Forty-Five Things

Here are forty-five things we've experienced since last we blogged:
1. We celebrated our sister-in-law Marilyn Wilshin's Big-0 birthday at our friends liin and Lave Gustafson's in Issaquah, at the south-western base of Tiger Mountain.

2.  David finally has an engine room in which he can sit down. Of course this doesn't hold a candle to our friend Jerry Schutzler's ER, which comes equipped with a work bench.
3.  In Salt Spring Island's Ganges Harbor we spotted a couple of those purple starfish the PNW's famous for.

4. Discovered a heron with messy habits had taken residence on our dock.

5. Spent time at my brother Jim's house during his stay in the hospital. He had a disc removed from his spine. Eek! Sending him tons of prayers.

6. Pitched my book Finding Geneva, or whatever it'll be titled to April Eberhardt during the Whidbey Island Writers Conference, for which I also served as chat house coordinator. David was the hall monitor for Garth Stein's break-out sessions.

7. Discovered a deer family on a tasting mission in our yard. Instead of taking all the rhodies all at once, they spread the challenge over a week.
8. Spotted one from a pair of local bald eagles perched in a tree.
9. Offered potato chips to a very discerning goose in Sucia Island's Shallow Bay.

10. What would our mothers say! Kirsten Roth, whom I've known since I was a little kid, and I got together to talk about old and current times. Our parents were best pals!

11. Learned how to pick up a PNW buoy can, which is rather like hoisting six grocery bags out of the water. Still working on the bull rails.

12. A new steer in town! We live in Skagit County, which is a right-to-farm county. Yes! Livestock live in town!!

13. Dropped by Canada. We stopped in Galiano Island's Montague Harbor to refuel (not cost effective) and to check in with customs before we headed to Salt Spring and Vancouver Islands. Amber was our very helpful fuel filly!

14. Here's Devin, our dock master at Salt Spring's Ganges Harbor.

15. I've never seen something like this before. Off Coupeville's pier, I caught sight of a huge, ill-fated lobster, who'd evidently gotten his foot caught in the wires at high tide. Egad!

16. While up being with my brother right after his operation, I got to see my sister-in-law Robin Ferry (now married to Michael Butler).

17. I also got to see her on Salt Spring Island.

18. Here's a picture of Robin and my niece Amy with her brood of three daughters. Lots of giggles in that house!!!!

19. We tempted fate by taking L'Esprit out of the harbor and across Rosario Strait to Lopez Island's Hunter Bay. But we knew our girl was chomping at the bit to get out into open water. She'd spent too long bridled in Lake Union. Adventure is what she wanted.

20. The captain at his table!

                            
21. Went with Tom and Dianne Kuhn on a PCA wine tour to Walla Walla, where, we discovered, we would sharing the hotel facilities with the Ferrari Club. Such a noisy parking lot! Have to admit we were happily surprised by the good, not just decent, tasting wines. Spent more than we shoulda.

22. Took L'Esprit on a six-day shake-down cruise during the last half of May. Our first stop was Sucia Island's Shallow Bay, which was. It was like mooring in a pond, actually.

23. The sunset Shallow Bay offered was breathtaking.

24. Ummmmmm. This Nordhavn evidently tangled with a dock's lower side. 

25. Heading out on our six-day cruise, we noticed Mt. Baker still draped in snow.

26. Once in Ganges Harbor, we tried out TJ Beans. Cupsa yummy!

27. We had fun renaming L'Esprit. We invited: the Schutzlers and Kaufolds, whose boats were in harm's way during our driver-training period; the Bergan/Pages and Barnards, who helped bring L'Esprit up from Lake Union; and the Monteforte/Adams and the Kuhn's, who'd been going through driver training along with us. David read the ritual, Joanne soaked the anchor in champagne, and then we partied until the food and wine ran out. Very fun time!

28. Ganges Harbor is one of our favorite places. The day we visited was a Saturday, which means one thing in these parts: Farmers' Market Day! But, because it was also the weekend of the Queen's birthday, the town went all out. Including a sailboat race around the island.

29.  Actually, the race was supposed to start at 11 a.m., but it didn't because there wasn't any wind. So the sailors hauled up the sails and patiently waited. I took several shots like this over a three-or-four minute period. They all look exactly alike.

30. Another damned PNW sunset. Can't get enough of them!!

31. Had the best time down an Liin and Lave's for Marilyn's birthday bash. We put together a feast for the guests (we went down early because Liin recently had knee surgery, and running around is not part of her repertoire yet).

32. Here's Liin and her cousin Tami Ryan. I've known Tami almost thirty years, and Liin not much less than that. It's so wonderful being in the same state with them, even though they're like two hours away.

33. The next morning, Liin put on one of her crazy wigs for this picture with Lave. That's Foster to her right.

34. We bid Walt and Penny Barnard off on their cruise up to Alaska. We belong to a yacht club where, when the weather warms up, everyone takes off for Alaska, like that's some easy thing to accomplish.

35. Which reminds me of Missoula, since Penny hails from there.

36. Captured this centerpiece idea from the Windham Hotel in Walla Walla. After all, it was a wine-tasting weekend.

37. We went with our yacht club to the Mother's Day Cruise in San Juan Island's Roche Harbor. This was our first long (more than an hour one way) trip on L'Esprit. When we got there, about a dozen club members were out to greet us, which told us that some might alarming rumors had leaked out about our ability to dock a fourteen-ton laviathon.

38. Found Battleship Island, off San Juan Island's northern-west coast, easy to spot.

39. Watched a tree fall in Vancouver Island's Genoa Bay.

40. Speaking of Genoa Bay . . . . When we were in Ganges on Friday afternoon, we found it a terrifically busy harbor, because at the time we did not realize there were a bajillion sailboats arriving for tomorrow's Around-Saltspring race. We we got to Genoa Bay on Sunday, we noticed all these power boats with elephant or buffalo burgies. Spy that I am, I got out the binocs. Indeed, the burgies sported elephants, which doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but who am I to judge? So David asked. Turns out the elephant is the mascot of Salt Spring Island's sailing club, and there were so many of them in Genoa Bay because they had to forfeit their slips for the racers. 

41. Here we are in San Juan Island's surprisingly shallow Garrison Bay, which was our last stop before returning to Fidalgo Island. We had to do customs. 

42. I love this just-before-sunset picture of Ganges Harbor when the sun peaked under the clouds. 

43. We love to walk Roche Harbor's sculpture garden, which we did with Carl and Linda. The first time we visited the garden was in 2006, when the garden mowed pathways leading to each piece. Now the garden is fully mowed, so everything can be seen at once. (We liked it better the old way.) The last piece we saw was at the bottom of the hill. It was an easel turned away from us. When we turned the bend to see what the easel bore, we saw a mirror, and realized we were part of the art. The bottom-right picture is of Tillie, Wayne and Liz Weideman's dog, who'd been terrorized by the club members popping balloons. 

 44.  When we arrived in Ganges Harbor, David had to get the dock lines all ready because we'd originally planned to anchor. While he was doing this, I was making circles in the harbor, dodging sea planes flying in from all directions, fishing boats, and sailboats coming in under sail so they'd assure themselves right-of-way. We both needed a beer once the lines were tied to the dock!

45. Our whole trek to Canada would never have gone so smoothly if we hadn't made a trip to Blaine, WA, in March to interview for our NEXUS passes. Being a border town, its signs are easily understood by Americans and Canadians.