I can’t add pictures to this post because of a slow internet connection at the house where we’re staying, but I’ll post them when I can.
The house is on stilts and only separated from the beach by a few bushes. I found this house on the tripadvisor website, and it’s a gem. (Really. I know I’m sarcastic far too often, but I really mean it.) There are large windows on two sides in the living room looking out at the ocean. We’re just sitting here watching and listening to the surf, feeling really fortunate that we get to be here. We walked about three miles (round-trip) on the beach today and found sand dollars and crab claws. The weather is sunny, windy, and in the mid-fifties. We’ll drive into town soon and see what’s there and either see Cape Perpetua today or tomorrow. Charlie turns 10 tomorrow, so we’ll look for a place to have his birthday dinner, too. We caught the tail end of the autumn colors in Oregon, and what’s left is really beautiful. Oregon seems to have it all – forests, mountains, sea, down-to-earth people. As we were driving through Portland yesterday to get from our hotel to the freeway and drive here, Laurel was noticing all the local, cutely-named stores. She started singing to the tune of “Eleanor Rigby,” “Oh…look at all the liberal people.” To which Charlie, in the back seat and right on cue, hummed/grunted the violin part of the song that comes right after that.
The owners of this rental house don’t take full advantage of the beauty that surrounds it and have all the furniture facing away from the windows, i.e. the sectional sofa and recliners all back up to the windows, and the dining table is shoved against a wall with the chair backs to the windows. There are paper notices/signs taped all over the house with do’s and don’ts. One on bright, pink paper reads, “PLEASE DO NOT MOVE FURNITURE [It’s also underlined, but I don’t have that option on this blog.] If we find furniture moved and not returned to its proper place we will impose a $100 charge. Thank you!” Friendly! So, of course, we had to move the furniture. Now we can look out while eating or reading and just feel like the luckiest people on the planet. Hopefully I can remember how to put everything back.
The owners are quite the collectors/pack-rats. There are about 100 lighthouse knick-knacks kept in three, large, glass cabinets; assorted knick-knacks in two other cabinets; two lighthouse cookie jars on the kitchen counter; a cabinet in the hallway just to house puzzles; a shelf in one bedroom closet that holds about 30 puzzles; and loads of old, worthless books (including a 1984 paperback almanac) and knick-knacks on three bookcases in the living room. Laurel was intrigued by the size of Hints and Help from Heloise and turned to the end to see how many pages it has. There on page 926 was the last of the index, including, “Weevils, getting rid of” and “Wheelchair, picking up dropped articles from.” (Use salad tongs – for the wheelchair, not the weevils.) Now she’s so enthralled I don’t think I’m going to get her out of the house to go sightseeing.