach is great, soft tan sand. Some big waves, few rocks.

The trip down was long. Red-eye flights, then lots of traffic from Norfolk to here.

Saw the Orville and Wilbur Wright museum / memorial. Excellent. Amazing, what they did. The talk that the ranger gave in the museum was surprisingly interesting and entertaining.

The first night, we had dinner at the Dunes restaurant, an OK seafood place. We got a strange table that was, more or less, in the gift shop. The food was fresh and prepared fairly well. After that, MB and I spent some time in the hot tub – it’s very nice.

Sunday, we got up around 10, had some cereal and coffee. Then hit the water around 11. They have some dinky foam boogie boards here. OK, not great. Got a few good rides in. Mariss is pretty good at body surfing.

MB and I walked North up the beach. Lots of people. Not exactly crowded, but lots. Later we sat on the snd, watching the birds. I called Dad and asked about them – mostly sandpipers, plus some sort of black-faced gull, and common grackles. The pipers run around near the surf, poking around in the sand as the water recedes, running away as it comes back in. We saw one nab something, then when it was done pecking at it, got up to see what it was – a big (inch-long) "bug", like a pill bug, maybe an "isopod" according to MB [later, looked them up - they are "sand crabs", actually crabs that lack pincers, sometimes called "sand fleas" because they look a lot like a gigantic flea].

Before that, we made a sand castle. It was just a big mound for a while, then I had na idea to make Mt. St. Helens. It came out pretty good. Joy and Benjamin helped a little, Benjamin dumping water and sand in random places, not bad for a 2-year old. Ian cooked dinner - penne with feta and zucchini, plus a fritata of sorts. Very good. Good local red wine, too. Watched the Olympics with lots of the bunch - 100m final (w), gymnastics events.

Monday: fairly similar so far. MB and I walked South this time ("that way", being right facing the water, still feels North to me [my compass turned around mid-week]). A very cool sight: w/ each wave, as the water receeded, thousands of the sand crabs moving with the water, going in and out of the sand. Tons of them. As large and as many of them as there were, they were almost invisible as they moved with the water. You had to sort of believe they were there, then ahh! wow. And you don't even notice them if you stand in the surf. More time in the water, overall, today. Tomorrow I may try to get a better board. BBQ is the plan for dinner tonight.

CCW

Tuesday, August 6 2008
24:16

Just found www.fueleconomy.gov. . .interesting, but buggy. Though some of what I thought were bugs, turns out to be: not many diesel cars were sold in the US in MY 07 or 08, I guess because of the fact that our diesel wasn't good enough yet. The VW Jetta SportWagen TDI looks interesting. I've been wondering, if a TDI-based hybrid makes any sense. Or at least some sort of diesel hybrid. I also wonder: would the gain in mileage I'd get from a new car offset the (environmental) cost of building said car? Seems like it wouldn't, at least not in 5 or 10 years.

Stupendous weather today. I was inside for most of it, but still . . .

A good weekend last weekend. Friday night, MB and I had dinner with Tizzy at, uh, I forgot the name, the Neopolitan pizza place. Ah, Tutta Bella. It was good, but super noisy. Anyway, it was good to see her and catch up on things. Saturday we had a TTA photoshoot in the morning, then a bit of a prep meeting for the upcoming course. Then, a fairly lo-key day.

Sunday, MB and I made a big road trip around the Olympic Peninsula. Beginning with the 8:40 Edmonds/Kingston ferry, and ending with us back home at 1:15 AM, having gone in a big counterclockwise loop. We went up to Hurricane Ridge – which was awesome, I'd never been up there before. Lots of deer around. Stunning views. A bit brisk and windy, but mostly sunny. Not terribly crowded. Some of the road was unpaved though, which was exciting (dirt road, no guardrails, downhill, steep drop-off – second gear, nice and easy. . . ).

After that we had lunch at a Mexican place in Port Angeles – splitting the fish tacos. Not bad. Then, back on the road and around the horn, driving up the Hoh river valley to the rain forest. That was good, I think the best weather I've ever seen there (sunny and 70s). It wasn't quite as "wow, cool" as I remembered it, but that might just be because I've been there four times now. We did take the Spruce trail, which I hadn't done recently, that was mostly not terribly exciting actually. No wildlife, save for some little birds and a few ground squirrels.

Next, to Ruby Beach. Which is just such a wonderful place. We lucked out and got there at low tide, so we got to see the zillions of stars and anemones in the pools and on the rocks. A bald eagle flew by once. It was overcast, as it has been every single time I've been to the Washington coast. Windy too, and chilly, but somehow that was all just right and it was really nice.

Then, a long slog back around to Olympia and up I-5 to home. With a stop at the Hoquiam Denny's for a late night dinner (via the breakfast menu). Which wasn't too bad, actually.

I think, having done the one-day OP circumnavigation three times now, I could probably live with never doing it again. At least, when I'm driving. There wasn't a lot of traffic, and in some sections almost none which was very nice. There were annoying "clumps" of cars, where it seemed like 3 or 4 were backed up behind a slow car, but they would never, ever pass them. So, eventually I had to pass 3 or 4 cars at once, ugh.