20120729 Seattle Cloudy, Cool
Very quiet day. Took in the Sunday paper (Seattle Times) and went through it. Did the morning computer stuff.
Did the morning cat care items. Then they disappeared again. PC sleeps on our suitcase now and then.
Around noon, Dolores said she felt well enough to go with me to get the rebate on our prescriptions of last night. So we went back to the drug store at 1s and Mercer. They were very cooperative; we received our $225 rebate to the credit card.
We went down a level from there to enter Metro Market, where we bought a few things. D says she’s on liquids today, a little solid food on Monday, and should be ready to go to Gordy Robert’s place on Whidbey Island on Tuesday for crab and salmon.
After putting things away, we read and computed for a while. I got bored and (with permission) went for a hike. I wandered the area between University and PIne and between 1st and 5th.
I stumbled into a tee-shirt shop and asked if they had a certain shirt - the one that says “Seattle Rain Festival, Jan 1- Dec 31”. They did, so I bought one.
I had an ale in a pub on 5th, walked some more, and found Purple (related to the place we attended with F&D in Woodinville). I had a turkey-and-havarti sandwich with salad and a flight of rieslings. Very nice. The place has over 700 wines. Very popular.
Then it was time to return to the condo. There, I ran into a complete panic. Dolores had done the happy hour period but only with PC; Honey Girl never appeared. We got into a complete lather about where she could be. After two or three passes through the whole condo, we found her huddled way up toward the head of the bed underneath it; it’s quite hard to see there. All I could see was a lump, but the lump moved when I touched it with a coat hanger. Sure enough, honey girl. She must have taken offense at something we did and pouted. Anyway, we still have two cats.
Thereafter, we watched the olympic swimming and read books and took it easy. Dang cat.
Picture Link (few)20120730 Seattle Cloudy, cool
Dolores felt like a “ride”, so away we went. Down to the ferry terminal, across the sound to Bremerton, and out to Port Angeles. D wanted “plain food” so we stopped at Wendy’s, where she had a plain grilled chicken sandwich and buttered baked potato.
We stopped at the Visitors Center at Olympic National Park - the camera at Hurricane Ridge showed that it was clear up there (5245’), so up we went. Five miles later, just past the toll booth, we found a deer family. We pushed on up through the clouds to the ridge. There was one deer close to the viewing point - I wonder if the deer assign one of the tribe to be visible for tourists. A chipmunk was scurrying around as well.
We continued to the final viewpoint past the ridge visitors center - two more deer.
Then we turned around and went down the hill through the clouds. We toured around Port Angles. It’s grown quite a bit since we were considering it as a retirement place in 2003. Some of the growth is sprawl. I didn’t see any great increase in industry. There were lots of logs being stripped of bark and stacked; I don’t know what happens to them from there - Japan?
We came back to Seattle via the Bainbridge Island ferry. We met a huge long line of traffic coming off Bainbridge Island - terrible.
From the ferry terminal to the condo is about eight blocks. We parked, went in, and fed the angry cats. They got a small treat to compensate. Tomorrow’s a long day as well, so we’ll have to treat them very nicely. They are warming up to us.
Quiet evening watching the Olympic games and reading.
Picture Link20120731 Seattle Beautiful NW day
We had a great day with an old shipmate, Gordon Richard Roberts, at his home in Clinton on lower Whidbey Island WA.
We had a leisurely start, then drove up hectic I-5 and WA-525 to the Mukilteo Ferry Terminal. We parked the CRV behind the Diamond Knot brew pub in Gordy’s rented spot and walked onto the ferry. He picked us up on the other side. After greetings, he took us to lunch at a cute little hidden-in-the-woods-by-the-airport place that does soups and sandwiches. Very nice lunch.
Then he showed us the super-artsy little town of Langley and walked us through several shops. He’d chat with the owners while we looked around. Dolores found a top to buy, and a few other little things. We went to the Star Store (large, but looks like a neighborhood place) where GRR bought some salad goodies, then out to the Whidbey Island Winery for a tasting (which D could not join in). We bought a few.
Then we tried another winery which turned out to be closed, so we went to Gordy & April’s home. April still works Mon-Thurs for Raytheon, so they maintain a condo on the mainland where she stays those nights. Thus, she couldn’t be there today. But her fingers are all over the home in the form of gardens and flowers. Gordy says his participation is limited to rigging systems to water the various plants automatically so all he needs to do is mow the lawn on his zero-turn mower.
We chatted in the living room with a great view and talked about people we mutually knew. Gordy & I met in 1958 at submarine school in Groton, CT, so we’ve known each other a long time. He went on to do some really great work in his field and still does some.
They built the house to their own design and it shows. Very unique with lots of individual touches I don’t think any builder would incorporate. He showed us through the house and through his hobby room. He told us of the various things that keep him busy (still consulting to SAIC, recent boat operations (has captain’s license and two boats capable of off-shore ops), and a few other things).
He had me cut some alder branches while he held the branch down. He started the charcoal grille and when hot, put on the salmon he caught two days ago. He put out a bottle of April’s Zinfandel wine (she makes her own of several varietals). Dolores & I gathered tomatoes from the little greenhouse for the salad he made up. He put out some bread and butter and we dined. Dolores had Dungeness crab hunks (also GRR-caught) cold and a little salmon while we did the salmon in. Gordy admired Dolores’s skill disassembling the crab.
During the grilling a deer walked casually across the yard. He says they do it every night and get into any plant they want to eat.
We looked at some pictures on D’s iPad of last years cruises with people he knows - Bing & Saidia, Tom & Sandy, Glenn & Marylou. But we had to leave all too early in order to make the 8pm ferry back to Mukiteo. He drove us down and left us right at the walk-on.
From there, we just went down US-99 to town, keeping it simple. Back at the condo, we gave the cats a shrimp treat (much appreciated by the felines) and settled in for the night.
Just a great day.
Photo Link OPhoto Link D
