08.10.07
La Tourista Has Arrived
When talking to people who live on the pacific northwest coast one of the common complaints you hear is there are no seasons. The weather does not vary much in fact the temperature stays, on average, between 52 and 65 degrees. But I beg to differ. We are in the 4th of 5 seasons here….
Rainy
Foggy
Tourist Season
Bike Season
Tourist season is not found on a calendar. It does not come at the same time every year. In fact some years it does not happen at all. This year we’re having an especially intense tourist season…I like to call it. La Turista
There are 3 definite signs that La Turista has arrived:
1. An increase in the gas prices. Unleaded gas has been at $3.39 for the past 5 weeks.
2. An increase number of people walking around wearing layers of every piece of cold weather clothing they own. You can tell tourists from locals because we wear coats only when the temperature dips to the 40’s. We also don’t use umbrellas…why? It rains sideways so you’re going to get wet anyway.
3. Motor Homes, Trailers and campers…so many you cannot cross 101 when driving out of the grocery parking lot. You must drive ‘with’ the traffic and detor an additional 3 miles just to get home.
We’ve lived in Crescent City for 18 years and I forget that we live in a tourist destination. Scenes like this
…
are common place when driving north from Eureka to Crescent City. We have signs on the road that say ‘Watch for Rocks’ and ‘Elk Crossing’ but what we need are signs that have a red circle with a line through a picture with a person standing in the middle of the road with a camera.
Nothing will get your heart beating faster than coming around a blind corner to see a row of motor homes lined up with men (it’s always men (( “go ahead honey, just pop out to snap a few” she says while sitting inside looking out through the windshield)) taking pictures of the bulls having their early late afternoon meal.
We live here because the rewards are many, the air is clean, the crime rate is low, the kids grow like weeds and it is green….everywhere is green. ( I suppose if you hate green you would not want to live here.) Here is this morning’s sunrise….
And as you can see, the pumpkins are coming along nicely (I mark each child’s name on a pumpkin when they’re small so we know who is who’s)
The sunflowers are almost through blooming and the bumble bees will have to find someplace else to sleep at night.
So as I sit on my front deck, watching the koi eat their breakfast I wish you could join me, have a cup of coffee, bring your knitting and breath in the fresh air. Ahhhhh…..
Knitting Update…
OK, on to the important stuff…knitting. Here is a picture of one of the newly felted bags that I’m making for the Shaniko Wool Gathering. 
I’m using Columbia Ranch wool which is sheared from sheep that are directly descended from the original Columbia stock. You can go here for more info on these sheep. These bags will be dyed today and dried. I will add beads and lining and they will be ready to go with me to the Wool Gathering. I know, they aren’t much to look at now but wait until they’re done! I’m actually keeping track of the pattern and plan to publish it in the Flat Bed Knitter Yahoo group when I’m done.
It being friday and me having not offered the obligatory cat image for a while…here is Pumpkin , I don’t think he has forgiven me for pulling all his teeth or adding the new kitten to the family.
Mike D said,
August 10, 2007 at 11:21 am
I remember that season. You just hunker down and wait it out. Now when I go up there I am one. I try to fit in, not wear the extra clothes, etc. but the deep dark tan just gives me away every time.
Cheers.