Day 9? 10?

Clearly my math skills are not adequate as I seemed to have missed a day or two and now we are up to day 10 of our adventure. My chronology is clearly lacking also, as I completely neglected to mention our awesome day in Victoria with Jenny.

It was our last full day in Canada and we got to see little baby goats and floppy eared bunnies at the Petting Zoo in the park, then we walked down to the wharf and saw big seals and the floating village of houseboats. The seals were so cool, they are like big puppydogs and they come right up when they think they’re going to get fed.

We feasted all day on fresh halibut and sushi and for dinner we had a bit Indian feast and mojitos! Spoilt!

Jenny also showed me how to knit a toque (beanie in Canadian) so I’ve been progressing my knitting skills beyond a scarf. It’s quite complicated, with knitting AND purling and, in what seems to me to be another language, things like ktbl, k2tog, ssk and the ever elusive sk2po.

So I’ve fully immersed myself in this new challenge. Unfortunately for Zane it requires all my concentration so any attempt at a conversation or question is met by a muttered ‘knit knit purl purl’.

So now onto day 10. It was amazingly beautiful and sunny in Astoria after all these rainy days. Finally! We took advantage of the weather and climbed the 164-step tall Astoria Column, which gave us a beautiful view of Astoria and the bridge over to Washington and the ocean. We then stopped in at a local winery, Shallon Winery. It has been running for 30 years and the one guy operates out of it and makes the wines. Shallon is the smallest winery for something like 7000 miles and it is pretty much one room and a little science lab and he produces these amazing fruit wines, including the only wines in the world that are made with whey.

The owner, Paul, is the sweetest little old man and we had a little tour of the winery with him and then got to taste his wines. There was cranberry-whey, fresh peach, blackberry, spiced apple, lemon-whey and a chocolate orange and whey wines. They were amazing and all made with 100% fresh, pure fruit sourced from all over Oregon and Washington. For the chocolate and orange wine he uses chocolates from six different countries. It was so interesting to talk to him and hear his story and I think he took a bit of a shine to Zane and I as his parting musing was that in the hands of young people like us, the World was in good shape. Awww shucks.

We then had yummy battered Albacore Tuna with Chips from a little fish and chips boat in the middle of a park. That night we went to the annual Crab, Seafood and Wine Festival. I was a little shocked to find that all the wine displays charged for tastings, but maybe I was being naïve. We had a few little tastes of the cheaper ones and had some fresh crab and some amazing Columbian chocolates and some really yummy sake sangria that was made with sake and berries. We also splurged and shared a glass of huckleberry wine and it was deeeeeeeelicious.

Now we are on the road to Honeyman Bay, just out of Newport. The coastline has so far been breathtaking. It is another sunny day and we stopped in at Cannon Beach this morning and went to the Tillamook Cheese Factory for some cheese tastings and ice cream. I’ve had my dairy for the day.

Zane had an unfortunate run-in with a pair of clippers and an over-eager hairdresser. Let’s just say that we won’t be having any problems with patriotic Americans, they’ll all assume he’s a soldier just returned from the battlefront. It is very much a soldier’s haircut. Zane’s a bit shy about it so in most upcoming photos he will probably be wearing a beanie. Maybe I can knit him one.

Much short-haired love,

Captain Z and T