The grass is greener

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I think God did certain things to reward those who persevere; such as a warm, dry winter for those who put up with searing heat in the summer; brilliant color for those who endure cold, rain and grey skies.

Those of us lucky enough to enjoy the best of both truly are blessed. After staying warm and dry in Arizona all winter, we travel to the Pacific Northwest and drink in the beauty of the flora and fauna. Here where the green mountains meet the blue ocean on a sunny day, makes you feel almost intoxicated. The bright explosion of color displayed by bush, tree and groundcover feeds the soul.

Add to that all the deer (Port Townsend claims to have as many as 700), bear (we saw one scamper across the road in front of our car), the Orcas with their sails slicing thru tranquil waters, a large herd of Roosevelt elk and all the yummy crab, Salmon, halibut, shrimp, clams, oysters……………….. lunch time!

Yes, We love it up here. We are busy making new friends; the Elks have shrimp, fish and chips every Thursday for $7.00, and it is excellent! Wednesday night is Bingo, the only time I have heard old ladies swear. We play pegs and Jokers Monday nights, and enjoy free lunch from Rachael every Thursday. Saturdays and Sundays 9 to 4, Connie works in the office and I ride the golf cart around, park people, clean and stock the bathrooms, laundry room, occasionally mop the kitchen, take all the garbage to the dumpsters, sort mail, run a backhoe and other fun stuff. For our 12 hours of work (24 total) we get our lot with a shed, a refrigerator/freezer, electric, propane and an hourly wage. What is not to like? Especially because we have fun and make new friends!

What do they do?

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Tom and Suzy Davies came up for a few days so we showed them around Port Townsend. With more than fifty turn of the century homes, this little town is a showcase of old world craftsmanship. Many of these large well kept homes were built for wealthy sea captains and merchants.

Everything here embraces what the town was originally; one of the most important sea ports on the west coast. The ghosts of old sailors from wooden ships with square sails anchored out from the beach are at home here, they are familiar with the old homes, buildings and seafaring work still being done in some of those old buildings.

We visited the sail loft where people were busy making sails for various vessels. How many sail makers do you know? Shoes were not allowed here, the wood floors are as smooth as glass, so as to not snag the fabric. We watched intently as they hand stitched ropes, gussets and all sorts of things I could not begin to describe. Everyone was so nice and patient with us as they explained the art of sail making; sails are not just flat, they have surfaces like wings on an airplane.

Week three

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We made it through our third weekend and we are liking it more and more. Getting to know people better is, for the most part, making our life up here much more enjoyable.
We just missed the tulip season but the rhododendrons are in full bloom, they are, in my opinion, one of the many good reasons to live here in the Pacific Northwest.
In the RV community a person's status has nothing to do with what a person did when they were working, but more like Dr. King said " the content of their character". We made an assumption that because one of the guys carried a tape measure, he was a carpenter, he turned out to be a Doctor. We are all the same here.

Tom and Suzy Davies are coming to see us for a few days, wouldn't you know it looks like rain.  

It's the Humidity!

I am not sure the egg or the chicken came first, but if they grew up in Washington they were definitely bigger; check out the picture, both are large eggs but the ones from here are about 20 percent bigger than the ones we brought from Arizona. Do you think it is the humidity? After all everything grows when it is watered. Click on the date for the rest of my post!

We  wrrrk'd our first weekend and survived! I volunteer for the maintenance committee on Thursdays; male bonding and using men's toys for three hours. Tractors, riding lawnmowers, chain saws, felling trees (timber!); Tim Taylor would love it. The best part is Rachael, our 90 year old cook, fixes lunch for us lumberjacks, yum yum eat em up! Click on the date for the rest of my post.

The view from our front windshield encompasses the office, the entry road, and allows us to  keep an eye on all comings and goings. The cart is my trusty steed to carry out my various and sundry duties here at SKP Evergreen Coho Park. I would say the average age here is about seventy, but it is slowly getting younger and we are getting older. Our name on the list for a lot should come up in about two to three years so we will be almost seventy, but the new seventy is fifty five, that means you who have not retired won't be able to do so until you are about seventy five.?  (:   But keep up the good work, our SS checks depend on it. Look on the bright side, when you are that old the new 80 will be only about 70!
About 30 to 40 percent live here year year around and love it. Rain? What rain? Oh, by the way, high humidity keeps the wrinkles away; Sun City...............? Bah humbug!

A cool misty kiss.

The weather here is cold and rainy (a welcome relief from the 105 of Surprise), but the welcome reception here upon our return has been as warm as a mother's breast.

1,474 miles and seven days since we left the 105 degree heat of the desert, some say it is a dry heat but then so is your oven and I am not climbing in one anytime soon. We are at last here in our wonderful Western Washington weather, 50 degrees and raining, yes it is a wet cool, and unlike the oven I can simply put on a few more clothes to be somewhat less miserable. We are actually enjoying the rain, something rare back in Arizona, we are also getting our green fix; we love it here!

The Olympic peninsula, where the ocean meets the forest, and Japanese trinkets float ashore; they are really pretty at night, bobbing up and down, all aglow with radiation. Actually they have reached Sitka Alaska; hopefully we will not get any this far south.

We have signed up to be weekend managers here in Chimacum, Washington, at the Escapees Evergreen Coho RV Park for five months, which at our age is a fairly long time. We loved doing it last year for six weeks and we have to be somewhere doing something, right?

We are sad that we have missed the World famous tulip season by less than a week, poor planning on our part. Fruit trees are blooming in abundance and popping with color against the green of everything else and the rhododendrons are ready to light a fire of color thru out. This area was called the blue hole by sailors of old, for the opening in the clouds; we are dryer than the rest of Western Washington (or less wet).