Cinco de Mayo at the beach in Vacations 2015

If I was at work today, some of my friends and I would probably go to a Mexican restaurant for lunch, or someone would organize a Cinco de Mayo happy hour. I know that several of my neighbors are getting together to do a little Cinco de Mayo pot luck later this afternoon, which I may well have gone to if I was at home.

But, I’m not. hehe!!

I’m sitting here at 7:30 a.m. (I can’t help it, I am up early whether it’s vacation or not), just about ready for my 2nd cup of coffee (I can’t believe how much I enjoy my coffee here when I almost never drink it at home), in my jammies at the table looking out on the ocean. It’s a cool morning but I have the sliding door open so I can hear the waves.

This is the table. We call it Grand Central.

Yesterday was a good day. We went to wander around the shops on the bay in downtown Newport. There are little restaurants and gift shops, kite shops and art galleries and seafood processing companies on the water, lots of fishing boats, and sea lions. I bought some candles at Newport Candle Company. They are gel candles that burn forever and have a really nice aroma. Not overpowering. I bought a large one in a glass jar for myself, and some much smaller ones to take home for little souvenir gifts for a couple of friends (we always bring one another a little something when we go away). I was hoping to find a little t-shirt or something for Addison that said “Newport” or something like that on it, but all I found were the silly kind of shirts we would never put on him – for example, one that said something like “Two boobies, one mouth”. Really?

I bought myself a gift I wasn’t planning to buy but it caught my eye and even after walking away from it and wandering around, I kept going back to it. Sometimes you just know you “have” to buy a particular thing. I know you all remember my table and chair painting project. My interest in painted furniture started when I saw a beautiful painted table at a Fireworks Store. I still am not sure how they paint it the way that table turned out, but this was a wall plaque painted the same way and I couldn’t stop looking at it. I felt that it would be perfect in my “new” kitchen which, as you know, is going to have a lot of white and I want to add splashes of color in other ways. I liked this so much that I bought it even after I found out it isn’t a wall plaque, it’s a lazy susan. But it can be hung on the wall. It was hand painted by a local artist.

I am thrilled with it. We have it on a stand hear in the main room of the house. I like buying things on vacation and decorating my vacation home with the items – when I take the items home they really have memories of where I bought them from, that way. I already found a plate mount I can buy to mount it on the wall (it has the “lazy susan” mechanism on the back of it so it needs something like a plate mount to hang it) and come to find out I would have been ordering it from Michael’s – and there is a Michael’s 2 blocks away from my house, so I’ll pop in there when I get back home to see if they have it.

I was not done shopping though. I bought a couple little outfits for my puppy that I don’t even have yet! But it’s the cutest little doggie shop with a nice variety of things. When we got home I decided to have some fun with it. We found a stuffed shark in Michael’s room so we put the green hoodie on the shark. Then we put the purple water repellant cape (well it looks like a cape when it’s not on a dog) on a Mexican Gun Fighter figurine.

Here is the shark, looking longingly out to sea:

And here is the Mexican gun fighter (I don’t know why I call him that. It’s all we could come up with) looking more regal than he probably ever has. He’s also probably wishing he could go drown in that ocean rather than be seen like this. LOL!

Although we were just being silly, it turned out that putting the green hoodie on the shark was a good thing, because it made me realize it probably will be too small for the puppy, so I’m going to exchange it before we leave town.

We wandered around downtown some more and then popped into a restaurant for some lunch, which was leisurely and pretty good. I have to say though, that so far, I haven’t had any meals I would rave about. I’m not sure what’s up with that because I distinctly remember being well pleased with the food last time we were here.

Anyway, on the way back to the house we stopped at a glass blowing studio that we always like to visit. I had something in mind that I wanted to buy but then something else caught my eye and again, it was just one of those things where I knew I had to have it. It’s so unusual for me to find anything like that, let alone TWO things in one day. This is a glass blown rainbow hued plate on a lighted stand. It was made by another local artist. I’m going to put it on my fireplace mantle at home. As you might recall, I am a big fan of lighting, especially subtle lighting. Anyway, we have set it up here too, for our enjoyment while we’re here.

It’s one of those things that pictures can’t really do it justice but at least this gives you an idea:

The rest of the day was low key. Another walk on the beach, another few hours reading my book. Then we went out to dinner and that was fun – not a bad meal by any means, but again, nothing I am going to rave about. Tonight we are making our seafood stew (or cioppino) so we have to run out to one of the seafood shops soon to buy the fresh seafood for it. That’s going to be an interesting adventure for us, making this stew. We really enjoy cooking together so I think it will be fun.

We did have one weird thing happen yesterday. Well, sort of. Nothing really “happened”. We were sitting out on the deck watching the high tide waves and a guy walked across the beach. Since school isn’t out yet, things are quiet around here and we only see a handful of people on the beach throughout the day. This guy caught my eye because he had a long pony tail, was wearing camouflage pants and hat, a baggy tie dyed t-shirt, and boots. (Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against long pony tails or camouflage pants or tie died t-shirts, or boots. It was the combination of it all, and it was not really the usual type of attire you see on the beach). He was carrying what I thought was a metal detector. He had it over his shoulder but then he turned and headed more or less towards our house and then I couldn’t see him but I had the impression he was pointing the metal detector to the ground and looking for lost treasure. Michael got up and went inside and when he came out he said “That guy with the double edged axe made me nervous. I closed the doors and windows at the back of the house.” I said “What do you mean, a double edged axe? That was a metal detector”. We each really thought we were right. In any case, closing some of the doors was a good idea. We feel so safe and secluded here that we really weren’t worried about doors and windows being wide open in rooms we aren’t in and which are easily accessible to anyone who wants to waltz on in. About half an hour later the guy came walking back up the beach so this time we checked him out with binoculars. Sure enough, he was carrying a double edged axe. Now, maybe he was looking for wood to chop or something, I have no clue. But it felt creepy, especially the way he was dressed. Last night for the first time, we actually closed some of the blinds and curtains in the art studio and the family room, which we hadn’t even considered closing before. And we left a few low lights on in some remote rooms. It’s a shame that suddenly, seeing that one guy, made us feel a little more vulnerable but maybe we were being foolish for not being more careful in the first place.

I’m not sure what we’ll do today, besides go to the seafood shop. I am reconsidering whether to book a massage, after all the money I spent yesterday that I wasn’t planning to spend. I’m waiting to hear from the store that my hardwood flooring has been delivered, so I can let Doug (the project manager) know – he’s going to go pick it up and take it to my condo so it can get acclimated for a few days before it gets installed. It was scheduled to arrive yesterday, “give or take”.

Michael is still sleeping. It is a good time for me to go get a shower. Later I’ll do another photo entry, cuz I took some inside pictures of the house. Happy Cinco de Mayo! Ciao…

Last updated May 05, 2015