Earlier installments of this con report include Part I – Before, Part II – Friday, Part III – Saturday and Part IV – Sunday.

This fifth installment concludes my H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival convention report. It covers the aftermath of the event itself, and is mostly intended for people who know me, Lena and Joe, or those who enjoy looking of pictures of beach vacations, or reading recaps of excessive seafood and pizza consumption.

Early Monday morning, I dropped Mike Davis at PDX. I had to work a half-day, after which I hurried home to pick up Joe and Lena and we drove to Lincoln City. On arrival, I found a missed call (no cell phone coverage in the coast range) and voicemail from Gwen Callahan saying Mike Davis’s flight was cancelled, and he was stuck at airport!

Panic! We scrambled around, calling and texting and emailing people, trying to figure out what happened. I thought most likely we’d need to go back to Portland and pick up Mike. To our relief, an updated Facebook post informed us that American Airlines had given Mike a hotel, and a ticket on an early flight home the next morning.

So, back to relaxation mode. We took Joe for a walk down to the beach, specifically the main Roads End access point at the extreme north end of Lincoln City.

This was Joe’s first time ever seeing the Pacific Ocean. It was great to see him acting like an excited kid.

Lena and I go to the beach all the time, but it had been many years since we’d taken off our shoes and gone out into the water. Joe inspired us to give it a try.

We were lucky to get a beautiful, sunny, blue-sky day.

I caught crabs. You’ve got to watch out — these things will creep up on you.

Back at the house, we decided to order pizza. I’ve been eating pizza from Gallucci’s Pizzeria in Lincoln City since I was a wee lad. It’s fantastic! This pizza, just a medium, weighed as much as three normal pizzas.

We all ate Gallucci’s Combo, Lena and I drank tiny bottles of Red Stripe, and Joe drank one of his gallon jugs of iced tea. While we ate, we watched Under the Sand. François Ozon is solid. Charlotte Rampling is amazing!

This being post-convention vacation mode, we all crashed pretty early.

Tuesday morning was gray and cool. That’s not uncommon at the Oregon coast, even in July or August, but it was still a let-down after yesterday. We scrounged some cold pizza for breakfast. That Gallucci’s pizza was HUGE. Joe’s like me, always eating whatever’s left of last night’s dinner first thing. Anyway, we weren’t focused on breakfast today. We were ready to knock seafood off Joe’s “must eat” list.

Lena and I go to Kyllo’s, right on Highway 101 where it crosses D River, every time we visit Lincoln City.

We wanted to get as many kinds of seafood as we could. Joe was excited to find they had a Cajun shrimp and cod lunch special.

To that, we added two appetizers: oysters and calimari. Four kinds of seafood!

Even after all that, Joe was unable to resist the offer of key lime pie.

On the way out, we showed Joe “D River,” which is (used to be?) the world’s shortest river, which runs right under the restaurant. It’s a tiny little outlet from D lake, right under Highway 101 and the restaurant, to the ocean. The Wikipedia page for D River includes an exterior shot of Kyllo’s, and tells me the river is no longer the world’s shortest.

After lunch we drove about twenty miles south, down to Depoe Bay, trying to give Joe a sense of a different kind of beach. Most Lincoln City beaches are flat and sandy. Down in Depoe Bay, you get to see cliffs and rocks.

Depoe Bay is known as a hot spot for whale watching. Unfortunately, during Joe’s visit the only whale visible was this very small non-aquatic variety, which seemed to be in some kind of stupor. This Miniature Gray Whale sat there long enough to let Joe pose for a picture.

On the way back through town, stopped at Robert’s Books, a great used and antiquarian book shop in the Nelscott part of town. I recommend this place if you ever visit LC. Here Lena is ready about something spooky!

We had to make sure to show Joe the King in Yellow first editions (both British and American) locked away in the glass case. Too expensive to buy, but fun to check out. Also, there were two whole shelves of Arkham House hardcovers. It’s fun to browse a bookstore with another writer, make suggestions and compare notes. Joe and I talked a lot about Jack o”connell and Andrew Vachss. Then Joe asked to take a look at my “to buy” pile, as well as Lena’s, and sneakily went up front and paid for them.

Here’s my Cthulhu t-shirt with a design from a woodcut by Liv Rainey-Smith. I love this, and I need to buy more of her art.

All fun things — conventions, visits from friends, vacations — must come to an end. Goodbye, beach!

Back to Portland. All of us were starting to run on fumes, feeling happy from all the fun times, yet exhausted. There was still time to make Joe one more special USA-ian dinner — grilled steaks, with baked potatoes and Caesar salads. After that, we were all starting to think we might need a week or two break from food.

Wednesday morning, we dropped Joe at PDX and said goodbye. All three of us kept reminding each other that soon we’d see each other again. August in Providence… August in Providence. Not just the three of us, but many of the new friends we met and the old friends we’d seen again, this past wonderful week.