Tuesday -- Chirico Trail

Well, we're trying to fix the prolonged gap in hiking. We went up the Chirico trail to the paragliding launching pad on Tiger Mountain.  Nobody was jumping today, but what a nice trail.  The map says 1.7, but our legs said 2.0 miles to the top.  In any case it's a steep 50 minute or so walk to the top.  Decent workout.

Foothill Friday and Sailing Saturday

Once you start hiking don’t stop. We took a 4 week break and last night’s ramble up Mount Si was a bit more painful than usual. We took the ‘old’ way, which was new to me. Maren, Janelle, Jodi and myself climbed the fairly steep trail for about an hour.




For Jodi and I it was a good wake up call. I can blame it on work, I can blame it on spending time on boats or up at the cabin, but the fact is we simply haven’t carved out time to hit the trail in the past few weeks. No one is at fault except us. Time to fix that.

While the trail was difficult, the conversation flowed freely.



After the hike we had dinner at the Bar and Grill. Maren documented her second beer with a picture and made it the ‘photo of the day’ on her blog Let the record state that she had shot the beer from one angle, then Janelle played with the camera shooting it from a different angle. Maren took one look at that shot, then reshot the beer from the same angle that Janelle had just used. Who’s picture?



Saturday dawned with few clouds in the sky. Time to go sailing! We were checked out earlier in the week on a somewhat tired Catalina 25. Perfect boat for getting out on the lake. Perfect day for sailing.

We spent some time in both lake Washington and Lake Union. The western shore of Lake Washington north of 520 had some decent breezes then Lake Union had a fresh breeze that came through the ship canal from the sound.

It was great to go sailing simply for sailing’s sake. With ‘Cambria’ we get very destination oriented and sailing becomes one way to ‘get there’. On a typical cruise, we may sail only once or twice. It was great to get out and simply sail – focusing on trim and boat speed and not at all about any end destination.



Jodi is proving to be a good, patient helmsman (women) and Rex is settling in just fine in his role as 2nd mate in charge of naps.

Maintenance Weekend

When are we EVER going to go hiking again?




This was chore weekend. Get the deck furniture out , fix the bullfrog, masthead light and ready the speedboat for launching. But what enjoyable chores.



We escaped work about 5:30 on Friday, and left Bellevue in a rainstorm. We endured the northbound traffic and a transformation began. Dark clouds in the rear view mirror and brightening skies ahead. By the time we hit Anacortes it was clear sunshine.



We were one of the last 10 cars on the 8:10 ferry and the sunset was the perfect way to end a work week.

Sunset from the ferry followed by sunrise from the Cabin. The visual treats continue.

After breakfast at the house, we got the deck furniture out. Chore one done. Then it was off to the boat. The bullfrog dinghy steering was frozen and Dad had made a makeshift tiller that actually worked very well. We lowered the dinghy off the davits and Rex and I motored over to the launching ramp.

Back to the boat, Dad hoisted me to the spreaders on the mast to tackle the masthead steaming light. It hadn’t worked in years and really should be working. As expected I had to take the fitting off, and as expected my preloaded set of tools in the boson’s chair didn’t contain what I needed.



The pause waiting for tools gave me time to take some pictures.

As Dad was running tools and tape up to me via the line for the signal flags, I got a text message. With the blackberry wedged in my pocket, I didn’t immediately look at it. Then my other cellphone in the cockpit rang. Then my black berry rang. Something was up.



Seems that my mother, who was driving around island with Jodi on an Art tour, had snagged a stump and ripped the front bumper off the car and would we immediately come to their assistance? A more inopportune time would be difficult to imagine with me half way up the mast with a partially disassembled steaming light.



We needed a new light, so I removed it and was lowered back to the deck. We packed up the tools and drove to the scene of the accident.



I wish I would have taken pictures because initially it looked pretty ugly. In the process of parking at one of the artists homes on the art tour, Mom had run over a very small, but very sturdy, 2 inch ‘stump’ poking about 10 inches off the ground. When she went to leave and back out, the stump caught the front bumper and as she backed away about half the front bumper separated from the car and was draped out on the ground. Initially it looked like tow truck material.



Then the magic of snap together engineering became evident. There were 2 interior plastic pieces that were also on the ground impeding the front wheel, but by lifting them back in place and literally snapping the front bumper back in place it was fixed in about a minute. Surprised the heck out of me.



That being done we went back and dropped the dinghy, now on a trailer, off to get the steering fixed and went back to the house. The speedboat was towed out of its winter storage and a bit of simple green and armor all cleaned it up nicely. Ready to go.



At this point, it’s nearly time for dinner, so let the cocktail hour begin. More stunning scenery from the deck, a fantastic dinner, followed by dessert on the deck.

As the cabin faces east, we don’t get the direct sunset, but we do see the sunset’s effect on the opposing shore as well as Mount Baker in the distance. As the unseen sun sets behind us, the islands light up in a golden glow then colors recede with Mount Baker holding the last view of the sun until it too is left in twilight as the sun drops below the western horizon behind us.

A good day.