A Good Day.

Life - 

This was a nice day. We woke up late, no alarm, a little laziness after we were awake, the perfect way to start a morning off. After a while, we drove down to town and ate breakfast at the Fairground Cafe, I had Corned Beef Hash, home fries and a blueberry pancake, all of which were very good. (Though, naturally, it wasn't as good as The Stone Dog Cafe's Corned Beef..)

After breakfast, we decided to head south and find ourselves the ocean and maybe a lighthouse. I made a quick stop in at my office to fax a form (I'm hoping to get my finances figured out for the new Element ASAP) and the we headed towards Fort Williams State Park, which my boss had recommended as a good place to walk.

Was it! Full of gently looping hills and trails, littered with crumbling fort outposts and batterys, we decided that Fort Williams was just about perfect. It was a bit cold out, with a biting wind blowing in from the Atlantic, but even so, there plenty of folks about, walking dogs and admiring the buildings.

The centerpiece, of course, is the Portland Head Light. Built in 1791, and a gorgeous 72 feet high, the Light is very majestic and very much like what you would picture when you think of a lighthouse, complete with quaint keeper's house. The museum was closed, as was the gift shoppe, but it was still very pleasant to wander around the grounds.

Afterward, we drove to a separate beach and walked there for a while, until our cheeks were rosy and we were ready for lunch.

For which, we finally found a mostly decent and authentic Mexican restaurant! Located on a busy street in Brunswick, in a festive building lurks the Hacienda Pancho Villa. Which, lo and behold, was answered by a spanish speaking fellow, and not a white, hoity-toity hippie lady! (El Camino and your cheesy decor and holier than thou attitute, I'm looking at you!)

The food was a bit off, and clearly spendier than buying it from a bus, but it was pretty good! The salsa had some heat, the chicken was marinated and moist. It wasn't the Taco Wagon, but it should tide us over while we are out here.

After that, Wal-mart and Lowes awaited, where we picked up some super-cheap corned beef for the freezer and a couple of bird feeders for the back deck.

Writing - 

Now, our travels for the day past, I plan to dive into The Whispering Ferns with a thorough revision. I hope to have a query letter ready by April.

Bath On Valentines Day

First off, let me say this - I dislike Valentine's Day. I think it is a silly holiday. If you're in love you shouldn't need a specific holiday to show that special someone that you care. It should be spontaneous and heartfelt, not court-ordered and made of pink cardboard.

This may all stem from some deep-seated resentment from not getting a valentine from my crush in first grade (Not a true story) but there ya go. I also think Groundhog Day is silly, but it's the kind of silly I can get behind.

Today, we went to Bath, Maine. Mostly because it looked like fun. Bath is on a peninsula and essentially surrounded by rivers, ponds, streams, puddles, islands, the Atlantic and trees.

I would give you a bit more of a historical view, telling you about the town and it's no-doubt awesome inhabitants but my grip on the internet is tenuous at best and I dare not risk it. Perhaps at a later date, when we can do more there than drive around admiring the variety of houses and their adorable and historic downtown.

Bath, as well as the other places we stopped, like Brunswick and Popham Beach were cold and pretty dead, though there were more shops open on a Sunday afternoon that I would have thought.

We also got lost, drove to the ocean, I found a good place to hole up in the inevitable case of zombie attack (Not telling you!) Saw a lighthouse from afar, peed in a scary public restroom with a ridiculously cold draft, ate a "Barbecue" potato chip with so much cayenne I couldn't breathe for a while and we saw CEMETERIES!

Linz and I are cemetery nuts, as anyone that visits here regularly knows, and Maine has been dead folk heaven for us. Old, glorious places with weathered slabs of stone and worn down engravings. We didn't stop at any, most were along the road and closed for the winter, but we made generous use of our ThomThom's Favorites feature and dutifully logged each as we came across it. This spring, we shall be extra morbid!

Starting tomorrow, I'm the temporary administrative assistant at the district office... Not sure what I think about this gig. They're doing it to be nice to my arm, I think, but I fear it shall be boring and slow. Luckily, I have my nook! Just too bad I didn't bring any cute skirts to wear.

Vacation - Oregon Coast - Day Three

Day three came bright and early. Just after going to sleep in the cow field, a pickup drove past and kind of hesitated by us, honking its horn a bit as it drove on. I was slightly concerned that we'd be subject to some hillbilly harassment, but the night passed uneventfully. We did lose all air from our mattress again, and it rained heavily that night. We woke early the next day, around 6:30 and took off, heading South with the plans to hit Rockaway Beach around 1pm, where we would then spend the next two days.

Along the way, we drove past an exit for a state park and we impulsively took it. It was gorgeous. For around 20 minutes, we weaved through a primordial jungle on a narrow road, curving around thick old trees and lush undergrowth, before dropping us out in a beautiful big picnic and trailhead area. We wandered for a bit in the early morning mist, marvelling at the views of cannon beach below and Tillamook Head Lighthouse to the right. We had the place to ourselves aside from a few ravens, a half dozen robins and a woodpecker, and it was a great morning.

We followed a trail down to the beach. where we took the obligatory timer photo of ourselves, which was harder than usual, due to the sinking tripod, sneaky waves behind us and the difficulty making it to the photo spot before the timer finished.

On the way back to civilization, we had an elk leap across the road in front of us, then pause in the thicket, watching us carefully. As we continued, we happened to glance to the right and over a dozen more materialized from the woods, like magic.

They didn't even move, just one second it seemed empty, the next full of half ton animals. And people ask how Bigfoot could possibly exist if we've never found him...


We stopped and ate breakfast... somewhere, possibly Seaside, as we slowly cruised the residential areas of the cities, trying to get a feel for their non-tourist ambiance. We really liked Gearhart, a small town north of Seaside that had a great feel to it, a lot of cool houses and a city with a lot of character, but not a large commercial feel to it. We also came away more favorably towards Cannon Beach, where we'd previously found it far too tourism oriented.

We also found another little cemetery along the way, though I forget where now, that was the most unique cemetery I've ever visited. All of the plots were encircled in stone, with plants and bushes planted atop them. Everything was canted at different angles and some had sunken dramatically. There was also a section to the side that had been fenced off, for what appeared to be an anti-deer measure, but they'd easily bypassed it, and the sand around the graves was trampled and many of the fake flowers were half eaten.

The graveyard was full of gorgeous and unique monuments, many with lush bushes or little mementos on the headstones. It was drizzling again and as we walked through the cemetery with our umbrellas, there was a great peaceful feeling.


We hit Rockaway Beach pretty early, and spent the afternoon cruising around, checking rates on Motels, considering staying in a different place than our usual. Everywhere else in town however, was more expensive and had less character than our motel of choice, the Getaway Oceanfront Condos we first stayed here in 2007 with my mom and brother, in the middle of a 13 day road trip down 101, and it was one of the highlights of the trip for us. Each of the rooms is an individually owned condo, that is then rented as a motel when the owner isn't using it. That gives each of the rooms a unique feel, and all that we've stayed in have been comfortable and nice. It's also just a dune away from the ocean, and most of the room have a great view of the Pacific. We rented a room for 2 nights, unloaded our gear and relaxed most of the rest of the evening, eating some fish and chips from the Foghorn bar and watching the ocean from our window.