Apparently no one got what I THOUGHT was funny on the post in between the trip posts. Those are the guys (Jawas) on Star Wars that say "Wootini!" I thought it was similar enough to "Zucchini!" it would be funny....so anyways.
On Sunday morning we got up a little early because we had a reservation for the Port Townsend to Coupeville ferry. The drive into Port Townsend was gorgeous and the architecture in town was beautiful!
I'm thinking a return trip is in order to stay there! We waited in the line at the ferry and I had to take a few pics of the Cascades across the sound. They were more impressive in person, but the pictures don't do them too much injustice.
It was another great ferry ride and I got to do my favorite trick. You walk in the direction the ferry is going and look out the window to the side of you. It makes you feel like you are moving at vampire speeds. We also had fun eavesdropping on a cell phone conversation to a person who obviously didn't know anything about the Pacific Northwest or Seattle. Snippets included:
"Yeah, I'm on a ferry. It's a boat that you drive your car on. No, it's taking me across to an island. No, it's not the ocean, it's like a bay or something. "
"Yeah there are these big mountains in the distance. I think they're the Cascades? No I don't see any volcanoes..." Cue volcano in the distance in front of the ferry. It WAS covered with snow, so maybe I should give him the benefit of the doubt?
When Mom and I saw the dock come into view I said we should probably go back to the car. I got up and walked over to the stairs down to the cars and I could tell no one was behind me. I looked back and she wasn't there. I walked back to look at the seats we just vacated...still not there. Finally I spotted her across the way looking for me. We both started cracking up! We must have done a cartoon move and both gotten up and split, going in opposite directions so assured that the other was behind us.
We drove to Coupeville and found the waterfront shops. We took a picture of the shop they used as Sally's store in Practical Magic. We had gotten there earlier than the shops opened, but there was a nice bakery open where we got a couple of pastries. They also had a tavern named "Toby's Tavern."
We decided if Toby would be something it probably would be a tavern. He is always so happy and ready to have a good time!
We continued on to Anacortes and decided we should scope out where the ships would be departing from. We drove to the location they put on the tickets to find....nothing. It was a dead end with a dirt parking lot.... We had just passed the marina so we headed back there and after a little searching Mom found some people who directed us to where the ships would be taking off from. We walked down and got to go on both ships and decided we wanted to sail on the Lady Washington. She is a wooden ship based on the original ship that Captain Gray sailed to the Pacific Northwest.
While we were walking down the docks we found a ship named Ariel. It was pretty funny because it was a crabbing ship. If Toby's a tavern, then Ariel would definitely be a crab ship.
We went back to the car and ate a lunch of crackers with the cheddar cheese from the Dungeness Valley Creamery. As we waited for the ships to depart the weather was drizzly but that kept it cool enough that the dogs wouldn't swelter while we were gone.
We got our spots on the Lady Washington and listened as the crew told us what would happen and how to stay safe, you know the drill. They used a motor to get us out of the marina and when we got out into open water the crew went to work opening out the sails.
Wow. They would climb up rope ladders to the masts and stand on a single rope untying the knots to let the sails out. Then they would pull, with all their body weight on ropes to get the sails taught and move them in whatever direction the captain ordered to try and catch the wind.
When both ships were in full sail they got back closer together and the battle began! There was a munitions guy who would load the cannon, aim the cannon at the other ship and yell "Prepare to Fire!". You were supposed to yell the same thing back and put your fingers in your ears. He'd fire the cannon and you were supposed to cheer like we'd made a hit.
We sailed around and fired cannons at each other and just generally tired to get wind in the sails. It wasn't a very windy day so the last part was a bit hard and it didn't feel like we were moving much sometimes. It was still the most fun thing I have done in a while!
The other funny thing was watching the other "pleasure" boats come around. Some would circle and circle snapping pictures. The best was this pair of guys in a little motorboat and the one in the front was busying himself with something not looking around. The guy in the back must have said something to the one in front because he looked up and just stared, mouth agape. The guy in back was taking pictures with his cell phone, but the guy in front never stopped gaping. It was like they'd sailed themselves through a time hole and ended up in the 1800's. I almost didn't take my camera! Good thing I went back for it!
The trip lasted 3 hours and we were exhausted when we got back. It was dinner time and we ate at the Rockfish Grill and Anacortes Brewery. They are a little microbrew place with great wood-fired pizzas. We had Hefeweizens, a pepperoni pizza with fresh basil on top and a chicken Caesar salad. YUM! We then drove out to the Anacortes Ship Harbor Inn. The rooms look out on the ferry terminal to the San Juan Islands and Victoria B.C. It was really nice to have some grass right out our glass sliding door so we could take the puppies to the potty easily. The view was pretty but kind of dreary with the weather. I did enjoy watching the ferries come and go and we even heard one blow it's horn as it left. The next morning the sun was out and the view was fantastic!
We packed up and I had looked in the yellow pages for a yarn store since we had some time to kill. We stopped at Ana-Cross Stitch and they had all sorts of beautiful yarns. Mom looked for some patterns for Cowichan and cabled fisherman's sweaters. I found some beautiful blue-green yarn and some 9 inch circular needles for using to make mittens, fingerless gloves and other such small diameter projects without having to use double-pointed needles. I was ready to move to Anacortes. They had gorgeous views of the ocean, moderate yearly rainfall amounts, a microbrew, a yarn store and they weren't too far from an IMAX theater. Pretty much perfect, right? We got out of town on time and drove on to the IMAX theater which was close to the Alderwood Mall. The poster outside the theater said it all.
Harry Potter was pretty amazing on a huge 3D screen, and it was a great way to end the movies.
After that we headed home with great memories, thoroughly relaxed and ready to go back!
Zucchini!!
This spring Mom and I were discussing how we needed to go on a vacation that was different from our usual trips to the cabin and Cannon Beach. No disrespect to either places but we were feeling a bit rutted. So I had researched things to do in Washington State and found out that the Lavender Festival that they have yearly in Sequim was going to fall on a weekend we had off. We had already put in our vacation time for the year and figured we could do this trip in our usual 3-day weekend. (Working every other weekend gives you one day off every week, ours just happens to be Monday.) We also had always wanted to do a trip to visit the places where movies/books had been filmed/located in Washington State. This in much less cryptic terms means we wanted to visit Coupeville, WA (where they filmed parts of Practical Magic) and Forks, WA (if you don't know what book series made this town famous you should be ashamed...) I had also seen that two tall ships, the Lady Washington and Hawaiian Chieftain, were in Astoria in May but we weren't able to go. So I visited their website and found out they travel up and down the Pacific coast and were going to be in Anacortes the weekend we were planning our trip. If you ever get the chance, or just are looking for something fun and interesting to do, you should definitely go on one of these amazing sails! So our trip was planned...Sequim, Forks, Coupeville and Anacortes. There was just one problem we found out about closer to our trip...Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 was also coming out that weekend. Being the girl that had stood in long, and sometimes freezing, lines to get tickets on opening day, and also once being the nerd sitting close to the front of the line in a lawn chair reading the said book that was to be the movie I was going to watch, it was going to be a heinous crime against humanity that I NOT see the last Harry Potter movie on opening weekend. Thankfully a co-worker said, "You won't be doing those things all day. Go see the movie in the evening. You'll be on the west side." My brain started firing and came up with something special that we do not possess on the east side of the Cascades...IMAX. I started freaking out! This would be the answer, the most honorable thing to do for the last movie, in four words...Harry Potter IMAX 3D. And so it was set.
We left on Friday afternoon and drove over the pass in beautiful weather. By the time we got into Seattle though it had clouded up and was drizzling a little. We stopped and ate at our favorite restaurant, The Old Spaghetti Factory. This also made it easy to get to the ferries since it is down close to the waterfront. We were taking the ferry to Bainbridge Island, not just because it shortens the trip, but because we LOVE ferries. We ended up waiting a bit for the 7:20 ferry, but it was prime knitting time for me, and puppy holding time for Mom.
The ferry ride was fun, but it was definitely not weather that made you want to stand out at the front. We had more fun standing next to the car and watching the froth churned up by the ferry.
When we got to Bainbridge we started chasing the light of day. I drove to Sequim and the mountains that we came upon were amazing, as was most of the scenery on this trip. We got to Sequim about 9:30 and fell into bed.
On Saturday we started out going to the Lavender Festival in the Park. They had a raptor recovery center showing their owls and eagles that would not be able to return to the wild. They were all very interesting and terribly intelligent.
We did some shopping there, bubble bath, lotions, and lip balms, and then set out to go to some farms. The first one we stopped at was Graymarsh Berry Farm that had fresh strawberries and beautiful lavender fields. (I loved the purple car there too!)
Then we drove out to the Dungeness Valley Creamery for some milk, which we later turned into pudding to go with the strawberries, and some tasty cheddar cheese. Next we stopped by Oliver's Lavender Farm. So beautiful! They had gorgeous lavender plants and a beautiful gazebo. There was also a house that had these lavender plants lined up in front of it looking like something out of France. Mom picked up some royal purple lavender plants for around our house.
Next we headed off to Forks. The drive was about an hour and 20 minutes, taking us through Port Angeles. It also took us by Lake Crescent, which is this amazing long lake, the road curving around it, with views straight out of a Twilight novel.
It also appropriately poured on us during the drive...in amounts I cannot believe. Rain coming down so hard the wipers couldn't keep the windshield clear. It did stop raining by the time we made it to town so I could take the requisite picture of the Welcome to Forks sign...
...and then we stopped at the store in town that pawns all things Twilight. There was plenty of people my age or older in the store, so thankfully I wasn't too out of place. I got a few things, one being a "Stupid Shiny Volvo Owner" keychain that is definitely going on my keys when I get my Volvo. Then we drove around the town, mostly following the touring van, and finally found the Forks Chamber of Commerce building. They had found an old red Chevy truck and called it "Bella's Chevy" when the books came out, but now they also have the Chevy truck that they used in the movies parked out front. It was pretty cool...and that's our blue van parked next to the movie truck, just to prove we were there :0)
We drove back to Sequim and ate at the Applebee's in town and I got to pickup my favorite souvenir, two lavender colored Adirondack chairs. They're just plastic, but you'd never find that color where we live. And every time we'll sit in them it'll remind us of this fantastic trip.
More to come...
Sorry about the delay in posting this, but the internet has NOT been working for me lately. Also life seems to have gotten BUSY and leaves me little time to get on the internet that is not working, so I just knit instead. Lots of Christmas presents to get done!
Mom and I headed up to the cabin on Friday, June 17th. Actually we had Thursday off as well, but it was a good thing since NOTHING had been packed yet. Mom and I spent Thursday morning getting irrigation around the house going because it was finally getting warm and we didn't want to leave the house without some water going around it. Then we loaded the pickup with everything from beds to lanterns to buckets to tarps. Camping in Washington is not complete without a blue tarp cause you know you are going to need it. Mom took the truck into the tire shop because the tires were looking flat-ish while I was showering. Then that afternoon we took the dogs to the vet because we hadn't gotten any flea/tick stuff on them yet and also went grocery shopping for the trip. I packed up the food and got it into the truck in hurricane force winds and we fell into our beds around 10:00. This got us off to a later start Friday morning, but since we were meeting David, Leslie, Justin and Tayla in Wilbur this worked out all for the best. They were getting off to a late start too and we were pretty close to getting to Wilbur at the same time. We all went up to visit the relatives at the cemetery and then pulled our caravan onto the road heading for the cabin.
Things weren't too bad when we made it there. Sometimes people come in and abuse the property while we are gone, but things looked close to what we had left last year. David took my "princess bed" and cut the 4x4 legs down to a more reasonable height.
Last year Uncle Fred put together a wooden frame for the springs we leave there every year so that I had a bed that was off the floor like everyone else. Well the legs were a bit tall and when I would roll over at night I would try to pull Toby from the outside to the inside close to the wall. He would scramble and try to pull himself back to the outside until he figured out that he wasn't falling off, something that I agreed was a fear of mine as well. After the bed was cut down to size and the cabin swept out, we made it into the homey place it is for the weekend. Sheet went up on the walls and beds and cots were made. The dogs were happy at this point because all they really want is a bed to lay on. We put away supplies and set up aforementioned tarp. The dining area was set into place, and the kitchen was arranged. David spent the rest of the night trying to weld together an old metal bed frame so that the second mattress would be elevated as well, and though it was probably close to midnight when he finished it, it was pretty sweet. We had spaghetti for dinner that night and were too tired to pull out S'more fixings.
The next day was pretty lazy. The adults were worn out and slept in. But Justin got up because he heard sounds outside the cabin. It ended up just being the free range cattle that roam the hills. Tayla got up to see and when she opened the door she said, "Holy cow!" That threw me into a fit of giggles and then all the adults fell back to sleep. Justin and Tayla stayed up and got the fire going. When the adults did finally get up we made breakfast and then just slummed around.
I read, Mom read, we played a game of Yahtzee, and then David said we should drive up to Mabbutt's cabin and the mine shaft. So we all loaded into his pickup and took the scenic route up to the upper cabins. It was a bit drizzly at times but all in all a good time. David had to get out and cut up a tree or two that was down over the road and Justin helped him. It was really muddy to get up to the grate across the top of the shaft where it's caved in and David tried to get the truck to spin out our slide, but to no avail. The dogs were pretty happy at the mine entrance and ran through the water that comes out of the tunnel, getting muddy and being happy.
We tried to get to the Madonna tree, but there was a pretty big tree across the road and a very boggy place to get over, so we retreated. That night we had chicken garbage for dinner and had a nice fire going, so of course it was S'more time. I usually bring up Reese cups for those that want something more than Hershey's chocolate bars, but this year I also brought Ghirardelli caramel squares. OMG. So good.
The next day we all slept in. There is nothing like sleeping at the cabin. So deep and so long and it stays nice and dark in the cabin, so even though the sun is up you don't have to be. The cows came through around 8 AM again, and I asked what time it was, and Mom said "Cow time." When we got up we made breakfast and then lazed around. This time we played Flinch for a while, but David got a bit sick and went and laid down. Mom and Tayla and I walked up our hill and placed the rocks back into the ring that we've set up there.
Toby ringed his neck with cowpie, as per usual, and he got a half bath back at camp.
On the way back Tayla spotted a lizard, probably a salamander of some sort. Better a lizard than a cougar.
David was feeling better and we had lunch and he started cleaning the pistol.
Mom had wanted to walk up to the Madonna tree, so her and Tayla and I all set off. We hauled an old plank up there to get across the extra boggy parts. When we made it past the Madonna tree and Gram's tree we headed up to what we call the Wizard rock.
It's a huge boulder that the last glacier left there from umpteen years ago. We saw our second run-in with cabin wildlife, a mama cow and two calves.
We hiked up to the rock and just below it was this beautiful meadow with lupine (the purple flowers...be careful not to eat!) that looked like it fell out of a Twilight novel.
On our way back down we heard the boys shooting the pistol, so they must have gotten it back together right. We started dinner when we got back and had hamburger stew for dinner. David still wasn't feeling well and went to lay down, where he ended up the rest of the night. Mom, Leslie, Justin, Tayla and I played a rousing game of UNO, followed by a short game of Phase 10, where Justin was losing spectacularly. We capped the night off with some more S'mores.
The next day we took everything down and packed up for home. Mom and I drove past a town called Sherman, which is where our ancestors first settled when they moved to Washington State. It has a really pretty church and we checked out the cemetery looking for anyone from our family.
Sad that it is so short, but thankful cause we were pretty dirty. Till next year!
