Summer's eve.

Our time at the Escapee’s Evergreen Coho RV Park has come to an end for this year; we have made some new friends and learned a whole lot about running an RV park. We look forward to coming back next year in May for five months; we hope you will join us.

Our first stop was Portland, Oregon for a couple nights stay at the Columbia RV Park. Connie bought a McIntosh desktop computer, she had wanted to get back to Mac for a long time; and we saved state tax by buying it in Oregon.

We plan on being home in Festival about the 14th of October giving me two weeks to get ready for Halloween. I am just a big kid at heart; I love setting up my village of graveyards, ghouls, skeletons, witches and all things that go bump in the night. Next month it will be pilgrims, pumpkins and brightly colored vegetables, and we will be giving thanks for all the good things in our lives.

Coming up in mid-November will be Disneyland with Bryan, Gary, Blanche, Blanche’s kids Julie, L. Kae, and Raymond. Between now and then we will be having our fall brunch, hoping to see a lot of you there.

Christmas takes about two weeks to put up the tree, ornaments, an army of dolls and a little mistletoe. You can be sure St. Nick will be standing watch over packages wrapped in shiny green and red paper, tied up with bows of golden ribbon, each with a promise of something special inside. We will be wishing all our friends and family another year of good health and well being.

Dave

History, art, wood, water and friend.

Today we went to the Wooden Boat Show in Port Townsend, Washington. People from all over the world come to this event. An entire building is dedicated to the craft and art of wooden boats. The smell of fresh sawn wood and linseed oil brings back my fondest memories of my Dad; him and me building a small boat from scratch.

The biggest draw is boarding and viewing wooden boats of all description. The most intriguing of all was the Destiny with its storied past. Built in 1934 for Randolph Hearst and later sold to Howard Hughes, two of the wealthiest men of their time.

We came aboard and wound around below decks until we came to the kitchen in the forward most part of the ship. There we met Dawn, the new owner (pictured), we had a great time comparing notes; we were very much alike and quickly became friends. She and her husband sold their five coffee shops to buy Destiny and go see the world.

Port Townsend Washington is home to the Blue Moose Cafe, it is down by the dockyards
and looks very seedy. Inside is very small and very old, not what you would associate with
good food. Recommended by some locals we discovered a real gem. The sandwich I had was a double decker with toasted raisin bread, sliced apples, ham, cheddar cheese and sweet hot mustard, it was de-lish, as Rachael Ray would say.
  

Road trip to Joyce and Sekiu.

C.B. Cara and I took a road trip to Sekiu, an old fishing village from way back.

 As a boy of about 12, I accompanied my Parents, Dad’s Cousin Harold (Sy) Syverson and Shiela his wife, fun people, to Sekiu, the ultimate place for Salmon fishing. This was the one and only time my Mother would ever get this close to nature, something less than a five star hotel was to her “roughing it’. She would also go clam digging, but that is another story.

Highway 112 just west of Port Angeles is designated a Scenic Byway and it sure fits the bill. Running parallel to the Straits of Juan de Fuca, a large body of water separating us from Vancouver Island, Canada. It also leads to the San Juan Islands and the Puget (pewjet) Sound. Ships of all sizes, U.S.Navy surface ships and Trident Submarines regularly use these waters as well as Killer Whales, other types of whales, Salmon, Halibut etc. Here I go getting hungry again.

The original Clallam County Seat was New Dungeness (yes, the famous crab name), named by British Royal Navy Captain George Vancouver. That area is now called Sequim (skwim). In 1890 the County Seat was moved to Port Angeles where it remains today.  Logging is key to the survival of the area; it is also where to board the Ferry for Victoria, Canada, they even have a Dairy Queen.

The most interesting place along our way is Joyce, Washington. The Joyce General Market is celebrating 100 years of continuous business. It is all original; parts of the inside came from the Markham House Hotel which was in the now extinct town of Port Crescent. After failing to capture the Clallam County Seat, the town was totally abandoned by 1893. John Joyce opened the store and promptly named the spot Joyce, clever.

Inside are treasures beyond belief. Post office boxes claimed from the old Markham Hotel; one old character behind the counter said it was circa 1850, before the Postal Service came into being and was run by a private company. Among the vast assortment of past memories was a Chain Saw, hanging from the ceiling, it was about 10 feet long. After the old guy told me it was the world’s first chainsaw I did some research. A German engineer named Emil Lert invented what was called the first chainsaw and opened a company called Dolomar which flourishes to this day. The chainsaw hanging from the rafter was indeed one of these beasts. The engine looks a little like an early Volkswagen, it put out 8 horse power and weighed 128 pounds, ugh!

 
We found Sekiu, a speck on the map, with lots of boats and fishermen. We had a crappy lunch and headed home. We stopped half way back to let Cara have a run on the beach, the waves petrified her, what a wimp.