When we looked at booking a room at the Hyatt Place near Seattle Center (where we’ve stayed previously) we were surprised to see that there were no rooms available. It wasn’t an official long-weekend, so we wondered what was up.  I tweeted to the Seattle Tourism twitter account to ask if there was some kind of, oh festival or something in town. Turns out, it was a convention of Ophthalmologists who would be taking over the city.

We searched for possible alternatives and still hadn’t settled on anything until last-minute. Most of the hotels are downtown and we’re not interested in being there at all. Tom took one more look at our hotel and found they now were showing available rooms. Maybe they were holding a block of rooms just in case? Anyway, they seemed to be gouging, but it was a matter of the devil we know and the fact it was a short trip, so we booked them anyway.

We had no plans, no schedule to keep, and no driving need to visit a particular place. The only thing we did plan, was to take a ferry over to Bainbridge Island and this time, take a bit of  a walk around the town instead of jumping right back on the ferry. It is a short trip, 30 minutes each way, but for around $7 return, it is a steal for the killer view of downtown Seattle and a nice boat ride to boot. We decided to leave that for our last day and spent the first couple wandering around the Seattle Center area. We didn’t go up this needle this time, we’re kind of done with that, in fact, we didn’t pay for much touristy stuff this go-round, we mostly just enjoyed the beautiful weather. We had lucked-out in that regard, the temperature was in the 80′s and it was sunshine straight through.

We were also hoping to run into this guy:

The talented busker we had seen on one of our previous trips, but he was nowhere to be seen. In fact, Seattle Center was pretty much busker-free the whole time which seemed strange, as there were plenty of people milling about. Maybe they don’t bother until the Summer months? It was a shame, I love street music.

Well, there was this little fellow near the Space Needle, a Harry Potteresque busker-in-training being applauded by someone I would assume to be his proud father.

Dude even made a little coin.

While Seattle and Vancouver are close in proximity, I think Seattle still sees more rainy days than we do, but the reaction of both cities residents to a hot sunny day is exactly the same: people get outside and enjoy it; we don’t take them for granted. To beat the heat, many people milled about at the water’s edge or enjoyed the cooling spray from the Seattle Center fountain.

We walked around and took pictures of course. Near the EMP we saw a guy who seemed to be channelling Johnny Depp on a photo-shoot, below, center stage fiddling with a scarf.

No idea if he was a model, someone famous (to others obviously) or an actor getting headshots done… but he never seemed to smile. I guess the brooding expression completed the look?

One of my must-do’s at some point this trip though was to ride the Seattle Great Wheel. I had wanted to ever since I saw the announcement it was being built.  Now for anyone who has read this blog before, I am not big on heights. Okay, I’m terrified of them, and I do not like Ferris Wheels. The wheel had two things going for it, it was newish and it was enclosed. You would be sitting down encapsulated in your own little glass booth as you rotated around and this seemed a doable fear factor challenge for me. Plus, I really wanted the views. It was definitely lower than the Needle, but hell, even I feel safe up there, the edge is sounded by fencing and wires.

We saw it had been completed the last time we were in town, but because it was so new then, the lines were HUGE. This time the lines were small, definitely doable and moved fairly quickly, it seemed the perfect time.

The cost wasn’t prohibitive either,  while $13.00 for three revolutions of the wheel seemed a tad pricey, what the heck, we’d only do it the one time.

Standing in line I got a wee bit nervous, but I was determined to push that aside and try it, despite seeing the warning signs that people who are claustrophobic and afraid of heights should not ride this ride. Ummmm, CHECK, CHECK! In the end though, it was fine. I sat with my back to the water which helped a lot, and only felt a touch of unease when we stopped near the top to let people off/board new riders. The car swayed ever so gently, but after that initial pull in my stomach I just looked around and enjoyed the view from the top. Would I do it again? Sure! If it was free, otherwise, meh, I’ve done it. Still, worth one ride if you’re ever down that way.

We also visited the Olympic Sculpture Park down near the cruise ship terminals. The waterfront walk around the area is nice, and there are some cool sculptures, but I preferred some we found further down by the water’s edge, in particular this reflective one which meant…THIS:

Clearly we can’t help ourselves.

We had dinner at the Sport lounge near the hotel, a favourite place. There I had my second ever aura without a migraine. The first one had hit me a few months back during my first month-long episode while feeding the birds in our local park. I had thought it was related to my issues, but maybe not? Anyway, I was GRATEFUL not to be slammed with a migraine, even if it meant I couldn’t read the menu or see all of Tom’s face for a half-hour or so!

Then came our final day. The ferry ride was beautiful as always.

Bainbridge was, well okay. I mean it is lovely and all, but we didn’t find it a tourist mecca. We tried to find a place that sold a hoodie or a hat or something we could bring back but there was slim-pickins,maybe we were on the wrong end of town? There seemed to be a big divide that separated the eateries from the rest of town, maybe we chose poorly. In any regard we had already done a lot of walking and I was done. This business name gave me a giggle though, considering what they do…heh.

I sure wouldn’t mind living there if that ferry was my commute to downtown. A lot more appealing than spending it on a highway. Oh We did find a pretty awesome ice-cream place called “Mora’s” there, much appreciated on a hot day. We did, however; find it difficult finding a place that sold water that didn’t just take cash (and charge an arm and a leg for a small bottle!) wish the ice-cream place also stocked water! Lots of choices of ice-creams and sorbet though. Well worth a visit if you’re in the area.

After the ride back to the mainland on the ferry, we walked back to our hotel. Normally, I’m the walker, the one with the energy to keep going and going, but this time I will have to give the title to Tom. I’m still weak and the heat seemed to sap what was left of my battery so we took a slow meandering route back. The hardest part of the walk, that first couple of blocks straight up-hill just about did me in. That is so not me. I had even considered passing on going out for dinner that night and I’d been looking forward to trying “The Rock” a pizza place which advertised wood-fired pizza. After a bit of a rest though, I was up for going back out. Glad I was, cos the pizza was pretty darn good. It was attached to a hotel that we’re going to have to consider for next time called the “The Maxwell”, it looked nice!

Very tasty, and worth the walk.

One of the benefits to staying in a central location, we didn’t move the car once during the weekend, a nice change because the traffic in Seattle is no joke.

It will probably be a least another year before we go back, but thanks Seattle, we do love you!

The Friday before my appointment however, the office called me to tell me that the clinic for the day had been cancelled and that everyone would need to be rescheduled. For me it wasn’t an issue, and the appointment was only a day later, but the real problem was that Tom had taken the day off to come with me. The office was down in Vancouver, and while not an issue for me to drive there, parking is another story. I had a deep gut feeling I would run into problems and if Tom drove me, and there was no local parking, he could drop me off and find something maybe further away. So Tom and I drove by the office after visiting Stanley Park the day before my appointment (which was the original day I was supposed to be there, hey can’t waste a day together!) There were quite a few parking options available in the area, so I pushed aside the bad feeling I was getting about driving down alone, and hoped for the best that I would find somewhere to park if I left early enough.

When I say I left early enough, I did. Just shy of two hours ahead of my scheduled appointment. Traffic would be lighter going into Vancouver in the early afternoon, even when rush-hour starts it would be mostly in the opposite direction. I made good time and I would have some time to kill should I find parking near the office. Well, THAT didn’t happen. The little garage behind the medical building was full with two people stuck up on the next level realizing there was no parking and no way to turn around. I had driven halfway up the ramp before seeing this and then had to back down and then back out onto the street to get out of there. Then I did a slow drive past various parking structures, including one near VGH and saw nothing but people waiting to get in to park and not finding anything. Gah!

This was my old stomping grounds, I worked in the area for years and though the various businesses had changed the parking garages pretty much stayed the same. I tried all my tried and true options close-ish to the office but no dice. So I had to pull my ace out, park in a mall and then do my clumsy mutated rolling speed-walk to the office.

The Neuro turned out to be a  really nice man who as it turns out has MS so he is VERY aware of sensory problems having experienced them himself. I know enough from doing my initial research that my symptoms can be caused by a pretty large range of conditions, some worse than others, so I had stopped reading about them.

We spoke for a while,  and he noted my history and then had me walk normally, walk in a straight line (like at a drunk test) and stand still with my eyes closed. He then bonked several spots with a rubber tool, used a metal thing (almost like a tuning fork, but not a fork) and then pricked me with a pin in various spots, then he tested my strength. He said that sensory symptoms are the biggest puzzle to neurologists and it was often very hard to pin down the cause.

He said first of all, that even though my B12 was in the “normal” range (according to my own doctor) it was 25 points above the bottom of normal (normal being 150-600 and I was 175) he said this could be contributing to my issues and that he wants me to take a B12 supplement for 3 weeks and then get my blood tested to see if there is an improvement by seeing my regular doc a week later. He asked me if I was vegetarian (I’m not) and said that I may have a malabsorption issue of some sort. If there was not enough improvement I was to start getting B12 shots. He said that he didn’t necessarily think that was the source of all my problems (as it was normal, just not very good) but it wouldn’t be helping. He indicated that he suspected that my problem may lay in my spine.

He said that if it were a herniated disc or degeneration or something like that, it would  typically not come and go and would be accompanied by constant pain in neck or spine which I don’t have. He also asked me if I travelled anywhere I could have been bitten by a tick, I didn’t think so (considering where we travel) but he’s going to have me tested for Lyme disease as a precaution, though highly unlikely.  He said that he wanted to do a spinal MRI and have a look there for any lesions or evidence of inflammation. He said that though age is in my favour (meaning most people with MS get it earlier in life), it wasn’t to be ruled out, yet. He said MS is a different disease for everyone and though it typically will show in the brain it doesn’t always and some people with lesions all over don’t have symptoms. Again, many afflictions share similar symptoms, so it is a case of process of elimination.

He said it also could just be a one-time inflammation of the spine and by one-time he means that I could continue to have flare-ups but the inflammation could go away and the symptoms would bother me less and less over time.  I could be something else but without testing and time, you can’t rule out stuff. So I’m now waiting for the spinal MRI to be booked and I’m started on my B12 supplements. It would be magic if the B12 was the whole problem but he didn’t think so. Still, you never know! Maybe I’m a freak who needs a really high level of B12?

Once the MRI is booked, I’m to call his office and schedule a follow-up visit for the results. Based on the last go-round I expect that won’t be happening for a few months. In the meantime, I’m trying to listen to my body and give myself a pass instead of trying to do everything when I need to.

The Saturday, we had rain, so we took advantage of the turn in the weather and drove down to Wheeler and poked around the antique shops there. I found nothing, or rather I found nothing that I absolutely needed to buy, but plenty I wish I could have. Wheeler is a small town on the Nehalem river which boasts a hotel, a few storefronts and a couple of antique shops. One in particular the “Old Wheeler Antiques and Collectibles” I adore for their collection of Art Deco. The entrance is ENTRANCING for those who love Deco, he has an amazing collection of lamps in pristine condition there, none of which I could justify buying. Boo! Ah well, it is always fun to admire them.

When we got back…well we walked the beach yet again! This time a welly-walk so we could take some more videos of the waves with the water-proof cameras and not worry about getting soaked.

On Sunday, our last full day in Cannon Beach (boo again!) it was once again raining, but as I’ve said, rain does not stop us!

As I ate my breakfast, I had a visitor watching me through the wet glass hoping I had something to spare.

“Mine?”

Even in the gloom this place is beautiful.

The tide had tossed a lot of flotsam onto the beach, including plenty of bottles. We kept checking them out to see if any of them had a note tucked inside, but no dice.

We noticed at one point a complete feeding frenzy going on over a piece of wood. Upon closer inspection, it appeared to be a piece of a boat with all kinds of sea-life attached to it. We wondered if it was some tsunami debris from Japan.

We wore our old runners on long walks and tried to avoid getting them soaked, but by this point in the trip mine were gross anyway, and I was expecting to toss them on the trip so I sloshed through the run-off rivulets coming from the shore and Tom went around them or leaped over them!

The clouds began to part as the day eased into late afternoon. Tucked away back in our suite, I mounted my iPhone to the sliding-glass window and set up a time-lapse to capture the movement of the sun, clouds, ocean and people passing outside. Sigh, the place is breathtaking.

Neither of us felt like anything too heavy for dinner than night, we made a quick run to the store in Seaside and had sandwiches for dinner, finishing up the last bits of our wine stash. Sadly, it was time to start our trek back home in the morning.

We opted to walk to the extreme north end of the beach this day, which means unless you’re willing to cross the Ecola creek, you need to take a detour through the end of town and cross the bridge and then cut back over to the water’s edge. I have no idea how deep the shallowest end of the creek is, but there are some sneaky waves that course up from the ocean even in what looks like fairly shallow waters.

On that end there are a lot of sand dunes covered in brush which called for me to climb them. I am miserable at climbing in sand but did it anyway. Turns out if we’d just headed further down the beach, there was a much easier way to get up there. Figures!

But climb them we did and then scampered over the top to get the best views of the north, and then back south towards Haystack Rock.

Tada!

I slid my way down the hill getting my shoes pretty much entirely filled with sand (those skids are mine) and Tom followed…

ending with a flourish:

Aaaaaand, then we got silly again.

What’s new?

This was as far as we could go north without hiking up into the hills (as if!) so we grabbed a couple of pictures, then started back.

Tom, once again the bird-whisperer, made a new friend: the crow. This crow followed him for quite some time. It wasn’t as fond of him as the duck was at the bird sanctuary, but they did seem to make a love-connection.

Our return stroll was through town and we grabbed lunch at the other pizza place in town called Pizza a’fetta.

We both agreed it was good, but also agreed we preferred the pizza from Fultano’s. We’d heard from a number of people who live there that they prefer the other, but to each their own right? Either way everyone’s happy, something for everyone.

We relaxed for few hours, then headed back to the Lumberyard for dinner. Mmmm fish

…followed by an evening walk, where we struck gold. We got a perfect sunset.

Can we just move there already?

This particular day we walked back down towards Haystack Rock and beyond. We wanted to check out the rental options in the Tolovana area of town, and see what the ‘hood was like, as we’d never really toured the streets there either. The further down the beach we walked, the more blue sky peeped through the clouds.

It turns out there are some really cute places down on that end. Tom, for some reason thought that would be the “dodgy” end of town but I didn’t think there was such a thing in Cannon Beach. Walking through, it seemed the much more residential area and a lot less touristy. I’m totally up for staying down on that end of the beach, it is quieter for one thing (the further from the rock, the less people) and I can pretend we’re more like locals than tourists. A girl can dream right?

We saw a couple of yards with bunnies hopping around, just like here, I’m guessing there are people who decide having a rabbit isn’t fun a few months after Easter ‘cos they don’t look like wild rabbits to me.

Our curiosity for the neighbourhood fed, we walked the remainder of the way back to our place on the beach.

We then sat and watched the sun begin to set while relaxing on our balcony. I could so get used to doing that!

Not a totally flawless sunset, but again, we were expecting rain pretty much the whole time according to the weather forecast. I love it when they’re wrong!

It was such a great idea to take a step back and take so much more time to just walk the beach rather than getting back in the car and touring around to other places in the area. The days seemed to pass much more slowly and it was a much more laid-back trip in general. We still had a couple more days and usually at that point in previous trips we felt like we’d barely arrived and the day we’d be leaving was already looming on the horizon. Lesson learned!