July 1 – 31, 2023

July was a blur of events, vacation trips, short outings, home improvement projects, volunteering, and all the other stuff…in  short, the usual routine.

There were several memorable highlights during the month but the most significant occurred on the 13th. The plumbers finally deemed us worthy of attention and in just four hours they did their part to transform the bathroom, and to put the frosting on the cake it cost $1,000 less than their estimate. They moved the toilet and re-did its plumbing, as well as the sink plumbing, in the crawlspace below; before happy hour I had the big hole in the floor patched and covered with the flooring. Woohoo…we can step out of the shower now without tripping on the toilet. Beside the bathroom, we did our best to continue draining the “Beach House Account” with new additions such as a recliner, dining table and chairs, rugs, and various other garage sale or Amazon acquisitions. I also contributed a new sofa table made in the shop from scraps and re-doing an older side table. Sherry reports “the house is really coming along nicely…”

Outside our little beach abode we, mostly Sherry, kept busy with the usual activities: Sherry volunteered at the Ilwaco (a neighboring town) Firecracker 5k event on the 1st; she went to the Oysterville Arts Fair on the 2nd; we had a block-potluck dinner with most of our neighbors on the 3rd; explored the popular Beard’s Hollow beach at low tide on the morning of the 4th with neighbors David & Yvonne, learning all sorts or interesting info from David, a natural biologist in a previous life; walked over the beach dunes to watch some of the incredible free-for-all park-it-and-light-‘em fireworks at the beach with friend Donna; pitched in to help cleanup some of the fireworks mess left on the beach on the morning of the 5th; on the 12th through the 15th Sherry did volunteer shifts in the merchandise/info booth during the Sandsations event, a sand sculpture demonstration and competition, while Sid & I volunteered a meager 3.5 hours one day to serve beer and wine under the “beer garden” tent; Sherry continued to walk with the ladies group at least twice a week—they meet at a designated beach approach at 10 in the morning, walk for 30 minutes down the beach, then turn around to head back to the approach; we checked out the interesting historic Columbia River Quarantine Station, a regional version of New York’s Ellis Island; we hiked a loop trail in the nearby Willapa National Wildlife Refuge; I took the canoe out for a couple short trips on Black Lake and Island Lake…all canoe trips on the peninsula will be short, there are no big lakes, just a big ocean, a big bay, and a big river…but I’m happy I have even a few small lakes so close to paddle on. We ended the month with a short training session for a stretch of volunteer shifts we’ll be doing at the North Head Lighthouse in Cape Disappointment State Park, the park where we also occasionally volunteer in the Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center. More on that in the August blog.

Here’s an interesting oxymoron you don’t hear often: Dental vacation. “Hey kids, your mom and I have decided that for this summer vacation we’re all going to the dentist…doesn’t that sound like a blast?!” Google it, there is such a concept. Well, bored with camping getaways, that’s what I decided to do on the 17th, a dental vacation. Back in May or June while enjoying my usual lunch, mixed nuts and a smoothie, I broke yet another tooth that had an old metal filling in it and began the search for a local dentist to do a crown for a reasonable not-insured cost. Ha, that wasn’t going to happen. I even tried the University of Washington dental school, I’d be an experimental guinea pig if it saved some money, but that was a no-go too. 

The best option, meaning the cheapest, was a dental vacation in Tijuana, Mexico. I took an early flight from Portland to San Diego, a bus to downtown, the trolley light rail to San Ysidro, and walked across the border to a store where a driver picked me up for the short ride to Brush Dental in time for my noon appointment. Five hours later, after x-rays, a complete exam to come up with a comprehensive treatment plan, a root canal, buildup, and new crown, I walked back to the border. Dentists are never fun, but the worst part of the day was the hour and a half wait in line to get through US customs like a refugee. Made it back to downtown San Diego, strolled through Little Italy, and checked into Motel 6 for the night. On the 18th I walked back toward downtown along the waterfront, got something to eat at Seaport Village, walked around some more then bused back to the airport and was back in Portland on-time at 5:30 p.m. I had just enough time to load up Sherry’s pre-order at the nearby Ikea and pick up rug she found on Facebook marketplace from a lady in Longview and get home before dark. What a nice vacation. Even with the unexpected additional expense for the root canal, I figured I paid half of what it would have cost in Washington, including the airfare and motel.

A couple days after I returned from my vacay, Sherry headed out on her three-day holiday. On day one she geocached her way up the coastal west and north side of the Olympic Peninsula to an airbnb in Port Angeles; day two was the 27th annual Sequim Lavender Festival, BFF Sheryl joined her for a day of visiting ten lavender farms and browsing through all things lavender at the craft fair; on day three Sherry continued her ’round the peninsula geo-cation, dropping down 101 on the east side along the picturesque Hood Canal. I got a root canal, new crown, and an interrogation by a US official; she got 118 geocaches, a visit with her friend, and a few nice smelling consumer products. 

Beach Retirement Life is Good.