Hi
guys! Better late than never. My last
blog was before my surgery, was I missed? Don’t answer; I don’t take rejection well.
CB
and I are ensconced at the La Conner Marina RV Park. This used to be called
Potlatch RV Park and was pretty junky until the Port Authority took it over and
now it is very nice.
We
are overlooking the Marina where there are hundreds of boats; most have undercover moorage. The big ones are tied up along the perimeter. Sailboat
masts pointing skyward, ready to carry colorful canvas to propel them to ports
thruout the West Coast and beyond. All have names and home-ports emblazoned on
the fantail (that would be the boats butt for the un-initiated).
La
Conner is where my parents moved to when they retired. CB and I spent many happy days visiting. My
Dad had a large cruiser moored near their home on the Swinomish Channel. Dad and I would navigate the channel and head
out to sea by way of Deception Pass.
Many sailing ships made the fatal mistake of
trying to sail through the pass on a changing tide, when water flowing thru reaches
speeds of 25 to 30 miles an hour. Going through in a power boat can be very
interesting, full throttle and moving forward very slowly while being tossed
about due to the severe turbulence caused by a massive amount of water flowing
thru a narrow and shallow pass. It truly
is very deceiving. Those sailors sure
were deceived.After
negotiating the pass we would head north and spend several days crabbing and
fishing around the San Juan Islands. Lots
of good memories.
But
I digress. Our trip up from Az. to Wa. was a very long one due to the
refrigerator door hinge falling apart. Connie
was thrilled; she has wanted a new
refrigerator since we bought the coach.
My
problem was location, location, location. The damn thing fell apart in Jackpot,
Nevada (the easternmost part of our trip) and the only place I trust to do the
replacement was in Eugene, Oregon (the westernmost part), 615 miles of slow
road and a weeks time. Did I mention Eugene was hot? But CB loves that new
refer!
Blaine,
Washington, finally! The Thousand Trails RV Park here old, in disrepair and
open to the general public, half of which resemble something out of Dueling
Banjos.
After
two weeks at the TTN Park, we move to my nephew Tom’s house on the Nooksack
River. Tom and Sonia have a backyard
view to die for. The river runs straight
at the house and turns just below at a 90-degree angle. If that is not enough
Mt. Baker appears at the other end of the river, Wow!
That
back yard was party central. Starting
somewhere around 5, adult beverages were wending their way towards several
tummies. Going to meetings was discussed. Gary’s 75th birthday was fun
for all, I have a feeling Gary will have trouble remembering putting the empty
marshmallow bag on his head.
We
did not want to wear out our welcome so we left Tom and Sonia’s and headed back
to Blaine and the TTN campground. After
a few days Fran and J.C. Benoit came and camped near us, hoorah! Great to see our old Happy Trails friends
again. Soon after we had to move to the
Mt. Vernon TTN.
The
Mt. Vernon TTN is worse than Blaine. We
could not find a space where we could get TV signals, even with 200’ of cable
and lots of swear words and work to set up the remote dish. Add to that the cell phone signal was not
enough to get on the Internet! If all
that was not bad enough, the power went out!
If we left Cara in the coach, we were afraid the power would go off and
leave her in an un-conditioned home. F…..
that, we’re out of here! After looking
for the perfect place we decided La Conner was where we wanted to be, and it
is. A vend, avidi viche; or something
like that……it’s Latin for crying out loud!
Here
in La Conner I feel a presence. My Dad
went out to fish from here and never came back; he is still out there
somewhere. On my next birthday I will be
70, a year my Dad never attained. He
was such an avid fisherman; he went out doing what he loved.
Besides
my nephew Tom and his beautiful bride Sonia living close by, my niece Tracy lives
in La Conner, as does my ex-sister-in-law Earlene. floating in the air (or so it seems) above Skagit
bay,
the
coastline of Whidbey Island and the setting sun; it We still see Earlene as
family, and better yet, a good friend.
We
have had a lot of fun with Earlene and Kevin. We have sumptuously dined at their
beautiful Skagit Bay Hideaway, while floating in the air (or so it seems) on their beautiful deck above Skagit bay, with
a background of Whidbey Island and the red
setting sun; the table covered with buckets of the Pacific Northwest’s bounty; crab,
shrimp and salmon. Paired with the
perfect wine; it simply
Doesn’t get any better. Kevin makes a cocktail unlike anything I have
ever had before; gin, lime juice and
basil leaves, shaken and strained into a martini glass rimmed with salt and
sugar. Yummy! It is no wonder the bed and breakfast
apartments are constantly full.
All of us took the whale
watching boat out of Anacortes.
Also included were Cory, Emily, Jaidan, Makayla, and Cal,
they complete our family on my Dad’s side. My mom’s relatives are thankfully in
California, I could go into that but there are limitations on expletives.
What
fun we had watching the Orcas cavort about; there were many from different
pods, diving for food with their tails giving a final push. After awhile they
would blast through the surface and let out a large blast of air and mist; what
a sight! Talk about fish breath, yuk!