Boat, bus, foot, monorail and elevators

 We walked on the ferry from Bainbridge Island, and then walked the 12 blocks to the Monorail which took 90 seconds to get to our destination. What a great day with good friends.                                            The backdrop is the space needle in gray mist, Chihuly glass adds the color with thousands of delicate "flowers".

 At the base of Seattle's iconic Space Needle is the Chihuly Glass Gardens, an eighth wonder of the world.

 Seemingly impossible colors and shapes and an amazing vision of one very gifted man.

 With Bill and Marilyn Register; lunch in the sky, rotating 360 degrees every hour.

 Yeah, way up there. Please God, not today.
We were here about 30 years ago, it is always breathtaking.

Wowie! The Wagyu burger is named after Washington States version of Kobe beef. Topped with a grilled onion and bacon jam and two kinds of cheddar cheese. This was five stars good.

Gettin' down and gettin' funky

Our good friends Bill and Marilyn have joined us here in Chimacum, Wa.. Their favorite band happened to be playing at the Port Townsend Brewery. Now you must understand, this brewery is very small (1/4 acre), and the back yard has grass (not exactly Busch Gardens). There is an assemblage of plastic chairs of differing colors, outdoor heaters, umbrellas and little tables making for a "let your hair down" atmosphere. There were several gals that filed the little dance platform, they added to the music and had everyone movin' to the beat.

The band Deadwood Revival was from Port Angeles, about 35 miles away. They were fantastic, a cross between folk and 70's rock with a lot of improvisation. The lead played banjo, acoustic and electric guitar good enough to run with the big dogs. They currently have three albums, check them out.

http://

www.deadwoodrevival.com/

 We said farewell to our friends from our home base at Del Web Festival, Buckeye, Arizona. It is about 115 degrees there now so they will take their time getting there.

What if?

It’s been said that a boat is a hole in the water that you throw money into, our friend Greg Melde claims his airplane is a giant vacuum that sucks up money.

Greg took us flying, what a thrill to see this area spread out like a map in real living color. There is more shore line than I had imagined, that is something you can’t see all of from a highway, it got me to thinking about our house on Puget Sound that we foolishly sold oh so many years ago. It also got me to wondering how different life would have been had we not moved from Port Orchard, Washington to Carmichael, California.  You can’t live your life on “What if”’s but I will always wonder.

Our home is in Arizona, the harsh environment of the desert with its bristles, thorns and tumbleweeds is in stark contrast with the blue water surrounding lush green foliage, polka dotted with the vibrant color of flowers with a backdrop of snow covered mountain peaks. Yes, it is said that the desert has its own kind of beauty, but it also has a ton of ugly thrown in.

More Native American lingo

Today we travel to the Lavender Capitol of the World; Sequim, Washington, pronounced “squim”. With the driest climate in the state this small hamlet is popular with the retired set and is perfect for growing that purple flower that is supposed to calm and quiet our spirit. It is also home to some very spendy restaurants such as the Oak Table, where you can spend a very long time waiting for service before going to the Black Bear restaurant for a very good and reasonably priced meal, waaah!

Several Lavender farms surround the area but our favorite is “Purple Haze”, yes there is a portrait of Jimmy Hendrix hanging on the wall. Besides being named after one of my favorite songs, this picturesque little farm looks like a Monet painting. It also has an area housing “Bob and Shirley”, a resplendent peacock and plain peahen. There were also a few roosters that Bob was busy shooing away from Shirley, she had just given birth to six little chicks that were busy hiding under Mama. Bob’s awesome display of feathers was being used as a fence against those rascally chickens and would quiver and make a noise like a buzz saw.

Sunnyside Farmers Market is a delight to all your senses with a nursery as part of the open air grocery store, with enough “Organically” grown items here keep any old hippie happy. There are many flower children “flower grandparents”? I’ll pass on the free love stuff. Disgusting!  

Busy, busy, busy!

Please, click on the picture for the whole article. Wow, we just went thru seven hours of heavy duty thunder, lightning and rain! Other than that, the weather here has been sunny and warm (70 degrees).
This area has several places to eat, as you know I am a total foodie. Yesterday we went to a French Restaurant named "Sweet Laurette's"; We had a pork tenderloin, cheese, mushroom sandwich on cranberry bread, and a cheese, egg, ham sandwich called Croque Madame; to die for!

We revisited the sail loft where they make, what else, planetarium cloth? They were cutting black-out cloth for use on the round domed ceiling of a planetarium. They use a table that is about 50 feet long, it has holes in it which are connected to a vacuum; this holds the material absolutely flat. Tracks on either side of the table are what carries a computer assisted cutting machine that glides along cutting several patterns at the same time, and doing so precisely. And, of coarse, they were also making a spinnaker, which is the large colorful sail seen on the front of sailboats. This one was a chocolate brown, they only last about seven years. Cost? $5,000! I guess I will no longer grouse about spending $2,000 for the motor home tires every seven years.

From the sail loft we walked down to the harbor and went aboard the "Hawaiian Chieftain", classified as a Ketch, this square master was over one hundred years old and still very much in operation. 

Use it or Loose it

Click on the picture for the whole blog!

Yesterday CB and I went bowling, how tuff can it be? My mind remembered from 30 years ago how to do it but the body refused to follow; how embarrassing! Today I am feeling aches and pains that are different from the aches and pains I normally have. They say that older people loose mobility and I am a prime example, 66 and the first time I have really felt like I was getting old; or am I there?

I have not put out a blog in awhile; my brain is atrophying (cobwebs). When I get away from writing it is difficult to start back up, my batteries are below 12 volts. But the sun is out today and I plan to charge back up and get some UV rays for this old white body.

Living and working here at the park we are getting to know the good, bad and the ugly! Yes there are some people here that are downright bad and ugly. I have never understood how some people join something and immediately want to change it. When the majority rejected massive change, the new comers became mean spirited and have upset the peace and tranquility. Why don’t they act like adults and just pick up their marbles and go home (and stay there)!

Fortunately the good people far outnumber the bad and make this place what an Escapee Park was meant to be, like a big warm family living and working toward the good of all. (IMHO)

The grass is greener

Please click on picture to see all of the post!!!

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?

Please click on the picture to see more!

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

 Please click on picture for more.
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).

This is what Willy was singing about, we love it!
The day before we left Arizona it was 105 degrees, we are now in Jackpot, Nevada and it is snowing. With a high of 50 and low around 30. Cactus Pete's Casino and RV Park is a full hook-up park normally, but with this being early in the season the water is turned off, we are glad we have plenty water on board.
This morning we discovered thick layers of ice on the slide out covers, so slide out not slide in. I had to get the ladder, climb up above the slide outs and remove all the ice; all this in 26 degrees (wind chill factor). I tripped and fell on my frozen butt ( I'm only telling you this because if I didn't, Connie would!). So I am hobbling around a little more than usual, but I will live.
We are now half way to Chimacum, Wa..  I can almost taste Rachael's chocolate cake.