Bananacortes or Bust

This year we did things we never thought we'd do, and things we've waited our whole lives for. In order, here was our year:

January

Early stage premium
Sonoma chardonnay

Having spent all my life in California, it never occurred to me that anyone save an oenologist with a UC Davis pedigree could be trusted to make a decent bottle of wine. Then we moved to Anacortes, where wine-making is a ritual, and people set up their houses to accommodate the making, bottling, and aging varieties of wine (thirty bottles a batch!). I admit I was a snob. But then Tom Kuhn offered to let us make wine at his house. Could I resist? Heck no! So off I went to Northwest Brewers in town, and bought myself a premium Sonoma chardonnay kit, along with a carboy and an extra bag of oak chips. (I soon discovered that some of our neighbors actually make their own whiskey.)

We named our cellars after the
geologic hill we live on.

I have to say we were pleasantly surprised with our crisp, very drinkable chardonnay, which we even served to guests. (Yes, they survived.) In fact, we were so intrigued by how great the wine tasted that we designed a label to put on our bottles, and we made plans to visit one of the mother-of-all wine stores that Canada boasts.

Our driveway

January also brought one of our larger, rather, deeper, snow storms. We had a charity event to attend near the storm's finale, and figured it would be cancelled, because who in their right mind would drive in all that snow? You see, Fidalgo Island is fairly hilly, and our driveway in particular is in fact quite steep. But no, the event was not cancelled, and yes, our neighbors would be kind enough to drive us to the event, which, it turns out, was attended by everyone who paid their hundred buckeroos for dinner at Anthony's. It was a swell evening, even though David and I practically broke our necks inching down and climbing back up our driveway.

We used my January birthday as an excuse to visit Vancouver, BC, which is about eighty miles north of us. We stayed at the Listel, a neat little downtown boutique hotel overlooking the waterfront.

Davy in the Listel

On our way to Vancouver, we stopped in at the Royal Vancouver Yacht Club overlooking English Bay (it's good having reciprocals!). Davy, ever on his quest, had fish and chips. Verdict, great, but still not as good as those he gets at the Porterhouse Pub. I had a chef's salad, which sported the chef's current delight, which on that day was toasted baby octopi. Hmmm.
Once in Vancouver, we spent Saturday morning at the city's art museum, the Vancouver Art Gallery, enjoying (!!!) An Autobiography of Our Collection, Shore, Forest and Beyond, and The Distance Between You and Me. The gallery's cafe offered us great food and shot of urban energy. Leaving the gallery, we stopped and watched skaters circle inside the Robson Square Ice Rink, at the foot of the gallery steps.
After lunch, we headed south and east to the University of British Columbia's Museum of Anthropology (see also). Thank you, Carole and Ken for telling us we had to go there. Such a collection of First Nation artifact, both huge and minute. And extravagant glance we had!

Chairs designed specifically for UBC MoA

Party plates

Modern stuff too!

What else happened in January?

- We rescued a cute little near-blind dog named Sherlock, who couldn't detect where home was. After eight hours of searching, we discovered that he belonged to the people across and down the street.

Sherlock

- Joanne started running the Fidalgo Yacht Club's Ship's Store.

- Davy commenced his duties as rear-commodore, which mean he was in charge of special activities, i.e., the calendar.

- We went to the Seattle Boat Show and hardly spent any money.

- We grieved the passing of my wonderful brother Jim Cook. (Thank you, John McKinney, for your lovely words.) His celebration was held in Santa Barbara's Circle Bar B Ranch. Thank you, Sarah House, for taking such good care of him in his final months.

Jim Cook (1946-2011)

The Cousins: Lisa, Nick, and Amy

February

Walt B. at Spagnols

In February, we rescued another dog, rather, a well-trained, tagless, Brittany spaniel sat on our front porch and howled until he got our attention. Turned out, everyone in the neighborhood knew about him because he's howled on their doorsteps as well. No one knew to whom he belonged, but he obviously favored our neighborhood on his daily forays. In mid-February, we travelled north with Tom and Dianne Kuhn to one of Canada's highly-recommended wine-crafting stores, Spagnols. And, yes, it's good to have a Nexus pass! What a time we had. We bought corks and kits, foils and oak ships, and said hi to a bunch of our yachtie mates who were also there to take advantage of the store's big annual sale. (The picture below is of Walt Barnard, who helped Davy bring L'Esprit up the ~80 miles from Lake Union to Anacortes in stormy, icy weather.) Tired and hungry, we resorted to lunch at the Royal Van YC again. Yum!

February offered us some moments of sunshine to highlight our view.

March

This month was Davy's big-0 birthday, which we celebrated in San Diego with Davy's daughters Dana and Ginger, their husbands Mike and Tony, and my son Nick and his fiancee Naomi. First we had a celebratory lunch at Little Italy's Bencotto's, then we trekked over to La Jolla to the contemporary art museum. Fortunately for us, they were having a John Baldessari retrospect.

Dana, Davy, Ginger

Nick, Naomi, Mike, Dana, Dave, Ginger, Tony

Dana, Tony, Ginger, MIke, Davy, Nick, Naomi, Joanne

Got to visit a favorite painting of mine hanging on M and D's wall.

That same weekend, while Davy met with Dave Hacket and his energy consulting firm, Stillwater and Associates, I squeezed in as many friends as I could in the short spurts of time I had in OC. Sorry I couldn't visit with everyone. Missed my dear education friends, sister-in-law Carol, Sigma Kappas, neighbors, and Inside Edgers.

We stayed with Katie Martinka in Newport Coast

Picture of us in the bathroom mirror.

With Lea Claveran, Michele Khoury, and Chandra Fechtelkotter

Linda Watkins and Ali Danta at Canaletto's.

With Charlotte Bachman, the mandala artist

Also stayed with Debby and Chris Gaal. (Pic is when they visited us.)

And during that weekend, we captured time to visit Fred and Stephanie Kaufhold on Coronado Island. The Kaufholds are yachtie mates of ours, and all the time we were learning to drive L'Esprit, their boat was moored right behind and perpendicular to us, ready to be T-boned by us. They purchased some really large fenders and Fred offered us some welcome PNW docking advice. Fred was recovering from VERY recent heart surgery. On our way up to the Gaals in Newport Coast, we veered off the freeway for a poke in San Celmente's Rainbow Sandal outlet.

Again we had an opportunity to travel with the Kuhns to Canada, but this time it was a recon mission in preparation for the June cruise to Montague Harbour on Galiano Island (part of the Gulf Islands), for which we were in charge.

Base operations: Montague Harbour Marine Park

Sign-eating tree fungus.

Cairn on Galiano Island

We also, along with our yacht club, took our first cruise of the year to Port Townsend (more pix). Our March cruises are usually boat-optional because the weather, and therefore the seas, came be remarkably steep. Because the cruise's theme was An Officer and a Gentleman (the movie was filmed in Port Townsend), we spent Friday night in town watching the movie, including the good parts. Saturday morning, we took the ferry to Port Townsend and stayed at the infamous and refurbished Tides Inn motel. Thank you, John and Kim McCollister and Nat and Ann Nord for a terrific time!

Bill Monteforte, Kim Adams, Davy

Kim and John McCollister

Always's sister ship in Pt. Townsend

I do not lie: our room at the Tides Inn, Pt. Townsend.

Visited Sirens Pub

On the ferry.

April

April brought us more cruising and a lot of work preparing for our summer travels. Our first trip took us to Fisherman Bay on Lopez Island (also). Since April weather can be as nasty as March, but not as cold, our club usually plans something relatively near home. Thank you, Kim Adams and Bill Monteforte, for captaining this cruise.