Meaningful Glances

On about a day's notice, we left town in twilight this past Tuesday evening after I'd completed a scheduled test for the Census Bureau application process (temporary address-canvasing jobs this Spring). We prefer to make longer road trips in daylight, but the tradeoff of being able to spend two whole days at our favorite beach house was well worth it. Even though Brigetta did the driving on the way there, my lower back was screaming at me after taking a wrong step in the dark on Monday night and foolishly spending about 20 minutes hunched over our car on Tuesday morning to change an air filter. Since I had recovered from some sort of upper back strain a couple of months or so ago, I still had plenty of these little yellow unpronounceable pills lying around - muscle relaxers. There's a good reason that I had a lot of them on hand: I hated using them. They work, but Peter, Paul, and Mary do they pack a knockout punch! I've slept for 12 hours (twelve!) without so much as stirring after taking one of these before. I was willing to do it again, though, if it meant I could function for our little vacation. I don't really remember what time I went to bed that first night, but it was some time around 11pm. Brigetta coaxed me awake some time between 9 and 10am on Wednesday. And I was still tired for most of the day. Good news is, the pain had fallen to a manageable level and I was able to get out on the beach with my girls and throw a terrifically slimy and sandy tennis ball around for Scout.

I decided to forego the hibernation pill our second night, so I was feeling just about normal on Thursday morning. We decided to make the drive out to Cape Meares on the far side of Tillamook Bay and spend some time "hiking." The trail - paved - is all of 1/5th of a mile from the parking lot to the lighthouse that used to stand sentinel for ships passing by this picturesque but somewhat severe section of the Oregon coastline. We've been out here several times, so it was quite the surprise to step out of the car and NOT be immediately blasted by the wind. It was almost completely calm for our entire visit and the sea far below echoed that calmness with only the most gentle swells visible outside of the breakers and turbulent foam that surround several rock formations. We took our time, stopping at each little viewpoint along the cliff side, me channeling my inner Papa Russy and going nature photo crazy, and Brigetta helping Evelyn see over the fences to the various wonders below. Only one or two other couples seem to have been lucky enough to share the extraordinary calm and beauty of that place with us for that afternoon. We departed after making the not-quite-half-mile loop and made our way back up to Rockaway for lunch and a nap at Breaker Bungalow, followed by an early evening trip to the beach for all our favorite activities: running, chasing, collecting treasures, building sand castles, destroying sand castles, and so on. Then, after sharing the evening meal together and getting Evelyn to bed, Brigetta and I planted our exhausted backsides in comfy chairs and read for a bit before the muted roar of the surf drew me to move in to the bedroom and just listen. It's never taken me long to fall asleep when that most soothing of sounds is within earshot. I wrote a poem about it once that now hangs in my dad's office - a memory of falling asleep in the canopied bed of my Grandpa's truck during a summer camp out at Wi-ne-ma camp. No alarm clock or other device with so-called "nature sounds" has ever gotten it quite right. Nothing else can mimic the roar or the occasional clap of liquid thunder when a particularly large breaker crests higher than the others. Up close it's powerful, even intimidating, but just a few steps away it becomes calming and peaceful. Other than the company I bring with me, it's what I love best about the visiting the coast, and it's also hijacking this blog entry, so let me catch you up on the rest of our trip...

Lest we wonder where our little Evelyn learned how to be manipulative, we need look no farther than our deliberation on how to break the news to her that we were going home today. In nothing less than a militarily precise strategic decision, we started telling her while there were still fun things to do. Before we made our last visit to the beach, for one, AND - the euphemious ace up our collective sleeve - before going to the Tillamook Cheese Factory for lunch and - leave nothing to chance - an ice cream cone! Success! Nary a tear was shed as we cleaned up after ourselves and left Breaker Bungalow to it's next guests and hit the road. Evelyn managed to smite a few more strangers on the way - line workers on the factory floor this time - with a simple wave and smile. A few other patrons couldn't help but take notice, either, as she set about consuming her promised ice cream cone with, as Dr. Seuss was fond of writing, "great vim and great vigor." Also a great mess. But we had fun, without a doubt. From what we hear, it may be our last opportunity for quite some time to visit Breaker Bungalow, so we'll treasure the times we had and look forward to some other future adventure.