The Rest of the Peninsula

On Wednesday, July 11th we drove west towards Sequim.  We stopped at the Sunshine Lavender Farm that we had wanted to visit last year.  Mom picked up three new lavender plants and we both purchased a variety of products at the store, lotions, lip balms, candles, spices and honey.

We drove on to go past the Dungeness Valley Creamery for some cheese to make a picnic lunch for the day and also stopped at a local farm store to get the fixings for sandwiches and some fresh fruit.  Our goal was to get all the way to the ocean.  We had been to Forks last year, so this year we wanted to see LaPush.  On the highway before we got to Port Angeles was a winery I wanted to visit.  The Olympic Winery is owned and operated solely by women and has a "Twilight wine" that I was interested in getting.  After three tries crossing the divided highway we made it there.  I not only got the sparkling Syrah (that is the Twilight wine), I also got a Lemberger (my favorite red!) and a bottle of "Rose the Riveter"(a lovely blush).  Yum!

We continued on past Crescent Lake and I stopped so Mom could get some pictures.  The water is really cerulean and almost turquoise as the water becomes more shallow.  It's such a beautiful lake that maybe we should plan a weekend to just go there some time.

The sun was shining the whole way out to the coast, even after we turned off the main highway.  On the little spur out to LaPush we passed this sign.

I love it when places buy in to the obsessions people have over things like books.  As we got close to heading down to the beach the clouds started looming on the horizon and by the time we got into LaPush the sky was overcast.  We pulled into the parking lot at First Beach and broke out the picnic lunch, since we were starving.  We watched to boats come and go out of the marina and had a great time.  Then we put on our jackets to head down to the beach, quite a difference from that east coast beach with it's bathwater ocean temperature and 80 degree temps!  The puppies were still very happy to go on another beach walk.  There was driftwood all over!

We saw huge trees that had washed up on the beach...

And cute messages carved into some logs...

A fun shelter built out of driftwood...

And wolf tracks!

No, wait, it's just my domesticated wolves instead.

We picked up more agates on our walk and found some mussel shells too.  After everyone was tuckered out we piled back in the car and drove back for dinner at Port Angeles.  I wanted to eat at Bella Italia to complete my Twilight site seeing, so we found the restaurant and hoped for a short wait since I hadn't called for reservations (a recommendation on an number of sites).  It looks like knitters had yarn-bombed Port Angeles too!

Mom and I split an appetizer of bruschetta and then a plate of Bella's mushroom ravioli...which I forgot to take a picture of!  So I took a picture of the advertisement for it on the way out instead...

We got back to Port Ludlow and passed out.  Maybe driving from one end of the Olympic Peninsula to the other and back in a day wasn't the best idea...

Where does the time go?

I'm kind of afraid that I am having memory lapses, but time seems to be flying this summer.  I just finally got the pictures off of my camera from our latest adventure...which was during the second week of July.  As I was putting them in the proper filing arrangement I was also moving pictures of the dry erase calendar that keeps track of our lives to the "Calendar" file for later use to put together the Christmas letter.  I noticed that I was missing April, so I went looking for it and as I moved it to the Calendar file I perused what we did that month.  It said we went to Cannon Beach and I was surprised. Really?  I don't remember even going.  So I looked back to the appropriate file dates and sure enough, there were the pictures to prove it.  Well maybe I didn't blog about it, I thought.  Nope, there's a blog in the April archives and as I read through it I do remember it being warm.  The truth is I don't even remember most of what happened in the months of May or June, though I remember going to North Carolina.  I am going to blame it on the ridiculous levels of stress at work, but really it may just be not taking enough time to relax on my part.  Mom and I have kept a pretty busy schedule lately outside of the extra day's worth of overtime on my paycheck and my goal for the rest of the summer is to finally relax.  You know do some things for me.  Eat outside on the porch, lay in my hammock, knit a pair of mittens in the time limits of the Olympics.  Easy things like that...and blogging.  ;)

So waaaaaaay back at the beginning of July, Mom and I took a vacation to the Olympic Peninsula.  This was not the relaxing vacation we had in mind back in the winter when it was planned.  We had made our reservations back then and the idea of going to North Carolina and then turning around and going on vacation again was not ours.  It just happened that way.  But it was also quite draining on funds to go to North Carolina.  To make up for our sad bank accounts we called and cancelled our first night at Port Ludlow.  We didn't have the time to get ready to go before the Monday we were leaving and we were going to be taking off late to make up for that, so Mom made the suggestion of just going Tuesday morning.  Being the planner I am I had issues with adjusting the schedule but conceded that I didn't really have the money either.

So Tuesday morning, July 10th, we took off for Seattle.  The drive was beautiful and clear until we hit the top of the pass and the clouds awaited us on the other side.

We got in line for the Bainbridge Island ferry (the first of many ferries) and tried to get into that relaxing mood we were searching for.

Once we hit the peninsula we headed straight for Port Townsend.  As we drove the clouds began to dissipate and eventually it cleared off entirely.  When we reached Port Townsend it was gorgeous!

We visited a couple of yarn shops (the first of many yarn shops), got some yummy cupcakes and wandered the downtown.  We were pretty hungry so we stopped for lunch at a nice restaurant that had waterfront dining.  Then we drove around town to see the Victorian houses that Port Townsend is famous for and saw quite a few beauties.

Then we drove down to Fort Warden State Park to see the Point Wilson Lighthouse.  We knew we needed a Discover Pass to park there and Mom went into the park office to purchase one, since we'd forgotten to get one before we left.  It pays for itself if you use it three times and on this trip we did just that!  There was a nice rocky/sandy beach out by the lighthouse and the dogs were happy to get out and stretch their legs.  We picked up agates and really started to get into vacation mode.  The lighthouse wasn't open for tours, but it was nice to visit.  We were wistful, however, for those massive lighthouses of the east coast.

After that we drove back to Port Ludlow to the Inn at Port Ludlow where we were staying the next two nights.  I found out about this place from another blog I read all the time.  The Yarn Harlot has been here numerous times for knitting retreats that last whole long weekends and I am dying to go on sometime but that's another tangent.  They "yarn bomb" the place which in essence is knitting items for statues, lamps and other random home decor.  Some of it was still up when we got there.

And the place was really very beautiful.  We had a huge room with amazing views and a big bathroom!

They also had a really nice flat screen TV with....a VCR attached to it?  Really?  I thought all the VCR's in the world had been replaced by DVD players about 10 years ago.  I mean, we have one at home, but we NEVER use it.  So the DVD's I brought with me weren't going to be very useful and we had to try and find something on television to be decent background noise, which is really very hard to do.  We also ate dinner down in their restaurant and it was awesome!  And pricey!  Mom and I split a steak and potato dinner and then split a dessert with coffee, no wine even, and we were dipping deep into our food money.  They did make broccoli taste the best I have ever eaten though.  It was baked in a creamy cheese sauce that was so good I SAVED THE BROCCOLI FOR DESSERT!  It was crazy good.  We drove into the village after that to pick up some breakfast food, since we hadn't found a bakery in town to get some donuts at.  Guess not every town can be as complete as Cannon Beach...

Catching up...

So it's time to catch you all up on the rest of my life that is not vacation!

I spent the week after Mom left in Durham, North Carolina learning lots about the new Vitek instrument that is sitting waiting to be used in micro.  We have had a Vitek since I was a student, but they just keep getting smarter and smarter.  What is a Vitek you say?  It is an instrument that when a pure isolate of a microorganism is put on it with appropriate "cards" can identify the bacteria and give sensitivities to a variety of antibiotics.  Now what do I do you say?  I look at the report and approve what the Vitek says is the ID or look at it and say, "Are you kidding me?!"  Nothing is fool-proof you see and sometimes you get a "junk" answer like Sphingomonas.  So sometimes you have to do other tests or further workups or send it to the University of Washington to have it's DNA ripped apart and replicated until they can tell what it is.  Ultimately the Vitek is a miniaturization of tube tests that your profs in college made you do, plus a computer that can analyze those and compare them to known reactions to give you an ID.  The newest thing is the sensitivity software.  They use a sort of fingerprint of resistance to certain antibiotics to extrapolate what mechanism of resistance a microorganism may have.  That means that when we have a really resistant gram negative rod it may be an extended spectrum beta lactamase producer, or a carbapenemase producer, or an AmpC resistance and the Vitek software can tell us the most likely resistance mechanism.  This become important with emerging resistance mechanism that used to be able to fall through the "if, then" statements that were used to flag resistant organisms.  I just looked back at this paragraph and maybe I should paraphrase a bit better.  It does cool stuff to help me tell your doctor what drugs to give you.  There, that's better.  I tend to get a bit excited when talking about microorganisms.  :)

Here's a picture of our classroom with an instrument for each of us...

And a picture of the break-room and coffee maker which was of utmost importance to those of us still a bit jet-lagged...

And some pictures of the wonderful people in my class who made the week a ton of fun!

I flew home on Friday and got into Yakima at midnight.  Mom picked me up and I went home and slept 4 hours and got up and went to work on Saturday.  That's right, I'm dedicated!  But really it's almost impossible to get a weekend off and I had asked my supervisor if she would work Sunday for me.  I thought it was only fair that I get my butt to work that Saturday since she was being so gracious. The reason I needed Sunday off was because my cousin Justin was graduating from high school!!

I can't believe it really.  I was 12 when he was born and still think of him as "little" sometimes.  My Mom and I still say "railroad track" the way he did when he was little whenever we drive over one.  And I remember the good times, like when he was annoying and wanted to get his hands all over the computer.  I shoved him a little and he fell backwards onto his diapered bottom and started to cry.  Grammy yelled down from the kitchen table, "What happened?!"  And I yelled back, "He fell!"  Well he did...after I pushed him.  He's grown into a really fun and down to earth guy and I'm sure he will continue to amaze me.

So besides all of that the sour cherry trees decided to give us a bountiful crop of beautiful fruit!  So in my free time (haha) Mom and I have been going out and picking the dickens out of the trees.  The birds found out how good cherries tasted before we could put up the scare tape so we had to cover some of the trees with net so that we could get in on the crop.  The birds ate the tops and we picked the bottom, which we both found copacetic.  We've made a couple of pies, some cherry muffins, a galette, and freezing many bags for later.  Mom is also juicing up quite a few so that we can make sour cherry jelly, which is something I may never get enough of!

We also have quite a garden growing and have already picked plenty of strawberries.  The zucchini and peas are starting to get some mature veggies on them and the pumpkins vines are slowly taking over the long beds.  We planted garlic last fall and now they have some interesting flowers on them...wonder if I need to do something about that.  But they look like modern art!

My tomatoes look like they may have gotten frozen after we set them out.  :(  But we bought a four pitch hitters at the store in case mine never recover.  (Those are the ones that look green in the last picture...)  The tomatoes that I started are coming back slowly so we'll have to see if they catch up.

So yeah!  Life never seems to slow down around here!  I also have been knitting occasionally and here is the shawl I had with me in North Carolina.  It was going to get it's own post, but no time!

First riding in the car...

Then waiting at the airport...

And here's some fun pictures of random things from my travels...a cell phone tower disguised as a tree...

The Camden Food Co. (They like delicious smoothies too!)

And a reassuring sign as I entered the bathroom at the Memphis airport...

Check back later!  I'll have tons of fun posts coming up...