Day 4 - Finally, a vacation day

Wednesday, June 14

Woke up in: Nye Beach, Oregon
Slept in: Nye Beach, Oregon
Traveled: mere steps to the gallery next door
Notable eats: Mostly, the hot cups of tea throughout a cold, gray day. Meals were all at the Tables of Content restaurant: Breakfast; fresh baked lemon bars and muffins, plus perfect scrambled eggs and grilled toast. Dinner; I didn't keep track because the conversation was so fascinating, but it was fine dining with good wine.
Miles: 0
Total mileage: 269
Photo Evidence

I think there is little better in life than waking after a long sleep to discover that a hot breakfast awaits, accompanied by homemade lemon bars and muffins. My desire to live at Sylvia Beach has been only further reinforced by the company at the breakfast table -- a group of fascinating women from various states, including Elizabeth, who does Nia in Eugene. Thanks to her, I didn't have to go from waking up to highly enthusiastic in seconds flat when someone asked me about it; she was excited to talk about her own experiences.

Elizabeth also pointed me to an exhibit at the Newport Visual Arts Center right across the street: a collection of poetry broadsides, all a collaboration between the poet and the printmaker. The work of William Stafford was featured most heavily, since he's an Oregon native, but I found lots of poems I knew and some great stuff I didn't -- especially Martin Espada's poem about an immigrant janitor at Harvard, printed with the Spanish and English translations side by side. I knew I was far from home when I saw Rita Dove's first name misprinted in the exhibit literature.

Cold, gray weather sent me inside rather than walking the beach, and I spent a wonderful day in the Sylvia Beach's library, curled in an armchair with the ocean to my left, the fireplace to my right, and my journal and books beside me. I held down this spot for hours, moving only for cups of tea and occasional work on the jigsaw puzzle in the kitchen lounge. Vacation at last!

Dinner downstairs at the Tables of Content restaurant held pleasant surprises in both the five-course meal and the excellent company. I learned there is a monastery within the city of Kyoto, that it's common to flip a pregnant woman on her side when she's in labor, and that high school students in Santa Rosa, California have at least one good teacher to challenge their political thinking. I also got a long list of good books I haven't read yet.