MEMORIAL DAY

Our single planned event for the Memorial day weekend was to attend Mike's wedding.  The event was across the sound in Indianola making Kingston the closest harbor.  We'd never been to Kingston before, so around 5pm (that's 1700 hours in nautical speak) we headed Northwest, across the sound, to Kingston.

Earlier in the day, Bruce and Tom had taken 'Shearwater', Bruce and Carol's Passport 40, down from Anacortes to Kingston.  Dana had taken the ferry from Whidbey over to Mukilteo and Carol had driven down from Anacortes, picked Dana up and were headed to the Edmonds Ferry which would taken them across the sound to Kingston.

Bruce and Tom arrived first, we arrived a few hours later, and Carol and Dana got in just after 8.  Tom and Bruce had prepared dinner and Jodi kicked things off with 'salmon toast' (my new favorite dish!!).

It was great renewing friendships over a nice meal.

Saturday.

The wedding was at 3, so we had a leisurely morning.  We took the Kayaks out and promptly violated the unmarked security zone under the ferry dock.  Ooops.

The Ospreys were diving in the bay and I was trying to catch it with the camera, but finally gave up and started paddling.  Jodi then turned just to see an Osprey fold up and drop from about 100 feet in the air and dive into the water to snag a fish.

Dean picked us up and we all piled into the van for the short trip to Indianola. The wedding was lovely and it was great seeing old friends (they really are getting old...).

The wedding was near the water and there was a long pier extending far into the bay.  We walked down the pier and noticed the water was relatively shallow (hence the long pier) making it perfect for Ospreys to see and catch fish.  We watched for 20 minutes or more where perhaps 10 Ospreys were fishing.  They'd dive from 60 or 100 feet in the air and seemingly go all the way underwater to catch their prey.  Pretty cool.

We had planned to go to Poulsbo Sunday but ended up with a long walk then dinner, again on Shearwater.

Good weekend.

SUNDAY

We had planned to hike Tiger Mountain, but decided for a local walk instead.  One of the walks we had long wanted to do was the  beach walk between Carkeek Park and Golden Gardens.  This 2-3 mile stretch of beach can only be walked at low tide and there's very limited access between the two parks.  Only the residents of Blue Ridge can get access to the beach.

The walk was a lot of fun -- there were very few people on the beach.  Carkeek park itself was a zoo on this sunny day as was Golden Gardens, but other than the fellow playing the flute at about the mid point of the walk, there was no one on the stretch of beach between the two parks.

Walking on rocks and sand for 2-3 miles gives the legs a different workout. The body is constantly trying to balance and it's a relief to walk on smooth pavement afterward.

The rail tracks are just above the beach -- at high tide the water comes right up to the tracks.

We both loved the hike.  There was a sense of really getting away even though we were within walking distance of the boat the entire time.  The weather was perfect and while we had the beach to ourselves there was plenty of activity on the sound.  The NOOD races were still going on and plenty of boat traffic. The great blue herons were having a field day.

After the hike we jumped in the boat for a party on a small beach on the outside of the breakwater.  Much fun.  We were late to the party, but still had a great time meeting more of the group that call the Marina home.

The evening was capped off by Jodi's salmon tacos. Great day, great weekend.

Here's a video that captures most of the weekend in about 3 minutes.

NORWEGIAN INDEPENDENCE DAY

Carl and Vicki had invited us to their shop which was right on the parade route.  Among the planers, saws and a considerable array of tools an assortment of appetizers were laid out.

The parade celebrating Norwegian Constitution day in Ballard is alleged to be the largest such celebration in the world outside of Norway itself. Seems everyone is Norwegian on May 17th.  Sort of like everyone is Mexican on Cinco de Mayo and Irish on Saint Paddy's day.

The parade is also the first Seafair event of the year.

On the way to the parade, we stopped to take an impromptu photo shoot of Porter.

For the record, he was just put on deck and was well supervised as he wasn't wearing his life jacket.  In general he is ALWAYS either tethered or in a life jacket when on deck.

Then off to the parade.

SATURDAY MID MORNING UPDATE

As promised, the Norwegian Jewel made her first trip in to the sound.  Here's a shot from the boat.

Stuffing Box Update:  As usual, the worry and anticipation of all the bad things that could happen were far worse than the project itself.  Turned out to be very simple.  Fixed.  YAY!

Jodi went for a kayak jaunt, then we both took the dinghy out for a spin.

Lots of activity around the Marina.  The semi boutique cruise ship 'American Spirit' is in at the South end of the Marina. On the north end, the NOOD (National Offshore One Design) races are going on with a variety of new and old one design sailboats.

Laser

San Juan 21 in the background and a Thunderbird on the right

A Star

CYC Committee boat

Some fishermen were out off the breakwater in kayaks and we saw some SCUBA divers just off the breakwater as well.

And this Kingfisher in mid flight.

Not a bad way to start the morning!!