Rock Star having lived most of his life in the Midwest, he had never seen an ocean until yesterday. Of course we had to remedy this, and since yesterday was clear and fine and Matthew had stopped whining about his muscles after the hike he and Rock Star took, we headed for the beach at the slug-a-bed time of noon or so.

Rock Star is a very satisfactory houseguest—he is adaptable, fun, and cooks quite well and often. However, one of the most amusing things about Rock Star as a houseguest is how much he praises our fair city and region. He actually apologized his first weekend here for going on and on about how lovely Portland is. The ocean and beach also fell prey to his enthusiasm, being declared “quite possibly the neatest thing I’ve ever seen.” We walked up and down at Manzanita, watched the stiff wind driving an exodus of bubbles before it, ran from the advancing surf, and generally had a good time. We instructed Rock Star in such beach basics as not turning your back on the ocean, not sitting on logs in the surf, and the various interesting behaviors of wet sand when feet are involved.

Then we went up to Cannon Beach for a little while, as Matt insisted Haystack Rock must be seen, and we walked down to observe the… largeness and rockiness of this large rock. The surf was fairly spritely all day, forcing us to run (boys) and skip (me) backwards a great deal more than usual. Just in the shadow of Haystack Rock, I managed to get caught running away from four waves all combining in a great wet synergy, and got wet up to the back pockets of my overalls. It was actually a little scary, as I was still running when the feet and feet of water engulfed my legs, and I was dreadfully sure for several moments that I wasn’t going to be able to keep my balance. I managed by dint of some screaming and eeking to keep said balance, and we drove home with me very damp and cold. Despite my suggestion that Cannon Beach is full of pretty dresses which could easily be bought for me.

On the way home I napped a little, and also discovered that Rock Star never “went on a trip and brought A, B, C”, so we went on a trip and brought the following: an anaconda, a blunderbuss (him, not me!), a coatimundi, a didgeridoo, an egg, a fire extinguisher, galoshes, a heliotrope, an icicle, a jerkin, a killing jar, a lathe, a Mazeratti, a ninja, an octopus, a pincushion, a quilt, a radish, a sousaphone, a termagant, a uvula, Venus, a Wiggles CD, Xaoping, a yes-man, and a zither.