Our View: Another day in paradise

Did I say winter weather? After January brought us a sunny stretch for the ages, the first day of February sparkles. A slight breeze bears no cold, so I take off my shoes and walk in the water. Yes, the Pacific is frigid, but the sunshine remedies this each time I veer onto dry sand.

I sit on a rock just high enough to stay clear of a low tide that’s not-so-low. It’s a perfect Sunday morning, and I’m reconsidering my plan to put in a little office time. An appetite for lunch, not any sense of obligation, eventually pulls me off the beach.

I gaze across the assembled RVs toward South Beach from a window seat at the Grotto Harbor View Restaurant while dipping into a bowl of what is consistently the best chowder I’ve found since moving to the North Coast.

With only one other table in use, the staff has little to do except fiddle with place settings. Then an early afternoon parade of the hungry begins. In less than 30 minutes, more than 30 people arrive. The window tables are all occupied, the waiters are hopping, and I ponder the challenge of running a restaurant in the dead of winter in a beach town. Schedule a full roster of workers, and they may end up with little to do on one more sleepy day in Crescent City. Go light on the staffing, and you get hammered by a big lunch crowd.

Maybe that’s why so many local restaurants take a winter hiatus, but on this day there are plenty of people who are glad the Grotto is hanging in there.

The sunshine persists, but I give up an hour to the office and another half-hour to the grocery store. These I consider sacrifices, but the fact is I’m about to voluntarily spend the rest of the afternoon and early evening indoors, and no looming ocean sunset will deter me. I’ll stare instead at a friend’s high-definition TV.

The beverages are cold and the food spread is hot. There’s only one thing missing from his Super Bowl party: a fellow Pittsburgh fan to join me in cheering the Steelers to yet another pro football championship. Everyone here is rooting for the underdog Arizona Cardinals. The red and white cupcakes are quickly consumed; the black and gold ones sit there.

The Steelers lead for almost the entire game, but then the Cardinals make a shocking comeback. In the final minutes, I’m forced to consider the possibility that the team I’ve followed since childhood could lose the big game. Oh well, the sun will still come up tomorrow, and I’ll still be at the coast when it does.

In the end, the Steelers pull it out with a classic catch in the corner of the end zone. It’s the best of all worlds — something I’m getting used to in Del Norte County.