Sailing Day Trip

To celebrate J's 50th birthday, we chartered a 40 foot sailing boat for a day. Friday July 8th. J had wanted to do something like this for some time. He researched various businesses. He chose Sail Bainbridge.

We left home on Thursday night in order to avoid the stress of traffic and a ferry in the morning. The ferry to Bainbridge Island departs from the Seattle waterfront. The ride is the most picturesque of all the ferry routes and the best way to get a photo of Seattle. 

We stayed at a basic hotel in Winslow (the small town close to the water) Quality Inn. Our boat trip started at 10 am and ended at 4 pm. Our captain was Ben and he had a "deck hand" named Sophie, a tiny young woman. I accidentally took this photo but it shows the captain and the boat.

J took this photo. 

Ben asked us where we'd like to go and we left that up to his expertise. He suggested Blake Island which is accessible only by private boat.  

The weather was a little chilly to begin with. I wore my denim jacket at the beginning. By the end of the day I had changed into shorts. When we arrived on the west side, we went two at a time by rowboat from the big boat to the beach. There is no marina on that side.

Blake Island has an interesting history. I found this:

The island was an ancestral camping ground of the Suquamish Indian tribe. Later, it was logged and eventually sold to William Trimble (of Arkansas) and his family. Tragedy ended the Trimble family's interest in Blake Island.  After years of neglect, the property became a marine state park in 1959.

We ate a picnic lunch there. It was very quiet. 

There are spaces for camping where we ate. At the north end of the island I spotted a skinny snake in the grass. I also spotted a raccoon in the trees near our picnic spot. I collected driftwood for my friend Elizabeth who used them in her macramé creations.

Also at the north end we saw a large group pull up in metal canoes. They had canoed in from West Seattle. Jonathan spoke to a man in the group which was mainly young adults.

We began walking/hiking on the trail in the woods. Here's a view of Seattle through the trees.

And now, a photo of the photographer!

We eventually reached the east side of the island.

We hadn't planned to hike that far. We arrived at the former Tillicum Village which was a tourist attraction to showcase Northwest Coast Indian arts, culture, and food.  Argosy Cruises had boats that landed at the marina. It is no longer in operation. It closed in 2020.

 

Our problem was that we had left our cooler at the west side. We thought the boys could hike over to the west side but they quickly realized it wouldn't be fast enough to meet our deadline and returned. We texted our captain and he was happy to pick up the cooler and then come get us. There is a marina on the east side with docks so no rowboat was needed. We returned to Bainbridge. 

On the return there was enough wind for the boat to be under sails and not motor power. That was approximately an hour. The boat's name is True. I bought a sweatshirt from Captain Ben with a drawing of the boat on it. C and I will share it. 

There were two bean bags at the front of the boat so it was a comfy place to be. 

Some more boat photos.

There was a flushing toilet on board the boat, if you're wondering. We had Sophie take our photo and we took another photo of the boat in the marina.

When we were back in our car on Bainbridge we drove north to Kingston and took the Edmonds ferry home. We enjoyed our time with Sail Bainbridge and would recommend it to others. There are shorter sail times (two hours) as well as longer ones. 

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Baker Lake Backpacking Trip

J and the boys went on a two night backpacking trip. C was required to do a backpacking trip that including staying at two different campsites. This was a Philmont requirement. J wrote this account.

We left home at about 0900 on Friday, July 1. We stopped at Cabela's on the way up for a water filter. We already had "life straws" but wanted to upgrade. That added another 50 bucks to our total backpacking trip total.

We later stopped at Subway in Sedro-Wooley for lunch and proceeded to the Baker Lake Trailhead. Alas, we missed the turn for the trailhead because it wasn't signed and didn't really realize until we were well into "Pothole City" on the wrong side of the lake. We turned back and found our turn. We never did figure out why the guys who did this a week earlier didn't warn us about that, but whatever.

The most striking thing about going the right way is that you find yourself driving over the top of a dam, with water on one side of you the same level as you, and on the other side a vast torrent of water crashing down hundreds of feet below you.

A little further along another potholed road and we were parked at the trailhead, and heading out on foot with our packs, at 1PM. An hour later than planned. We arrived at Maple Grove campsite at 2:20 PM. The hike felt a lot longer to me with the full pack. C also had a full pack. A carried a school backpack, but still heavily laden. The views of Mt. Baker across Bake Lake made the effort worthwhile.

We had no problem finding a campsite. We had been cautioned that finding a campsite could be competitive so we were happy to find that wasn't the case. In fact, one couple arrived at 5PM and found a free site. In fact, at least one site was unused that night.


We passed the time by playing around on logs on the waterfront. We thought about swimming but the water temperatures were just a little prohibitive. The air temperature was a pleasant 70+ -- good for hiking but not hot enough to drive us into the water.

We had Mountain House freeze-dried meals for dinner this day, as we did the whole trip. They aren't cheap (about 11 dollars each which feeds only one person). Our campsite was right next to another site which had an empty tent for many hours. Finally around dinner our neighbor lady returned with her dog after a full day of hiking and shared our picnic table with us. She was very chatty. And quite nosy.


We set up both our tents and the new hammock. The boys slept in the big tent and J slept in hammock but woke up at 1130. Even at 55F, it was too cold to sleep without a bag. J moved into the small tent. The sleeping bag kept me warm but the ground seemed to get harder and harder with each passing hour with the thin foam pad.

C also had a rough night and moved to the hammock at 3AM. He found it hard to sleep on the ground with back brace, even with the inflatable pad.

We were up at 6. J made coffee with the Jet-Boil. We had bad Mountain House for food. Turns out "Breakfast Skillet" sounds better in theory than in practice. Oops. We were on the trail by 730. We made a calculated decision to leave our smaller tent behind to reduce weight.

Such classic expressions!

After one hour of hiking we got to the point where lake bends and lakeside trail goes east instead of north. After 1 more hour we got to Silver Creek campsite. The only people there was a couple boys about to head out.

We had lots of time to kill here. After a Mountain House -- or Alpine Aire -- lunch, C had a nap. A and J hiked on to Noisy Creek without packs at the top of the lake. 

It was 30 minutes each way. The campsite itself was not impressive. It seemed quite limited, and surrounded by brush. We felt quite pleased with our decision to camp at Silver Creek. 

We had good weather all day. The Silver Creek sites were filled up from 2 to 4. We had dinner and went to bed early.

And then we had a thunderstorm about 11. For a while there was lightning with no rain and little thunder. Eventually it started to rain. J was hoping to sleep in the hammock by the creek, but once the rain hit he moved into the tent. Thankfully the rain never really got into the tent despite the undersized fly. But J didn't get much sleep.

We all got up at 5 on Sunday and packed up in rain. No coffee. No breakfast. Left at 6. We hiked straight back except a 30 minute stop at Maple Grove to retrieve the other tent. The boys got back to the trailhead by 930. J took 15 minutes longer. It rained on and off whole way back and we were all soaked, and the rain added a bunch more weight to our already heavy packs. J was going very slowly up the inclines by the end. We did rotate packs a bit.

We drove straight back home except for stop for a McDonalds breakfast in Sedro-Wooley. I was very impressed by both boys but especially Christopher's stamina.

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Fourth of July Mantle

 

I have never done a July 4th mantle before. I've also never done a Canada Day mantle. Maybe someday. I searched Pinterest for ideas. I went shopping in Snohomish with my friend Mary last week. 

Here's a breakdown of the items I used. The medium sized flags were purchased at an antique mall in Snohomish for a dollar each. The old window is from my collection. The old books are from my "decorative" books collection.

I filled an apothecary jar with buttons. This was challenging and took longer than I expected. I want to add more red buttons to balance it out.

The handmade wood block signs were found at My Eclectic home in Snohomish. 

The rag banner I bought a few years ago from Black Barrel Antiques in Monroe.

I've had the white pitchers for many years. They come in handy for many different themes. 

I found the 1953 Good Housekeeping magazine at an antique store in Snohomish for 8 dollars. The old coffee tins were just sitting on my porch waiting for some plants. The large flag came from My Eclectic Home for 30 dollars. 

I'm proud of what I pulled together. I'll probably keep this up for the month of July and change to a beach mantle for August. 

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