Summer 2015 part two Fun with Tracy!

Our time in Whatcom and Skagit Counties has come to an end.  It was hot for the Pacific Northwest; thankfully there are no more 90 degree days, and probably no more 80 degree days either.  In fact, even our days of sunshine are limited. (:

We will miss  spending time with our PNW family.  Tom and Sonia welcomed us with a place to stay, a warm heart and fun times in their beautiful backyard.  Kevin and Earlene kept us well fed with five star meals, welcomed us to Kevin’s family and helped us to connect with Cory and his family.  Tracy was our tour guide extraordinaire, introducing us to her piece of the Pacific North West.  Thanks again to you, one and all.

The Olympic Peninsula welcomed us back.  It has been two years since we were here. 

We are spending the month of September at GilGal Oasis RV Park in Sequim (skwim), Washington.  This is one of the nicest parks we have stayed at and very centrally located.  We have a great view of the Olympics, without snow on the tops they are almost unrecognizable. Maybe there is something to that global warming.

Sequim is in the Olympic mountain rain shadow; the clouds go around the mountains from west to east and leave the area directly to the east, rain and cloud free; well, relative to the rest of rain soaked Washington that is.  The sailors of old called the area the “blue hole.” Washington weathercasters use the term “sunbreaks,” to give you an idea about PNW weather. Sun is to Washington as rain is to Arizona.

Turn on the news and you will see the plight of the refugees from the collapse of the Middle East; they left a hot sandy country. But, wait; that is what we do every summer. We are refugees; taking refugee from the desert heat. The good news is we don’t have to worry about losing our heads, where we are going to sleep, or if we are going to have something to eat. We are very fortunate we were born in the land of the free.

There are those that work Monday thru Friday so we can rest on our laurels.  In appreciation we stay home on weekends and holidays, so Labor Day is no different; besides, it is raining.

We are having a good time here at Gil Gal Oasis RV Park.  Most of the people here attended Happy Hour last night, lots of food, adult beverages and conversation. We have a Taco Bell about 100 feet away, esta bien! 

I love this area because of the lack of crowds; but I find it is somewhat boring. Yesterday we had lunch at a French “expensive” restaurant; the Alder Wood Bistro. For that much money we could have had several meals elsewhere, and I would have liked them. Enough on that.  Sunny Farms garden and grocery saved the day; beautiful flowers and wonderful produce.

Hooray! Tracy saved us from the Doldrums. She called and said she was on the Coupeville-Port Townsend Ferry and asked us if we were busy. That was a no brainer! We drove around Sequim and wound up at the Dungeness Spit.  At five miles long it is the longest in the United States and growing at a rate of 20’ a year. At the end of the spit is a gleaming white Lighthouse, still shining the light for all Straights of Juan De Fuca shipping traffic.

Nighttime found us at Blondie’s housed inside an old church, a real hip (yes, even in Sequim) restaurant and bar eating tapas style (order several plates and serve like Chinese) and drinking Blondie’s Special Vodka Mules. They did kick butt!

The next night we tried Nourish, another upscale restaurant with organic everything. Hi price for mostly rabbit food but a neat place, very original.

Monday we went to the Oak Table to have lunch with our friends from The Escapees Coho Park in Chimicum, Washington where we spent three summers as weekend managers.  It had been two years since we last saw them and it was fun catching up, we had a lot of that to do; there were 32 people altogether.

That night Tracy went with us back to Blondie’s for those great Mules and good food.  Ugh; were we ever full. We sure have a lot of fun with Tracy.

Summer 2015 PNW

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 75^th 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!