PETER KIRK FOUND IN FRIDAY HARBOR

We took a quick trip down to the cemetery to leave flowers on the headstone of an older co workers father.  His mom and dads ideal retirement place was on San Juan, but sadly the father passed before his plans came to fruition.  With the rest of the family in Wisconsin, I wanted to leave some flowers on the rarely visited headstone in the Friday Harbor cemetery.

The cemetery, while a bit dry, is quiet and beautiful.  It's interesting to see the different headstones over time and the town cemetery covers the last half of the 1800's through the present.

Mom noted one larger plot that once looked grand was now over grown and not at all well tended.  There was a large white, presumably marble, monument and on one side the name 'Mary Kirk' was visible.  She died in 1907. On the other side the name was 'Peter Kirk', 1840-1916.  There were other headstones on the plot as if other family members were interred there.

Peter Kirk. Could it be?  A quick internet search confirmed it was the same Peter Kirk. A steel mill owner in England, he came over to the US with a vision to form a city to rival Pittsburgh, but on the west coast.  He knew Steel.  Reported iron ore deposits in the Cascades, plenty of water, coal to fire the mill, and Lime in the San Juans.  Everything he needed to build a steel empire.

Politics and timing got in the way.  The one thing he needed was a rail spur, but the powers in Tacoma wouldn't run a line on the eastern shore of Lake Washington. That forced him to move his plan away from the water, away from the city he had planned.  The move meant higher costs and the delay proved fatal.  The economic crash of 1893 crushed his steel mill plans.

But his city began to take root and ship building provided the jobs.  Houses were built and a hamlet on the eastern shore of Lake Washington started to grow.

Peter Kirk had fallen in love with the islands during his visits to secure Lime and he retired in Friday Harbor where he died in in his sleep in 1916.

And the town he created?  Kirkland is doing just fine, having celebrated its first 100 years a few years back.

WASHINGTON STATE FERRY SYSTEM GETS IT RIGHT?

Washington state ferries. Gotta love 'em.  They provided the local NBC news affiliate with quite a bit of fodder for hard,investigative news.  A real target rich environment full of wasteful spending, poor customer service, and questionable safe practices (max capacity on the ferry? 2000 people.  Max capacity of the life rafts?  600).  But they are fully compliant with Federal safety rules -- modified specifically for the ferry system's lack of life rafts.

This is the same system that spends the better part of a million dollars a year on a small ferry that wasn't used once in 2013.

Then the Handford nuclear waste whistleblowers came to light and King 5 dropped the Washington state ferry system like a hot radioactive potato. Bigger fish to fry (waste, coverups, and possible radioactive contamination at the federal level is so Pulitzer).

i digress.

By fleet size, it is the largest ferry system in the US, and the 3rd largest in the world.  The system has its roots in the 'mosquito fleet' that operated up and down (but mostly across) the sound in the early 1900's.

But recently the Washington State Ferry system came up with the biggest step in health care in recent years.  That single advancement was a huge stress reliever and likely extended the years of many island residents.

Up until now arriving at the toll booth carried great uncertainty. Anxiety.  Angst.  Especially on Fridays headed to the island.  Sometimes it felt that EVERYONE on northbound I5 was a potential competitor headed for the ferry.  And if traffic slowed your progress, the blood pressure would rise as the minutes ticked by.  Would I make the ferry?  Mental calculations would begin - cleared Everett, 1 hour between Everett and the terminal.  It's 3 pm now, ferry leaves at 4:15.  Cutting it close.  Will I make it?  Foot on the accelerator, blood pressure rises.

That's how it used to be.  But there's an app for that.  It's actually on the Washington State Dept of Transportation (WSDOT) web site.  It shows the 'places left' for each sailing.  It's color coded (green, yellow, red) and you can tell how the que is going.

Take my recent trip up.  I'm going through Mt Vernon and the gas tank is just below half.  Do I fill up or not.  I'm cutting it a little close, on track to arrive 25 minutes before the ferry departs.  At this point, I'm 30 minutes away and there's 85 places left on the ferry.  Cool.  Stop for gas and fill the car up.

By the time I get to the toll both, there's quite a line. There are, perhaps 15 cars in front of me and we're not moving.  But I know there are 50 places left despite the crowd.  No worries, blood pressure remains low -- I know I'm on the ferry despite the wait.

By the time I get down into the terminal and qued up for the ferry, there are 30 places left and when we depart we're almost, but not quite loaded to capacity.

The 'places left' system takes most of the worry and anxiety out of the trip.  Of course you wonder why there's anxiety in the first place on simply making the ferry, but that sounds more like a personal problem (mine).

Seals!!I

This is going to get all out of synch, but the pictures precede the story!

Seals at Poulsbo...

Not a seal.  But he (she?) was watching

Much nose to nose contact

Dinner.  Lunch and breakfast too...

HI!!!

Rebel seal with a mohawk.  Saying hi to mom.

Newborn

Very very pregnant

Sluys!!

I believe I can fly...

That's all!! bye!!

JULY 4th WEEKEND - Thursday and Friday

July 4th weekend started at 4:30am on the 3rd.  Crabbing season started on the 3rd and just before 5am the crab pot was down off Discovery park and by 6am I was at work.  Great start.

Ken had come up from Portland and when I got home we threw the kayaks on the boat and then we headed out.  Jodi had prepared the menu to accommodate a crabbing failure, but we were hopeful our first try of the season was successful.

We neared the pot, Jodi made the snag with the boat hook and Ken pulled up the pot.  The contents?  5 large males (each over 7 inches, the largest 2 were over 8 inches) and one female who was returned to the sound to make more crab babies.

We motored over to Poulsbo and we rafted onto the shilshole raft.  23 boats in total, most from 'D' dock, although several other docks were represented as well.

The Raft -- largest one in Liberty Bay

Rafting with others is a lot of fun and we were treated to Jackson (age 4) and Russel (age 3) who were old friends the moment they met.  They regaled us with the 'Monkey Show' on the foredeck, grabbing the jib sheets and swinging around, just above the deck.

Russel and Jackson, stars of the 'monkey show'

Dinner was the crab.  Jodi served it up and we all feasted and hammered through most of the crab.  Andy came over to help as did one of their friends visiting from Florida.

The fireworks were pretty good and we all enjoyed the show from the bow.

Friday morning we hit Sluy's the bakery in Pouslbo.  Their apple fritters are wonderful.  To work it off, we went for a kayak trip, then prepared the boat for departure.

Our destination was Quartermaster harbor, some 34 miles away.  A fairly long day.

After we had gotten underway, Ken emerged from below decks with the bad news.  The situation was grim.  As the potential disaster affected all souls on board, we broke the bad news to Jodi.  She slowly nodded her head accepting the facts at hand.  She asked the critical question and we looked at the chart.  There were no options.  No places that could help.  The circumstances were truly desperate.

We were down to our last two beers.

Ken, ever enterprising, consulted Google and found there was one brewery on Vashon Island, but it was inland and we had no car.  As hope faded Ken called anyway.  The single brewery was named 'Cliff's Beer' (only sold on Vashon Island) and a brewery employee answered the phone.  It was Cliff himself.

He mentioned he may be able to help.  He was on his way to bottle some IPA that very morning and he lived close to Quartermaster harbor. He could help.  He also took debit cards and provided directions to his home.

With renewed hope we motored onto Quartermaster harbor, rafted up again, and walked to Cliff's house.  The walk was just over a mile and we learned that Vashon style directions involved features (take the first right after the bridge) and sketchy math (I'm the 3rd driveway on the left).  Cliff happily greeted us at then end of the drive, (
which was the 2nd driveway on the left).

In any case Cliff had a cool older electric car/mini van and had sold beer out of his garage.  Cool.  He sold them in reusable mini growlers (growlets).

With the evening libations secured, we walked back to the boat, had appetizers on the bow and Jodi prepared a wonderful BBQ chicken dinner.

The quartermaster harbor fireworks are unbelievable.  It's a big show with huge shells.  By coincidence Jodi and I had run into an old acquaintance and he now arranges the details for the fireworks show.  He described the 16inch shells and said it was the biggest fireworks show in the state.  We found no evidence to contradict him.

Sailing down Colvos Passage

Rainier pops out around the southern end of Vashon

The 'Courageous -- The Camp Norwester boat  back in the 60's

Good weekend so far!!