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For the second year, Alice and I went to Friday Harbor on San Juan Island for Thanksgiving.  We really like the peaceful location and having a great dinner cooked by someone-else is a bonus!  This year we intended to fly up on a seaplane but due to a high-wind advisory, the planes weren’t flying so we took Alice’s car over on the ferry instead.

This turned out great as we were able to explore more of the island than we had previously.   First we went to Lime Kiln Point to see if we could spot any whales swimming by.  Unfortunately this wasn’t to be so we then headed off to the Pelindaba Lavender Farm.  Our luck was still not holding as they had closed for the winter months.

Our luck turned for the better when we drove on to visit the historic English Camp.  There is quite a story here as the San Juan Islands had been disputed territory between the United States and Canada (acting as a proxy for the Great Britain).  This dispute flared up over a killed pig and in the end was settled through arbitration by the German Kaiser.

 

Alice was able to get some lavender goodies at the Pelindaba store in the town of Friday Harbor.  We had a great room at Friday Harbor House overlooking the marina (grey and brown building on the hill in the photo below).

Our friends and neighbors, Mike and Patti, took their boat up to Friday Harbor to pick up their son and family before heading to another island for Thanksgiving.  Our plan was to have breakfast with them, but with the high winds they had to take advantage of a bit of a lull in the winds to quickly turnaround in Friday Harbor.

On Friday after Thanksgiving we took a drive up to Roche Harbor.  We had stayed at the marina here last year during our San Juan Island boat charter and it was great to go back and see it from a different perspective, arriving from land.

Finally it was back to Seattle – after all now that Thanksgiving had passed, Alice was eager to put up the Christmas decorations!

Halloween is one of Alice’s favorite times of the year, and as usual the requests to decorate ‘Alice’ commenced on Sept 30.  I managed to hold out for several days and then it was time to add ghostly touches – this year we had two skeletons, the usual lights, spiders, spider webs and a new touch with some window cutouts.

 

 

 

 

We made the annual pilgrimage to Denver and stayed at the Brown Palace.  We packed a lot into the weekend with a visit to the Boulder house, a trip up to Estes Park, going to a concert to check out a great band for Kate’s wedding and enjoyed the “Monster Brunch” at the Brown Palace with Kaitlin and Adam, and finally caught up with friends before flying home.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Halloween we hosted the dock party and as always when we get together, we had a great time.

 

 

 

In addition to Jimmy’s brother “Johnny”, we had a visit from the zombie couple and a couple of cowpersons as well as neighbors just back from south of the border.

 

As September ends and October begins, we continue to squeeze out the remaining joy of last vestiges of the great Summer Seattle weather.  There are however a number of signs that we will soon be in a much colder, wetter, darker period.

The first of these is a very fun event – Fremont Oktoberfest.  This is billed as one of the largest Oktoberfest events in the west and it lives up to that with large crowds, many different beers to taste, live music and a fun run.

 

 

 

 

The second telltale sign is that we now have more Canadian geese migrating through from Canada seeking warmer climates to wait out winter.

 

The leaves are also starting to change color.  Although I have to admit that being able to kayak and paddle board in early October is a real blessing!

 

Finally, the ultimate sign is when Alice brings out the “Boo” kits and advises me that it is time to bring out the Halloween decorations. So far I’ve nobly resisted putting up any such decorations, but the time is definitely coming…)

Summer’s end comes closer and the weather is cooling.  While this summer hasn’t been as warm as last year, we still had our share of truly beautiful days. Whenever the days get hot – more than 80 degrees F, the rowing dock gets totally crowded.

There are all sorts of floating toys that accompany these hordes of people, some of which are quite creative.

 

We also have the pleasure of seeing some great vessels floating by, including dragon boats, tall ships, fishing boats, Coast Guard vessels and some truly large pleasure craft.

 

Here’s hoping for a long Indian summer through September and in the meantime for more interesting craft to make an appearance.

 

 

Alice and I managed to get away for a couple weeks’ Windstar cruise from Copenhagen through the Baltics, St Petersburg and back to Stockholm.  We had a fantastic time and spent a couple of days in Copenhagen before embarking and an extra day in Stockholm before heading home.

Copenhagen is a wonderful city. I had been there a number of times for business end enjoyed the experience so it was great to introduce Alice to this great city.

We had a blast touring the city including a canal cruise which provides a different perspective of the city and we were pleased to see some houseboats on the canals. We would certainly consider living in Copenhagen for a few years.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our first stop on the cruise was Bornholm in Denmark which is actually an island at the bottom of Sweden with an interesting history of how ownership moved from Sweden to Denmark.

We visited an old round church, a glass-blowing workshop, a fortress and sampled some local beer but gave the smoked herrings a miss.

 

Then it was on to Gdansk, Poland where we visited the medieval part of the city including the very large St Mary’s gothic cathedral, and once again sampled the local beer (yes, there is a theme).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next up was Klaipeda in Lithuania.  Here we visited the “Hill of Witches” so that Alice felt in her element.

 

There were certainly some interesting creatures in the woods.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After that it was on to Tallinn, Estonia where we had a truly fantastic day, exploring the old town, hearing of the history and folklore, listening to local music and sampling some local food and schnapps.

Along with beautiful old churches and buildings and a rich history, Estonia has been very progressive in developing their economy following the Soviet breakup and is now a strong technology center (Skype was invented and developed here) and we really appreciated the fast, free Wi-Fi throughout the town.

After Tallinn, we visited Helsinki, Finland.  We did a walking tour which was very interesting and educational and decided this was a city where we should revisit and spend more time.

Then it was on to a highlight of the trip – St Petersburg, Russia.  This is truly a magical city with a rich history.

The first day we visited the Grand Palace in Peterhof, which was the summer home of Peter the Great and then expanded by his children.  It is a very impressive building and grounds all glitter and built on a very large scale.

 

That evening we went for a private ballet event of Swan Lake which was very memorable.

 

The next day I hired a private guide and driver which turned out to be a great idea.  We were able to get into the Hermitage (a very large museum second in scope only to the Louvre in Paris) before the crowds arrived and could enjoy room after room, basically by ourselves. 

We also visited many other palaces and historical locations throughout the city in a very packed day.  One of the highlights was having lunch in a local establishment with our guide.

She also told me during lunch that I looked very much like a Russian pop star and so had to have my photo so she could tell her friends – very funny!

After two fabulous days in St Petersburg it was a day at sea before arriving in Stockholm – another magical city.  The entrance to Stockholm by boat is through a beautiful waterway filled with islands – it reminded us of the San Juan Islands, only more of them and closer together.

While I had been here previously on business, I really hadn’t had the opportunity to look around.  So Alice and I did lots of walking as we explored the old town and surrounding area.

 

Alice lit a candle in the cathedral for Luke’s safety in Afghanistan.  Of course she also made the last forays into souvenir shops for chotskys.

We were lucky that the hotel staff booked us into dinner at Fem Sma Hus a traditional Swedish restaurant that had been operating since 1700.  This was a great dinner and tremendous way to celebrate a wonderful vacation.

 

Yesterday was a special day as the old houseboat was moved into the dry dock and torn apart.  Mike and team did a brilliant job getting it there in one piece given the state of the vessel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The machinery made quick work of ripping it apart.

 

Now we need to finalize the plans, get the appropriate approvals and commence building the new ‘Alice”.  It’s getting exciting!

The last couple of weeks has been busy on the dock with two houseboats returning from refurbishment and our neighbors have had a new son.  In anticipation of their new arrival, they had their houseboat remodeled to add another bedroom and generally update it.

 

I was fortunate to be home when the refurbished houseboat arrived back on the dock.  It’s very interesting to see how easily the two small tugboats maneuvered the houseboat into position given there wasn’t too much room to spare on either side.

 

The timing was also good as our neighbors had their new baby the day before and mother and son were returning that evening!

We’ve been very fortunate as Kate visited us for July 4th weekend and we enjoyed spending  another week or so with her.  Even though the weather wasn’t as nice as last year, we still had a great time enjoying a baseball game as well as the festivities and fireworks for Independence Day.

We braved the cooler, cloudy weather and went for multiple paddles.  Kate was very proficient on the kayak and as always I truly appreciate being able to get out on the water with a backdrop as pretty as the city of Seattle.

We also took out the KatieG to explore a little further afield, including checking in on the “Mad Max” barge that we bought in order to build the new houseboat.  We’re still waiting on a drydock opening so we can move it in and destroy it and in the meantime it’s very important that it remains safely floating in its mooring.

 

 

I introduced Kate to stand-up paddle boarding (SUP) and she put this new skill to good use by picking blackberries from the bushes near the dock. Then she practiced doing runs up and back in front of “Alice” and out to the lake.

 

Kate hadn’t visited Portland before so we made an overnight trip and had a great time, staying at the historic Benson hotel and visiting the local hotspots including the International Rose Test Garden, the Japanese Garden, the food truck area and the Willamette River waterfront.  Of course we also had to stop in at Voodoo donuts to bring home some samples including two “Voodoo Men”.

On the way back we called into Astoria – an historic logging town on the Columbia River that I enjoy a lot.  We climbed up the Astoria Column and had lunch at Coffee Girl on Pier 39.

 

We enjoyed our time so much we hope Kate can make it back next year and bring Adam with her!

It’s that time of year again! The wonderful, whacky Fremont Solstice Festival and parade.  We were a little more organized this year and set up a couple of chairs to ensure we had a good view of the parade in comfort.

As usual, the parade starts with several hundred naked bicyclists, skate-boarders, roller-bladers and walkers – most with body paint, but some who figure they don’t need it.This is followed by the official parade with marching bands, floats and what seems like any odd assortment of people who want to march together. 

The weather held up reasonably well and although we had some rain sprinkles, it was mostly dry and a very comfortable temperature.

The floats were quite colorful, some had music including one with a rock band and they were interspersed between the marching bands.

For some reason I was getting a number of high fives (including during the naked bike parade) from the participants as well as a hugs from female paraders (fortunately they were of the clothed variety).

There was also a few Trump impersonators who were quite animated and at least one was naked from the waist down.  They promised to “make Fremont great again” and to build a wall and make Wallingford, the neighboring suburb pay for it.

In addition to the parades there were the markets with many different stalls selling all sorts of clothes, art, nick-nacks and food.  Buskers were also out in force as were people soliciting signatures for various political causes and ballot measures.

Next up was the art car exhibition.  Some of these were inventive, some whacky and some downright scary.  One interesting one was a camper complete with drawings of koalas, goannas, kangaroos and the poem “I love a sunburnt country” emblazoned on the side.

There were also multiple stages with live music and associated beer gardens. We took the time to listen to a couple of bands (over an adult beverage of course) and the music was pretty good.  One thing we noticed this year was a much stronger police presence than we’ve seen in the past together with a mobile precinct and many vehicles. 

We had a great weekend – it is amazing some of the events and activities that take place in our neighborhood, but then again it is the center of the universe!

We’re now making some progress with building a new houseboat.  We closed on purchasing an old, rather disheveled houseboat built on a wooden barge hull that was originally constructed as a pile-driving barge in the 1930’s.

It finally received the all important FOWR (floating on-water residence) permit which was a condition of closing the deal.  Now we are waiting for a slot to open up at the dry dock so we can move it there and then destroy it.

In the meantime both Alice and I have visited it.  I went just prior to closing the deal and along with Mike our neighbor made bids on some of the items the previous owner was intending to remove – it was a like an episode of the reality TV show “Pickers” as we bartered back and forth on the items.

We ended up with some very cool stained glass doors, a Dutch door complete with porthole and anchor-shaped door knocker, a cool hutch, multiple larger brass portholes, a couple bay windows and very cool bathroom fixtures.

 

 

 

This houseboat must have been party-central in its heyday in the 1980’s.  It had a steam room complete with a floor that raised hydraulically to expose a large hot tub, a very large shower, a “ballroom” with chandelier and disco ball and much more.  I can only imagine what went on…

 

 

It was also used as a centerpiece for Seattle’s Seafair festival, apparently sponsored by Budweiser complete with a 30ft beer bottle which was used as a sighting point for the Blue Angels when they conducted their aerial acrobatic displays.

 

 

 

 

 

Now we’re working with Mike, a naval architect and the attorney to finish design, get city approvals and hopefully get the build underway – it is bound to be an exciting adventure!