Darcy's Birthday Trip To Disappointment

Incredibly, when I realized it was Mother’s Day this morning (shows you how much I pay attention these days) I called my mother. No cards, flowers or gifts to her in over 12 years from me- mind you, with good reason! But I called her and left a message saying I hoped she felt better (she fell and dislocated a shoulder last week) and I hoped her day was nice. My guess is that her sister Dora will get her something because its tradition, even though my mother isn’t her mother– her interpretation of it is that her ungrateful bitch of a daughter (that would be me, hi there) won’t do the “right” thing, so she will. But hey, I called. I feel pretty neutral about it, so it doesn’t hurt to make such a gesture now, whereas in the past, such a thing would literally make me nauseous. Meh. *shrug*

But, more importantly for the day– its Darcy’s birthday! He wanted to go to the coast, to visit Astoria and Cape Disappointment, so we took off in the morning for a long day of driving. It was cloudy but mild, and we had a nice time traveling.

In Astoria, we checked out their Sunday Open Market fair, drove up and down the hilly neighborhoods and looked at all the historical houses (lots of Victorians!) and went to look at the Goonie house, and checked out the waterfront walk (there’s a trolley, but it wasn’t running today.) After climbing the Astoria Column and setting gliders off over the side (I can’t believe I never did that as a kid!) we toured the area below and goofed around some. We got some coffee and lunch after and then took off across the super-long bridge across the mouth of the Columbia River and thence to the Cape in question.

It was a lovely, and very green, drive, and once there we hiked up and down hill to get a close up look at Dead Man’s Cove and the lighthouse. I definitely have a thing for lighthouses– and for Lighthouse Keeper’s cottages. Something about the whole isolated lifestyle of the past (and the future when satellites aren’t working due to lack of funds/energy) just strikes me for some reason. I’m not exclusively into them or anything… I love a lot of historical things. Railroads and old farms and ranches and graveyards… The walk back to the car from the lighthouse almost did me in, though. I’m not in the best shape, and had already hiked all over the place. But I made it and we drove back on the Washington side of the river as dark clouds chased us home.

My and Gerick’s gift to him was a little Wiccan magick book from a witch in Cornwall, Britain and a half-life sized statue of a young woman in a diaphanous gown with her arm up, as if pausing in the act of bathing or something. Very feminine, sweet, and graceful. Darcy loved his gifts and couldn’t stop smiling when he saw the statue. I’d love to populate the grounds at Windy Firs with statuary. Some highlighted and obvious, but some hidden in nooks and crannies in wilder, slightly overgrown areas. That’ll take some years to achieve, but every idea starts with just one step!

We had a late supper including veggie burgers and onion-cheese fondue, then poppy seed raspberry cake and ice cream. THEN– we sat upstairs and just relaxed in the “Groovy Room” by the woodstove and chatted until it was time to crash.