An outing to Jetty Island

I've now done another thing on my Puget Sound bucket list - a visit to Jetty Island. We went this past Monday, July 30th.

The tide was low when we arrived and came in gradually. The water was very shallow and actually warm! Here is low tide:

Here is the tide coming in:

It was chilly when we arrived but my kids didn't care - they could run back and forth to the water,

dig in the sand,

look for wild animals in the sand bars,

play with the seaweed,

or just get very very wet!

check out that view!

Even on a cloudy cool day, this is a popular place but not so much that you can't spread out. It did warm up in the afternoon. Three other moms and their kids (in our group) left at 12:45 pm but my friend Andrea and I stayed on the island until 2:45 pm. We were happy that we stayed longer to get the warmth and sunshine. Our typical weather these days is cloudy mornings and sunny afternoons.

The short boat ride (from the port of Everett) was free with donations suggested. It only hold 60 people with an upper deck.

There is a website with more information. I highly recommend visiting Jetty Island. If you have a group of more than 8 you can make reservations, which we did.Pin It

What's happening in my garden?

July is a busy time in the garden.

Foxglove are one of my favourite flowers. One sunny day I saw a hummingbird by this one!

The hydrangeas are doing great, unlike last year when I had hardly any blossoms.

This one's a little scraggly looking but I have a nice bouquet after cutting a few.

I still have roses blooming. One rose I bought last year has been producing bloom after bloom!

I have two lavatera plants at the front of my yard. 
They are a little too tall and spindly so I might move them to a different spot.

I've enjoyed having a cutting garden in July.

My shasta daisies are doing great - the funny thing is that they smell terrible!

The delphinium are winding down. They are so fragile.
If I bring some inside, the petals fall all over the counter.

Lavender are in their prime.

As for the vegetables. Here are some harvested zucchini:

A critter took a few bites out of the one on the left. Argg.

Here are zucchini in the raised bed:

I harvested a few yellow carrots - which taste great, by the way.

I harvested the spinach before taking this photo. It was in that blank spot.
As you can see, the sugar snap peas are going crazy.

This is my son's potato patch. Unfortunately some pest is eating the leaves like crazy.
I'm open to advice if you have any.

This last photo is for my dad. He helped clear out this unusual spot for me.
I realized that it is a very sunny spot. We used to just store our garbage bins here.
Now, there are sweet peas (by the trellis), sunflowers and hollyhocks growing!

Thanks for joining me on this garden tour. :)

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One Thousand Gifts #231 to #241

catching up!

231. a bouquet of pink peonies from my garden (photo taken a few weeks ago)

232. picking strawberries with friends

233. a cool day - perfect for picking strawberries

234. my oldest son helping with grocery shopping and putting things away when we got home

235. a playdate invitation

236. a fun trip to San Francisco and a safe return

237. my garden is thriving

238. I found an old window with panes for $10 at an antiques flea market.

239. we explored a "new to us" park last week that had a boardwalk over wetlands. C captured a slug in a water bottle as a temporary pet. He named him Slimey. :)

240. enjoying our friends' fire pit and roasting giant marshmallows

241. getting my haircutPin It

Trip to San Francisco - Part 3 - stops on the way home

Days 6 and 7.

During the two days of driving back home from San Francisco we stopped at two fun places. The first was the Jelly Belly Factory in Fairfield, CA. It was a little tricky to find since there were no signs on the freeway. We went on the free 40 minute tour. It was educational, fun, plus they gave us free jelly beans at the end. The jelly belly portraits were incredible.

We wore these cute hats for the tour.

The number of flavours is incredible.

I bought a bag of "belly flops" which are candies that don't meet the high standards such as the wrong shape, two stuck together, etc. My boys had fun identifying the flavour and I liked sorting them by colour. J discoverd that his favourite flavour is buttered popcorn.

We stayed in Medford, Oregon, on Saturday night. We ate at Four Daughters Irish Pub. I highly recommend it. They were very welcoming to us and our boys. We sat in comfy leather couches and watched baseball on TV. Both C and I had shepherd's pie. J had bangers and mash.

The next day we stopped at The Enchanted Forest near Salem, Oregon. It is located on a hill so we got some exercise walking around. I also liked the natural setting - better than the typical asphalt of an amusement park. A good place to stop on a long day of driving. It is a step back in time.

My boys enjoyed the tunnels, secret passageways and slides. I would recommend bringing a flashlight since the tunnels aren't well-lit. It was a bit over-priced (I think it was $38 for the four of us) but what a unique place. A bit cheesy but they don't make places like this anymore. 

The crooked house.

Enjoying the big slide.

Taking aim at a cowboy who trash talks you whether or not you are successful in shooting him.


We saw Storybook Lane, the Western Town and the Old Europe Village.

C liked Hickory Dickory Dock.

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Canada Day cake - one day late

I pinned this idea on Pinterest months ago and I remembered to make it! I made the cake yesterday but didn't get a chance to decorate it until today. The idea came from this blog. The cake is a white cake mix and the frosting is Cool Whip.Pin It

Trip to San Francisco - Part 2 - The City

Day 4 of our vacation was spent in SF. The photo above was taken from the car (I wasn't driving!) as we entered the city at sunset the night before. I'm pretty happy with it.

Our first day we walked up, up, up from our hotel to the famous Lombard Street. If you walk in SF, you get a serious workout.

You know, that power line kind of wrecks the picture, doesn't it? I think they should fix that.
C loved this spy shop which I read about before our trip.

We saw the cable cars but didn't actually ride one since we saw a big lineup.

We had the most amazing chocolate fudge sundae at Ghirardelli Square.

We went to Boudin bread - home of the original sourdough bread.

At Fisherman's Wharf, I had fresh crab cocktail for lunch from a street vendor.

C and I explored Musee Mechanique which is a very unique place with working antique arcade games as well as modern ones.

Pier 39 was very busy. Lots of interesting shops including a store for lefties like C. 

The sea lions hang out here but I was hoping to see more.

There was a great view of Alcatraz from Pier 39.

In the afternoon we drove to see the most famous image of SF - the Painted Ladies.

We had supper at the Organic Plant Cafe. I think this was the first time my kids had vegetables on the trip, other than french fries. :) My oldest son asked if we could come back the next night!

Day 5 - San Francisco

In the morning we went to Golden Gate Park which is SF's Central park. This park has so many things in it that you could spend several days there. J and the boys went to the Academy of Sciences. Here's J's report:

From A's quick review of the map, it seemed we wanted to focus on the rainforest and aquarium sections. We skipped the planetarium and 'natural history' (aka, Darwinist propaganda) sections. The museum is highlighted by two large spheres or domes: one for the rain forest enclosure, the other for the planetarium. We got in line for the rainforest one. I was concerned we would be standing in line for a while, but it soon became clear this line was moving very quickly. The enclosure is divided up into 4 'floors': each one represents a 'stratum' of the rainforest ecosystem, and is associated with a particular country: you begin in the Borneo (the understory layer), and get to see some reptiles and amphibians, though the main focus is the butterflies fluttering and landing freely all around you; there are some birds also. Then we wound our way out the spiral ramp to the canopy layer, represented by Madagascar. This area contained many cool amphibians and reptiles, plus some spiders: geckos, chameleons, snakes, etc. Then it was up to the top 'emergent' layer, represented by Costa Rica.

I was particularly pleased that in nearly every single case the exhibits had the actual animals in them, and we were able to see the animals. Though we may have been better at this than others; the couple behind us made a friendly joke about our almost 100% record in locating the incredibly well camouflaged animals.

When we were done with that we took a glass elevator down to the bottom floor, going through a part of the aquarium and bringing us 'face-to-face' with some fish. The bottom layer was the 'flooded Amazon' and includes the aquarium section.The aquarium included several beautiful jellyfish, and many other exhibits that were well spaced out. We managed to spend a lot of time there and felt like we were able to see many interesting sea animals. There was even a hole you can put your arm in to see what it feels like to be gripped by an anaconda -- for 11 seconds -- and a couple of electrodes to see what a greeting from an electric eel feels like. Naturally C did both of these, but apparently they made quite an impression, because he was second-guessing himself afterwards.

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I went to the Conservatory of Flowers (a beautiful building and so peaceful inside).

In the afternoon, J and the boys returned to the Academy of Sciences while I explored SF some more. I drove to the west edge, saw the beach, and also got a closer look at the Golden Gate from Fort Point. I wanted to see the shore level view of the Golden Gate Bridge as seen in the movie Vertigo.

We met up at 3:30 pm and decided to leave town. Unfortunately, it was Friday rush hour traffic so it took us quite a while to drive to Petaluma. We ate at Zazzle Cafe in Petaluma. The beef salad that I ordered was delicious. Here's a quote from the menu:

Grilled tri-tip, fresh baby spinach leaves, spring mix, cilantro, carrots, green onions, red bell peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, snow peas & bean sprouts tossed with our spicy Ponzu-chipotle dressing!

We stayed at the Best Western in Petaluma. The room was HUGE with 2 King size beds. It even had 2 TVs which was ridiculous.

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