Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Mother's Day Rhody

A few years ago Lexi, a friend of Jennie's and mine, gave me this beautiful rhododendron for Mother's Day. It has continued to give us a great show every year.
I love to get up close and personal with some of my pictures. The bees were really working on the Rhodies today and didn't pay much attention to me.

Memorial Day Weekend

We started the weekend off with a little Geocaching on Whidbey Island. There is a cache that we did not get to on another outing, so decided to head out and look for it. This time we took the low route along the beach. Last time we were here we were up on the bluff you see to the right. I did not like that very much! We did have some sunshine, so it was a great day for an outing. Will and Ron are up ahead. I always manage to lag behind as I am taking pictures. We found the cache in a log. See it hiding down inside there?
We checked out the treasures, but didn't take or leave anything. We did sign the log.
We don't find as much "stuff" on the beach as we used to and that is a good sign. People must be more aware of what they do with their garbage. Occasionally though we come across a treasure or two.

There are so many photo opps on the island.

Since we still had some nice weather we headed off into the woods for another cache or 2. It was really beautiful in this area. A forest fire came through here many years ago and one of the caches was called Fire! Fire! Fire!. We looked and looked for this one, but didn't find it. I was right on with my coordinates, but still didn't see it. One of the clues said you had to get down and dirty to see it. Well, it was still pretty wet and muddy from all the rain we have had and there was a limit to how down and dirty I wanted to get.

We didn't find the first cache, but we were able to enjoy the beauty of the woods. Whidbey Island is the only place that I see Rhododendrons growing wild. I loved this one standing all by itself with woods all around.

The next few pictures are things you can discover in the woods.




We decide to try another cache. We checked our coordinates and headed off through the woods - literally. We did NOT take a path, but were real trail blazers as we battled brush and trees. Will was in the lead and pretty soon told us he had found a trail. And... right off the trail was a tree with the cache we were looking for. We were able to take the trail back to the car. Much easier than hiking through the brush. For dinner on Friday night we had smoked salmon pizza on the barbecue. It was so good. If you have never tried a BBQ pizza I recommend it. YUMMY!!!

Jennie enjoying her BBQ pizza.

Not everyone had been on the new Chetzemoka ferry. So, we decided to go for a ferry ride. We rode from Keystone to Port Townsend, got off the ferry, bought return trip tickets, and got right back on and came back to Keystone. That's really a quick round trip.

As we were leaving Port Townsend the sailboats were out preparing for a race.

Eleanor, Nate, Carole, Jennifer and Ron just enjoying the sunshine on the return trip to Keystone.

As the ferry pulls into Keystone you can see the Fort Casey campground at the waters edge. It's time for us to head downstairs.

This is the Keystone ferry dock. We have called it this for years, but it looks like they are now going to be calling it Coupeville. This is my cousin Kristi. She had been at her daughter Leah's in Port Townsend and had just come across on the ferry. Not the same one we were on, but maybe the next one. She came by our camp to see if we were there and ended up staying for several hours and had dinner with us. She had never been geocaching, so I showed her how it worked and helped her find a few caches near by. It was great seeing her. Aren't surprise visits fun?

Notice we still have sunshine!

Saturday night and it's John's Soup for dinner. It might have a real name, but the cooks kept calling it John's Soup. Let's see there were clams, mussels, calamari, scallops, shrimp and cod in a tomato soup base. The seafood eaters loved it, but I took the mussels and clams out.

On Sunday some of the gang went clam digging. Nate, Brad and Robin's grandson, is helping Ron.

Jennie's friends Amanda and Scott came over for a few days and went scuba diving. What a process it is to get all the gear on. The tanks weigh so much that Amanda could barely lift them. They get hot while struggling to get all the equipment on and though they are in dry suits it gets cold once they are in the water. It also is not much easier once they get in the water as they have to kick and sometimes fight their way through the kelp beds. Sounds like way to much work to me. Scott and Amanda entering the water as the Chetzemoka is coming into the dock. They stay on the left of the breakwater and this area is actually a diving preserve. There is a lot of sea life for them to see. They saw a HUGE octopus on this dive along with many other creatures.

It's Monday and time to go home, but there's time for one last walk on the beach. As we got near the ferry landing we saw a Heron in the water. Nothing unusual for us as we seem them there often. I didn't even bother to get my camera out as I have lots of pictures of them. Well, this time was different. As we walked by he reached in the water and pulled out this eel. I got my camera ready just in time to see him take off with it.
Next we started to hear squawking and in swoops an eagle. He ends up with the eel and the heron is flying off in one direction and the eagle in another. It all happened so quickly and I was trying to take pictures, that I didn't see it all. I do know that the eagle ended up with the herons catch.
The waves curl and splash along the beach.





All good things must come to an end. Ron, Brad, Greta and Robin are heading back to camp. It was another fun weekend at Keystone.


Saturday, May 21, 2011

Jodie's Triathlon

OK, I have to admit that I wasn't actually at this event. However, I am so proud of my niece Jodie that I had to add the event to my blog. She participated in her first Triathlon today. What an accomplishment. She started with a 500 yard swim...
Then was off on a 14 mile bike ride... and finished up with an 5 mile run. Here she is crossing the finish line and she still looks happy. This was the Tri-berry Triathlon held in Lynden. Next month she will be doing the Lake Padden Triathlon. Is this girl crazy?
Chocolate milk is the reward at the end.

Monday, May 16, 2011

Keystone in May

When we arrived at Keystone we went through our normal set up routine. However, we had no power. Ron was sure he had us plugged in correctly, but went to check that he had switched on the right breaker. Still no power. After a little more checking he noticed that the fuse had come loose from the transformer. We got on the phone to Puget Power and they sent a crew out to check on the problem. Turns out there was a whole in the top of the transformer and water had gotten into it. Now we needed another crew to come and replace the transformer. After several hours of excitement we had power.




On Saturday we had some sunshine so the girls decided to head into the Coupeville Farmers Market. It was a busy place with lots of vendors and lots of shoppers. We also discovered that the town was celebrating the Penn Cove Water Festival. The Victoria Clipper had stopped by, which I don't think it usually does. It must have been a special celebration stop for them.


In town there were more booths with information about the area as well as crafts for sale. We got there just in time to hear this group sing. As we walked up they were talking about the Chetzemoka ferry, which is the new ferry on the Keystone, now called Coupeville, to Port Townsend run. Evidently the Salish ferry will be joining it this summer and then the Chetzemoka will be leaving and a different one will come to Keystone. Oh, the ferry shuffle is on. People have waited a long time for the Chetzemoka ferry to arrive here and I'm sure they are sad to hear that it will be leaving all ready.


This is Russell Morton. He is an advocate for clean water and has been working on a major art piece called Four Season of Water. This is a very time consuming beaded project. He began in January of 2006 and figures he is about half way done. The piece is 5X15 feet, and will use about 3 million beads and 15,000 yards of thread.

This is a close-up showing the area he is working on now. We learned a new campsite recipe while we were in Arizona. The Canadians call it "Bun du jour". First Ron had to make the sticks that we needed for the process. Next you take a Pillsbury "Grand" bun and mold it over the stick. It looks like Jennie is about finished with hers and ready to start cooking. Notice we are still having a little sunshine. We decided to get our outside dinner cooked while we could.A few hot briquettes and we are ready to cook. It's kind of like toasting marshmallows, but you don't want to rush it as the dough has to cook all the way through. Once finished you carefully slide the bun off the stick and begin filling it with goodies. Tonight we had taco fillings and also shrimp fillings. Put in a little of this and a little of that and then mmmmm, they are ready to eat.
Brad is having his dessert "Bun'" We had blueberries, peaches, apples and whipped cream to put in them. I see Bead has a blueberry on top, but I think he actually put a little of all the fruits inside. This turned out to be a fun dinner. We are already talking about different things we could use for the filling. How about a "Breakfast Bun" with bacon and eggs? Yummy!
We were going to go out shrimping, but look what the weather did AGAIN!!! The rain, wind and fog moved in, so we stayed in the RVs. Brad brought his boat, but it only got wet from the rain and not the salt water.
Will and Jennie's trailer in the rain. Where, oh where, is that sunshine?