It’s a good thing I have a number of posts written ahead. After our election, grief would interfere with writing about how I feel on the day this is published, and yesterday.
Sunday, 6 November 2016
After we attended the 6×6 art auction, Carol and I repaired to Klipsan Beach Cottages. She had won, at a Seattle auction benefiting a children’s hospital , two nights in one of the two bedroom cottages and had invited me to stay for one of them.
I immediately got stuck into a pile of room journals.
As any longtime reader of this blog knows, room journals at the Sylvia Beach Hotel are a great passion of mine, and while I knew that KBC’s would be more touristy and less angsty, I was still looking forward to them and my anticipation was well rewarded.
Until I got to the last sentence, I was sure the following post was written by a mom. So nice to have a dad like this:
Many of the visitors return:
“Last time I was year was 1o years ago and I had just turned 10 myself. The path to the beach seems much shorter since then, although dad swears it is longer every time we walk down it.”
I, too, remember when there were no houses in the view on adjoining properties. At least the cottages own all the dune land directly between the ridge upon which they sitand the beach.
An entry reminiscent of Sylvia Beach journal style:
There are many compliments for managers Mary and Denny throughout the journals.
Mary and Denny’s cats and dogs also get compliments, and I am thrilled to report that in the years after I began to garden there (first with Robert, then Allan), so do the gardens.
From 2015:
The KBC resort has been here since at least the 1950s and still retain an old fashioned ambience.
Another one who loves the guest books:
In another entry: “This has been a quiet time apart for us. Why do people write in journals? From the book A Book of One’s Own: To say I was, I was, I am.”
Journal continuity:
“I came here every year growing up….We found entries in guest books written by me at age 12. If you’re reading this in 20 years—Hi future self! Isn’t beach life the best?”
At 11:45, I had finished the first stack of books, and then I found on the same bookshelf (in the main bedroom), 5 more! I would be up late.
There was much mention of a pine grove that had been cut down. It must have been the beach pines between the cottages and the ocean. It had grown back by the time I first worked there (in about 1999, I think) but is now topped to preserve the view.
Another grove lament:
We pulled up to “our” cabin with happy anticipation. Imagine our surprise looking through the area between 6 & 7!. Whoever clear cut the pine grove? How sad. I remember the children exploring the trails certain they were the first. I remember watching their games of hide and seek. I remember little heads popping from the tops of those trees. They looked like happy ground hogs. I remember going through the thicket to the dunes and beyond. I remember late night walks to the beach. Coming back in darkness there was an instant of apprehension entering the grove, then relief from the flood of cottage light. Shades of Sleepy Hollow. We still had a great time. Some things never change.
By 1997, some semblance of the pine grove was back, as evidenced by this entry. (The person’s toddler had thrown food into the trees.)
Below, from 1991: a Seaview garden tour? That was way before the annual peninsula garden tour began. What was this about? I wish I knew more.
I always appreciate finding entries that agree with my dislike to the beach being a legal highway for motor vehicles:
From 1996, years before any peninsula resort had wi fi:
Even with wi-fi and cable telly, the cabins still feel like a place apart from the world.
1998 and a mention of Fifth Street Park being built in Long Beach! Captain Nemo’s was where Captain Bob’s Chowder is now.
Tomorrow: Carol and I get a little bit touristy, and more journals are found.
1995 (age 71):
Nov 5 (Sunday): Day off
1997 (age 73):
Nov 5: 11:00-5:00 I finished planting all of my seedlings. Tomorrow I probably can get the Park order planted. Then there are a lot of bulbs to be planted into pots and containers. Also a lot of pruning and cleaning of the yard and garden. And wood to be cut etc etc. I’ve got plenty to keep me busy all winter.
1998 (age 74):
Nov 5: 12:00-3:00 More apples. It was sunny so I planted more plants from the various containers. I got rained in once so I worked in the shop cutting back the dahlias. Then I went out and planted more until it really got rained in so I quit for the day.
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