Time Speeds Up

We are down to days now.

Tomorrow, Wednesday, everything that's going in our pickup has to be in it. Uniforms, bike, a few kitchen things, my gift box of spice mixes, box of files, golf clubs, gas cans, propane tank, extra Darcy comfort items, heavy winter gear...all destined to travel by Tacoma. We're handing it over to a friend who will drive it partway across the country for us because driving two vehicles 3200 miles and trying to meet up for meals, hikes, and stretch breaks just doesn't sound like fun. We'll meet up with friend, truck, and stuff somewhere near the Ohio border and drive just the last day or two separately.

Thursday morning, anything that the movers aren't packing either has to be out of the house or labeled very, very clearly as DO NOT MOVE because our experience tells us that anything not nailed down will be packed. Quickly and efficiently packed, with no time to notice that one thing we'd planned to carry with us disappearing into a box.

Friday, we will leave. We are not ambitious about that afternoon of driving. Darcy will go to school, but probably not the after-school program. The plan is to stay in Ashland, OR, just 2.5 hours away.

It's crunch time. Here are a few random pictures for you to enjoy.

 Darcy and her friend K at the end of Camp Tall Trees Girl Scout camp.

A beautiful late-June day in Del Norte. Rock slide in pouring rain at False Klamath Cove.

Darcy and T at Big Dune.

View from a fire tower near Willow Creek.

Rangers point. (At Ballard Locks.)

Library envy in Eugene, OR, after a successful banh mi hunt.

The Cake

Several months ago, Darcy mentioned that she wanted her birthday cake to look like a sea star. I figured that should be doable. I had thought about farming out the task to our local fabulous cake-maker, but she was unavailable, so I went in search of a star-shaped pan. That didn't work out. Nobody wanted to sell me one and I couldn't find anyone who owned one to lend out. I did find a silicon pan that makes six small star-shaped cakes. So I decided that the plan had to become a tide pool seascape.

Let me digress for a moment. There is a blog called Cake Wrecks that pokes fun at professionally-made cakes for various crimes. Like terrible mis-spellings or bizarre themes ("Sorry I peed in your bed" anyone?). Some of the cakes are very seriously disturbing, so if you like cake and don't want to have to bleach your eyeballs in order to enjoy your next piece, just take my word for it and skip the blog.

In between having all the elements for my cake complete, but before starting to put them together, a friend happened to post a link to a Cake Wrecks post. Suddenly, I had some fear that I was about to create a Cake Wreck. While the cake didn't turn out exactly how I'd pictured it, it was not a wreck.

Here's the main cake. It's a brownie cake with blue water frosting and an ochre sea star gracing the top. I should have taken a picture once the candles went in. About five or six months ago, we saw some really cool shark candles at a toy store. Hoping that Darcy's obsession with the sea would last this long, we slid some onto the counter while she wasn't watching. Surprisingly enough, the small ones mostly asked for pieces from the other cake:

Again, the cakes are brownies frosted with cream cheese frosting and the "sand" was three kinds of crushed cookies to get the mix of colors and textures just right. One of the party guests came back for seconds of sand, so I think it was a hit.

In Which I Hold An OCTOPUS!!

Yes. You read that right. I held an itty-bitty, adorable OCTOPUS:

I've been watching the tides for the last couple weeks, hoping for a good opportunity for one last round of tide pooling before we leave our gorgeous North Coast. Today, there was a minus tide (meaning that the low tide is below the average low water line) at a reasonable hour (5:35 pm). Often, minus tides are at unreasonable hours like three in the morning. I love to stalk the tide pool creatures, but not by flashlight in the middle of the night. It seems rude.

So we went. Darcy left a birthday party before it was over and we arrived at Point St. George about an hour before the full low and started seeing sea stars and giant green anemones almost immediately. We were already having a good time when I saw something shiny move in some gravelly sand just in front of me. I stooped to get a closer look and saw that it was an OCTOPUS. I'm just a little excited about this. I got to hold an OCTOPUS.

I put my finger near it and it grabbed right on. We had a ziplock bag with us to watch things close up, so we got some water and put the octopus in it for a minute or two before returning it to a tide pool. Once it let go of the bag and swam off, we could see the puffs of sand from the water it shoots out to propel itself. It was unbelievably adorable. Since we didn't get a great picture, here's a picture of what I think I held, a baby Giant Pacific Octopus.

When John and Stef visiting us a little while ago (read about their North Coast adventures here), Darcy convinced them to try going tide pooling even though it was almost high tide. They played along and didn't get to see much. Here are some pictures of what they should have gotten to see:

Top photo has ochre stars and giant green anemones, among other things, on an isolated rock and pool teeming with life. The bottom photo is a rock half-covered with aggregating anemones. They're closed up and a bit sand-covered, but amazing. Here's another view:

The shore birds were in abundance, too. We saw gulls, some small plovers, pelicans, oyster catchers, and another that we haven't positively identified yet. It was wonderful. Here's Darcy with the leather sea star (she learned at marine camp that if you sniff their underside, it smells like garlic, so she always checks them out):

And then another isolated rock. We had a wonderful time. Beautiful low tide, wonderful creatures, a good view of Point St. George lighthouse, and, because it can't be said enough, I held an octopus.

Oops! It Was A Busy (And Long) Day

As I was falling asleep around 1 am last night/this morning, I thought, "Aargh! I didn't bl...zzzzzz." I was tired. By 8 o'clock yesterday morning, I already had a cake in the oven, beans cooking on the stove, birthday goodie bags had their last items added, and Darcy had had breakfast. The rest of the day was about like that. I made a seascape cake (pictures to follow in today's real blog post), finished the beans, fried tofu, made a pan of enchiladas for the end-of-soccer-season party, went to the farmers market, cleaned out all glass-enclosed foods from our cupboards as grown up party favors, and washed a lot of dishes.

It was all worth it. We had a wonderful five-hour early birthday party for Darcy/good-bye party with friends. The children bounced themselves silly, there was Glee karaoke, cake, lots of food, lots of laughter, very thoughtful gifts, and so much more.

And then, I headed north to hear a friend's band playing. I had a not-so-great drink, chatted with a LOT of friends, and then drove home at midnight through thick fog. That wasn't so fun. A long, long day, but worth every minute.

Darcy Says Farewell To Aquariums (Aquaria?)

Darcy had a day off school today and we took advantage of the only free weekday she has left on the North Coast. After a few about-town errands, we headed south for one more visit to HSU's Marine Lab in Trinidad. This is where Darcy did her week of ocean day camp this summer. The weather wasn't wonderful, but we had a good time seeing all her old friends, including Elvira the wolf eel, and walking out to see Trinidad beach.

Then we headed to Arcata. Darcy started acting very strangely at lunch and I eventually realized that she must have a loose tooth, based on the fact that she was trying to take bites out of a bagel with her molars. She wouldn't let me see her face and there were tears, so our trip to Arcata ended up being very basic. Lunch at Los Bagels; ice cream at Arcata Scoop (where Darcy had my normal favorite, lemon poppyseed, and I had an utterly delicious, new-to-me flavor, vanilla almond rose); and a trip to a kitchen store for a few cake-making supplies. On the way home, Darcy fell asleep. Her sleep-breathing always makes ME sleepy, so I stopped in the Big Tree parking lot and snoozed for 20 minutes myself. Very nice.

We stopped at Michael's office to bring him to his truck. While visiting with Nate, Darcy put her hand up to her mouth, spit something out, and handed me a tooth. Second lost tooth -- there's a real gap in that lower jaw.

After a few more in-town errands, we headed to Ocean World, our local aquarium. A few weeks ago, Darcy started making a mental list of things we need to do before we leave. The first two things that made the list: eat at Good Harvest and go to Ocean World. We took care of the first one earlier in the week and Ocean World was on the afternoon agenda thanks to an inside tip from our friend Kyle, who gets mad props for his role in this story.

Ocean World is a lovely, but small, aquarium and we've been many (MANY) times. Darcy has probably been at least a dozen times, probably closer to 20. It doesn't totally lose its thrill because Cora, their young sea lion, almost always knows new tricks and it's been fun seeing her grow up. She's four now and we saw her for the first time very shortly after we moved here three years ago. But I thought it might be nice if there was something more to this visit and Kyle had mentioned that he works there in the summer. I asked him if they ever offer a behind the scenes tour. The answer was no, but he said that a few days a week, they feed the critters after the last tour and will let people stay for that.

And so we found ourselves joining the 4:30ish tour at Ocean World. We stopped by the tide pool petting area; saw the sharks, fish, and rays; pet the sharks; and went outside to see the seals and sea lion perform:

And when Cora was done showing off her tricks, we stayed behind. Back downstairs we went, waiting to see the fish poured into the tanks and the feeding frenzy begin:

It was a perfect last visit to Ocean World. Many thanks to Kyle for the inside tip and the staff at Ocean World who made it all possible. On tap for tomorrow: last soccer game, end-of-season soccer party, and an early birthday party for Darcy. And maybe a trip to Brookings for some live music at a bar. And cake making. And other cooking.

Dinner (And Early Birthday Party Planning)

Tonight, as a belated anniversary celebration, Michael and I went to the Historic Requa Inn for dinner. We enjoyed a four course meal of mostly-local delights that included a little wild rice dumpling to start and an almond/brown butter cake with blackberry juice to finish. In between there were some beautiful beets with flash-fried fennel tops, potatoes mashed with olive oil, roasted mushrooms, and other deliciousness. Thanks to chefs Paul and Thomas for a wonderful meal!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Darcy was with a once-in-a-blue moon babysitter, Beth. We're just two days away from an early birthday party for Darcy and she is starting to fixate on it. Before we went to dinner, Darcy insisted that we put together the goodie bags. Then she made a guest list complete with symbolic codes for how likely she thought it was that each of those people would come to the party. When we got home from dinner, Beth said that Darcy had expressed some serious concerns about how her cake would get made. Perhaps I am running out of time, she worried. She also made an excellent list of how she views the party events:

Be warned, children, there are apparently two outdoor lectures as part of this party! 

Apropos of nothing, I'll end with a picture of Darcy at the Chocolate Exhibit we caught at Turtle Bay Museum in Redding a few weeks ago:

The Murals Of Crescent City

Bad blogger! Without the pressure of the actual NaBloPoMo behind me, I managed to skip yesterday's post. It was a long day and the move is so fast approaching at this point, that the stress is building a bit. But I'm trying to make up for it today with a few highlights of our beautiful murals. 

Crescent City is very lucky to have an active mural society that creates at least one new mural in town every year. (You can see more murals at that link, by the way.) Some of them are painted and others are made of tiles in a stained-glass style. It's pretty awesome, in such a small town, to have such a wealth of gorgeous murals in public spaces all over town. 

Our municipal pool has several murals. Two beautiful tile murals outside:

I love the detail in these pictures, especially the reflections of the boats in the water. Just to give you a sense of the size of these murals, here's a picture of the enormous building they grace:

Inside, the pool is also decorated with two more tile murals in the lobby and one enormous painted mural alongside the pool:

That's our beautiful lighthouse in detail. It's getting too late at night to try to stitch pictures together to give you a single view of the massive pool mural, so here it is in a few pieces:

I took all these while Darcy was taking her swimming lesson. She really loves them and is so close to passing her first level. Luckily, our pool is close to downtown, so even with only a half-hour lesson to work with, I also walked over to one of my favorite painted murals in town. The mural society occasionally does a mural-in-a-day project (which blows my mind). The artist creates the piece and (I think) sketches it on the wall before bringing in volunteers to paint under supervision to get it done in a day. This amazes me, especially when they create something like this:

This commemorates the 1964 tsunami that destroyed most of downtown Crescent City. Just above the small plaque on the right lower corner is a line that marks the high water line on this building. Just below the plaque are the painted names of the volunteers who helped create the mural.