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I attended my first Festivus celebration this week.  Alice was an old hand having attended last year and was very excited to do the chicken dance – more on that later.  This celebration takes place in the square near the statue of Lenin.  Typical of Fremont, there was a small band playing and a number of whacky contests – finding objects, trivia and arm wrestling.

All of these were accompanied by prizes of dubious heritage and value.  Santa made a showing and there was plenty of hot chocolate, tea, coffee and snacks to keep everyone’s attention.

Then came a couple of unique elements to this celebration. The airing of grievances, basically an open microphone for anyone who wanted to voice an opinion about some issue they found disturbing, irritating or a little bizarre.

Next came the chicken dance – a number of people (including Alice) doing the chicken dance around a small undecorated pole on a stand in the middle of the square.

Finally we came to the highlight.  A countdown from ’13’ and then the Lenin statue was lit up with Merry Christmas prominently displayed – somewhat ironic given Lenin’s activities while he was alive!

Just another crazy wonderful event in the annual Fremont calendar of activities.

We decided to have a quiet Thanksgiving in the San Juan islands and are staying in a great location called Friday Harbor.  We took the seaplane up and it was a beautiful day – the sun was shining and the sea and islands looked stunning.

As we took off from Lake Union we flew over the top of ‘Alice’.  You can see it in the photo below on the left under the bridge – the houseboat closest in to the shore and rowing club dock.

 

We stayed at Friday Harbor house which is on a bluff overlooking the harbor giving stunning views including a great sunset.  We also get to watch the ferries coming and leaving while we read and contemplate life.  Nice…

On the way we had a fabulous view of the space needle as we went over the city on our way into land on Lake Union.  A smooth landing and our getaway came to an end.

It’s that time of year again – the time of year Alice enjoys the most  – Halloween of course!  I had to decorate ‘Alice’ the houseboat as soon as the calendar showed October.  Given the dock is gated and locked, we had not trick or treaters, but we made the most of it by having a very fun adult party with costumes.

We had a very fun event with guests including AARP Tom Petty and the lovely Princess Margret, the Boobsie twins, a couple of Vikings, and the Crayola kid, his flapper wife and their son, the Fire Chief.

Next year we’ll have to go bigger!  Way bigger!

 

Alice and ran away to the Salish Lodge on the Snoqualmie River this weekend.  The lodge is a great building that has been operating since 1919.  It has a beautiful outlook over the Snoqualmie Falls.  We had a great evening with a tasty dinner and a nice bottle of wine and managed to sleep for more than nine hours for the first time in long while.

The falls power the first underground hydroelectric power plant built in the United States – really quite impressive engineering with original plant built in 1899.

The trail down to the river weaved its way through the surrounding forest which was looking very much like Autumn with many of the trees turning golden brown and reddish tints.  All in all a great mini-getaway.

 

A couple times a year the Lake Washington Rowing Club (confusing since it’s really on Lake Union) holds a regatta and they have clubs from across the north west attend.  This weekend the regatta started with quite a number of boats already in the surrounding parking lots by around 6:30am.

The number kept growing through the morning until there must have been more than 60 boats and crews from single skulls to doubles, quads and eights.

The activity on the dock was something to see and the dock master was acting like the traffic controller on an aircraft carrier as he directed boats arriving and leaving.  Crews seemed to be across the local north west area as well some crews from Alaska – very much the spectacle!

It’s never a dull moment living next to the rowing dock.  Although it’s mostly used by the Lake Washington Rowing Club, other uses include for kayaks, canoes, paddle boards, power boats dropping off or picking up people, and occasionally by other craft.

A week ago, a float plane arrived to drop off some passengers.  It’s not everyday that a plane taxis down the marina so it caused a little excitement but the pilot was very professional and was soon back on his way.

Even the rowing club brings more than the usual entertainment at various times, such as this weekend when some type of fun-row event must have been happening.  Along with various wizard and goblin costumes was one scull that went all out with a panda theme (including vegetation) and others wearing cone heads, thing 1 & 2 outfits and a horse’s head.  All in keeping with the generally whacky Fremont vibe!

 

Fremont has a number of interesting outdoor art – from topiary dinosaurs to a troll that lives under the Aurora bridge to various statues as well as a rocket.  These tend to participate in various festivals and celebrations, particularly around Christmas.  Here is the Fremont Troll displaying Christmas spirit.

Interestingly the statue of Lenin also gets into the act, which is somewhat ironic.  Of course Lenin also gets dressed up at other times as well – I’m not sure why the knitwear given this was during the height of summer.

 

We also have the “Waiting for the Interurban” which gets dressed up very regularly  – this time to celebrate the Geocaching (see prior post on this event).

 

 

I was thinking about the street art because not all is inanimate  – just this weekend we spotted the Fremont Fairy hanging out and talking to people.  You never know who you’ll meet at the Center of the Universe that is Fremont.

The last week was a great vacation in the San Juan Islands with our good friends, Peter and Nereis Long.  We chartered ‘Le Chateau’, a 35ft power catamaran with me as skipper and Peter as navigation and safety officer, Alice as the deck hand and tour guide and Nereis as the excellent chef – quite the crew! Each day we motored for 1-2 hours between islands and then had an adventure on arrival – hiking, exploring, shopping in harbors with shops and trying out the kayak.

We started out from Bellingham and went to Sucia Island on the first day where we picked up a mooring in Echo Bay.  Then it was off for a hike to Fossil Bay where we had no luck in finding a fossil, but the walk was still worthwhile.

From Sucia it was off to Stuart Island where we again moored and then set off to explore the island and check out the Turn Point Lighthouse.  Along the way we found the school and museum and purchased some shirts from the treasure chest – a unique, honor-based approach to merchandising. The light house was very interesting and we had a tour of the lighthouse keeper’s house which was well done and very well maintained – the Park service along with the volunteers do a great job in presenting these national heritage sites.

Then we went  to Roche Harbor but first did a detour to see if we could find some whales.  We were in luck!  We managed to come across a pod of Orcas as they travelled north.  We saw them coming so just put the engines in neutral and let them come to us – and what a show.  They were swimming within 100 yards of the boat and one even seemed to come towards us and then dive under the boat – just amazing!

In Roche Harbor we met up with our good friends and neighbors, Mike and Patti who had arrived on their boat the day before.  Mike had misheard me when I said I was getting a berth for a day in Roche Harbor and he thought it was my birthday.  So they had a gift and we all went off for a hilarious birthday dinner together with a birthday cake Mike had asked the wait staff to bring!   Best birthday ever and a total surprise!

We then went to Shaw Island and anchored in Blind Bay.  Peter and I took the kayak we had rented out for a spin, very literally.  The thing kept wanting to turn right no matter which way we tried to paddle so it was quite the trek to get ashore and check out the general store.  Shaw Island has an interesting history as the general store, café and ferry dock had been run by nuns until a few years ago when they were getting a little old.

That evening there was a brilliant sunset. We returned to the general stored in the morning for espresso and pastries. After a lazy morning it was off to Orcas Island where I had reserved a dock at Rossario marina.

Rossario is a great old resort with a lot of history that illustrates the determination of individuals – in this case a Mr Moran who was a very successful ship builder and business man in Seattle who had fallen ill and was given 6 months to live.  He moved to Orcas Island and built his mansion in 1909 that is now the Rossario resort.  We arrived in time to take a hike up to Cascade Lake and then return to the mansion for the musical recital on the original organ and a 1900 Steinway piano accompanied by a slide show of original photos mostly taken by Mr Moran himself.  This was very well done.

After washing up at the marina facilities (you don’t know the pleasure of a long hot shower until you’ve spent a few days on small boat with limited water), it was off to the mansion for a great dinner and a hilarious waiter from Ireland who bonded with us once he figured out (very quickly) we were Australian.

The next day, we motored to our last stop on Cypress Island and picked up a mooring in the very beautiful Eagle Harbor.  Then it was off for a hike past Duck Lake to Smuggler’s Cove where we learnt the story of Mrs Zoe Hardy who must have been quite the character.  We did see a couple of vultures but no eagles – we must have a been a few weeks too late for that. A final dinner on board and it was time to ge ourselves ready to return to civilization.

During our cruise we had seen harbor seals, sea lion, porpoise, whales, and a snake. We had brilliant weather all during the week but the weather was turning and it rained all through the night. The rain let up long enough the next morning for us to make a pleasant passage back to Bellingham and safe docking to end our adventure. Truly a most excellent week!

Today there was some movement on the dock.  As part of getting ready to rework the dock, the lease on one of the houseboats – the bright purple one – wasn’t renewed.  It had found a new location and it was time to move.  Moored in front of the purple houseboat was a sailboat which needed somewhere to stay on the day scheduled for the move.  The owner asked to dock it next to ‘Alice’ for the day which seemed an OK thing to do for a neighbor.

The move went mostly smoothly except that one the dock lines hadn’t been untied which caused a little consternation and a hurried stop to the proceedings while this was rectified.

 

Now I’m looking forward to see what transpires next with the dock moves.

It happened again! Last year we were surprised when large numbers of people descended on Fremont and after enquiring what they were doing, we were told about Geocaching – neither Alice nor I had heard about it before. To me it seems like hide and seek for adults using GPS devices to find hidden caches.

This year it was on again.  More than 4,000 people showed up – mostly geeky and not very fit looking but they all seemed to be having some fun.

 

I clearly don’t understand this activity as no one seemed in much of a hurry and were leisurely ambling around looking intently at their GPS units.

The Geocaching headquarters is in the building next to our houseboat and this year was their 15th anniversary so they went all out, including dressing up the statues “Waiting for the Interurban”.

Never a dull moment in the center of the universe 🙂