This first post is going to cover July 24th through August 1st when we stayed at my Aunt and Uncle's house and went sailing.
We arrived in Seattle at about 11:30 at night which was 1:30 for us and it certainly felt like it. My Uncle Mike, my mom's brother, came to pick us up as they live the closest and are the people more likely to be awake at that hour to pick us up from the airport. We finally went to bed at around 1 or so and we slept very well in preparation of the next day. My Aunt and Uncle were in the process of selling their house (the inspection was the day we left the house!) and so they were busy organizing all of the papers and such. Littie and I headed out as she was eager to ride her skateboard and I was eager to take some pictures.
We took a nice walk in their neighborhood that ended with a killer hill we walked up just for fun. Washington is so hilly it takes a bit to get used to it compared with the relatively flat area of San Antonio.
The second day we were still at my Aunt and Uncle's house in Federal Way (a far suburb of Seattle and a closer suburb of Tacoma) so my Mom's friend from elementary school who lives Auburn came and took us downtown, something Littie and I insisted upon because of the shopping. We intended to take the light rail but we couldn't find parking for it so we drove up instead. What's really quite funny is that the parking garage we were in titled the levels by cities. The top one was Seattle and the very bottom one was titled San Antonio. We parked in the level above San Antonio in what I think was San Francisco or something. We were about 5 blocks from the water so we had a fair bit of walking to do before we could see the water.
We ate at Fisherman's last time we were here.
That low grey building in the foreground is the Seattle Aquarium, the best aquarium I've ever been to. Because it's on the water the animals get to swim in a natural habitat rather than being stuck in glass boxes.
The shipyard.
Safeco Field and CenturyLink Field (baseball and soccer)
Seattle is the flower city. And I love it.
All along the streets downtown different street performers perform their music. This was Littie's favorite. He had a rainbow guitar and played his own music and pop. My favorite (which I sadly don't have a picture of) was an electric violinist who was playing Rocketeer. :)
Ivars on the waterfront encourages feeding seagulls, contrary to most restaurants. Littie attempted to feed them by hand and freaked out in the process.
We of course bought some raspberries and I ate an entire carton before we got back to Federal Way.
After being downtown we had to rest up quick before we departed for Anacortes where the sailboat is. The family plots are also there in a beautiful cemetery.
While at Pike Place Market I bought some really beautiful flowers to place on my brother Andrew's grave. This year was 7 years and he would have been 31 years old right after my grandma turned 90 and my sister turned 16.
After the cemetery we headed down to the docks to load up the sailboat with an insane amount of luggage, food, and ice. We spent the first night at the docks since we got there in the late afternoon. This worked out quite well as we were able to charge our phones and such off the power supply.
This boat, the Singing Hallelujah, is a charter boat that left just as we came back from our trip.
And this is the boat! It's name is the Agape but I think of it as the kayak boat as it's quite loaded down with them. :) It's a 34 foot boat with room to sleep 9, depending on how big the people are. We had 5 people in it and then 6 when my cousin joined us over the weekend. Needless to say with 5 or 6 full sized people it was a bit more cramped than 2 years ago but we didn't have to be in the boat all at the same time very much.
This is our very perilous dinghy. The motor on it (attached to the sailboat right now) is actually also in a nautical museum in Canada which speaks to how old it is. The dinghy itself is going to need to be replaced sooner than later as well. The bench came off the moment my mom sat on it with my Aunt so we all had to sit on the edges. It also gains quite a lot of water when we use it which makes for an interesting ride.
The first place we went to was Spencer Spit state park. It's formed by a current running near an island which pushes back the earth forming the spit. The spit has a swamp in the middle of it which is usually smelly although it wasn't when we were there. The water was a cool 39 degrees so the picture of the guy out in it is a testament to how crazy he is.
This picture is quite a phenomenon. My Uncle Mike never smiles for pictures so my Aunt was pleased to see this.
This is my carton of blueberries. Last time I ate an other people's blueberries until they told me to stop which was much too soon. This year I bought my own carton and ate them all up. :)
This picture and the one below were taken looking out of my Aunt and Uncle's porthole. They always have a spectacular view through it.
One of the things we do while out on the boat is kayak. My Uncle borrows one kayak and he has two so it works out well. I didn't want to take my camera out with me just in case I fell over (it hasn't happened but you never know. Murphy's law and all) so I left it on the boat. I went back to the boat and took a view pictures from my kayak which I couldn't actually see while taking them so they're unfortunately rather blown out and awful.
Playing with the focus points.
Our second destination was Rosario which is on Orcas Island. Rosario is essentially a resort with a restaurant, 2 pools, and a great history. I didn't get any pictures on land because I didn't want to take my camera aboard the leaky dinghy. Rosario was built way back in the early 1900's by a ship builder who consequently built his house much like a ship. He was also mayor during the Seattle fire of 1889 and helped with the reconstruction. The house is absolutely stunning and has a beautiful organ and piano which were played during a concert/slideshow by Christopher Peacock. It was so refreshing to be around history and hear real music once again as I was unable to play except for once on the trip.
The white house is the house built in the 1900's with the swimming pool attached to the left. The little white circular building to the far right was also built during that time and was the "playhouse" for his children. It has an oven in it for pottery and is now a suite for those who get married there.
That night a wedding was happening at the house the same time we were touring it. We all felt quite grubby compared to the rich people who were dressed for the wedding. They had the reception in the restaurant and played extraordinarily loud music. They started with the oldies like Sinatra and moved on slowly to modern pop. We (my cousin Katie who had joined us at Rosario, Littie, and I) were singing and guessing the songs they were playing. It was a lot of fun that night freezing to death outside and enjoying the party going on on land.
The next day with our cousin Katie, who is the daughter of Uncle Mike and Aunt LuAnn, we journeyed to Jones Island which is a prime kayaking and walking spot.
The teeny tiny dock which we got to dinghy to.
As I said this is an excellent spot for kayaking. Thus it was decided that Katie, Littie, and I would kayak around part of the island to meet the others who would walk on land. So I took the borrowed kayak, Littie took the green one that is owned by Uncle Mike, and Katie got to take Uncle Mike's kayak. Let me explain a little bit about his kayak. Uncle Mike is approximately 6'4" and doesn't fit in normal kayaks so he built his own. It's incredibly heavy as it's made of wood and very tippy for a person who's 5'7" as Katie is. As we went ashore she was trying to get out of it and in the process fell in the water which thankfully was a little warmer as it was shallow.
Our kayaking trip was an adventure in an of itself. Uncle Mike told us to go around the point and it would be the second sandy beach we saw. The wind was against us as well as the current so our right arms were very sore as we made our trip around the island. We saw our first sandy beach and kept on kayaking until we were almost around the next point, quite a journey. Uncle Mike then started yelling at us from that first sandy beach that this was the beach we were supposed to land on. So we got lots of extra kayaking in from our extended trip. :)
This tree reminded me of trees on the Serengeti.
This picture was a fail as my focus point was on the wrong side but it still depicts the peeling skin like bark on the tree.
2 years ago we visited 2 islands, Sucia and Cypress, which had particularly not pleasant bathrooms. This outhouse blew us away. Not only was it really cute it had lots of toilet paper, was clean, and even had hand sanitizer! We were all impressed. :)
Littie's superhero pose with improvised cape that did in fact "fly".
On our way back from our walk around the island I ran ahead to grab some pictures of them walking. Littie and Katie were the only ones who noticed so they took advantage and had fun.
People with their dog going out to check their crab pots.
The tradition on the boat is to play Mexican Train every night. This year we played Racko a lot instead but on the fourth night we got out the dominoes to play Mexican Train. One night, not the first, Littie was trying to communicate that she wished to play Mexican Train but forgot what it was called so she asked me if we could play "Chinese Train". I looked at her until I realized what she was asking and then we laughed for a while. She did this at Grandma's house too so I guess she wants to rename it or something.
Our next stop was Friday Harbor which is a part of San Juan Island. They have docks for pretty much all the boats that come but you do have to pay for it. The good part is that they have power so we can charge our phones all we want! We just so happened to come at a bad time and got the absolute farthest spot possible from land. I'm not kidding when I say that we had to walk at least a quarter of a mile to reach land. The restrooms were a bit of a trek also. :( Friday Harbor is more like a big town and it's a big ferry spot which is why stopped there as my cousin Katie had to go back to work the next day.
I loved the colors of the next two pictures. Towels and flags!
Anyone who know me, actually anyone who vaguely knows me, knows that I love books. Love love love books. I was limited in the books that I brought with me (I only brought two) so a bookstore was a necessary stop for me. Thankfully there was a used bookstore at Friday Harbor that my Aunt remembered. They went with me and then left me there as I intended to stay a while. They had 2 boxes of Agatha Christies which made me a very happy girl. Nothing like a good murder mystery! I ended up buying 5 or 6 books which I'll post about later.
Every time we're in Washington I eat my heart out eating fish as I don't get it in Texas. I tried 4 different places version of fish and chips, this being one of them. This restaurant rated (out of the 4) number 2 because of their toppings that I took off but still flavored the fish. I love the flakiness of fish. Yum! Where we were sitting we had a great view of the harbor and got to watch the ferry come in.
In an antique shop.
That night Katie had to go home back to Seattle by taking the ferry. She intended to take the 7:15 which would mean she would get home at about midnight. She had to go to work at 6 in the morning so she wanted to get a little bit of sleep before then. Littie and I had headed off to the showers right before Katie left so we didn't get to say goodbye. Much to our surprise as we exited the bathroom Katie and Aunt LuAnn were walking back! Turns out the ferry leaving then was an international and couldn't take passengers on due to customs so Katie was stuck until 10! She did get back home eventually and got about 2 hours of sleep.
The next day we went about half an hour away to Turn Island which was right in the path of boats. The boat tossed and turned a lot which caused me to get seasick, sort of. It settled down after a while and we all tried to figure out what we should do. It ended up that we all go to do exactly what we all wanted. Aunt LuAnn remained on the boat to just relax and not worry about cooking or anything, Littie and Momma went kayaking, and Uncle Mike dinghied me to shore so I could read without getting seasick before he went kayaking as well. It was a perfect afternoon. I got to sit on the shore reading and listening to the waves crash on the beach.
See the boat to the right of the sailboat? That's the mystery boat. There was no dinghy, it was anchored (anchoring is free versus tying up to a buoy), and it was completely empty. I conjured up some theories as to why it was there that might have been influenced by reading murder mysteries. The first was that there was a murderer, a sniper, aboard who had killed the owners and taken the boat. He was trying not to draw attention to himself and his name which would explain why he anchored. The other was that there was a murdered person aboard that had been previously killed and was rotting inside. The second theory was taken as the "truth" and was how we referred to the boat.
Uncle Mike coming to get me in the evening.
Our final island was Cypress island which we had visited 2 years ago. However this time we went to Eagle harbor which shelters the boats better from the wind.
I decided that since this was the last place we'd visit I would take my dslr onto land. I'm so happy we did as we took a nice walk around the island that had lots of photographable flowers.
Flower bokeh!
A thistle which is what Eeyore eats.
This reminded me (again) of Lord of the Rings. Specifically the road that the Hobbits find themselves on after they tumbled down the cliff. While not as wide it gives off a similar eerie feeling as the road in the movie and book.
Uncle Mike, rather than walking with the women, chose to kayak around the island.
On the way from Cypress island to Anacortes, WA we had to resort to sailing (ironic isn't it?) because the motor was making weird sounds. We kept up our 4 knot speed until we got stuck behind a bluff going a whopping 1 knot. At that time Uncle Mike started the motor up again but it was nice while it lasted. I found it quite difficult to try and get a picture of the sail with a 50mm.
This was a great picture of the seagulls on the edge of the docks until Momma put her face in it. :)
And that concludes our trip downtown and our sailing adventure. This turned out way longer than I was expecting and I can't say I'm looking forward to the next one. The next post won't have as many pictures as it's just what we did at Grandma's house and other "ordinary" things.
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