May 15, 2005

Can't believe that we have been here two weeks. The time has gone by in such a rush.  Wow!

The crab season has been delayed until the middle of June.  Jerry will need a fishing license to participate but he needs a license for clams, mussels, and other shellfish anyway.  Getting a license will make the top of the "to do" list for this next week.

Tuesday, Cindy and Terry came over.  They clocked the distance from the Tri-Cities to here at 315 miles via Stevens Pass (Highway 2) and it took them about six hours.

We have always looked upon Bald Eagles as rare and exotic, but now we see them daily and not just our four.  Everywhere we go we have seen eagles ? usually in ones and twos.  From our porch we can see Loons, Blue Herons, a Kingfisher, Hummingbirds, a pair of Surf Scoters, Hooded Mergansers, along with the common seagulls, swallows, finches, killdeer and robins.

Wednesday we hopped in the car with a picnic lunch and went up to their Mattson's favorite camping area.  Terry took us up towards Anacortes to a place called Bay View State Park.  We later drove around Samish Island, found the town of "Bow" and then headed south to the town of La Conner.

La Conner turned out to be quite a treat.  They had been no plans to stop there, but Nancy wanted some ice cream and Terry knew that La Conner had some.  La Conner is a boutique town with lots of shops and galleries.  We had no time to explore but definitely added La Conner to our future visit list.  La Conner is comparable to Poulsbo and Mendocino.

Thursday we golfed.  We tried the local course, Camaloch.  Camaloch is a full 18-hole course.  The course is beautifully kept, a little short at 5800 yards, and has a fair amount of water.  The downside is that the fairways are a little narrow and the heavy rough is typical of Northwest courses - jungle.  Any ball unfortunate enough to go into this rough is hopelessly lost.  I would be embarrassed to tell you our scores, but hopefully this will be our worst.

Nearly every person who lives in this area, who has been asked for a recommendation on a good restaurant has suggested "Jimmy's Pizza & Pasta" in Stanwood.  Thursday night we tried Jimmy?s with Cindy and Terry and it is quite good.  Nancy and I shared the lasagna (one serving) and were completely satiated.  We did order an extra dinner salad and share a half carafe of house wine.

Nancy and I have been exploring the possibility of buying a small boat, either a canoe or a kayak or a pair of kayaks.  We stopped at a boat shop on Camano and got some preliminary information.  There is no hurry and we'll probably look for something used.

Saturday night we went to a play by a local theater group, "Twelve Angry Jurors".  This is the same play that came out as "Twelve Angry Men" but with modern concessions as the original had men only.  The play was in the local Grange Hall and the audience was of comparable size to the cast.  The audience was level with the cast and almost in our laps (almost a theater-in-the-round).  Isn't one of my favorite plays but the cast did a very good job.

Weather has not been a factor for most of the week.  Had a little rain overnight - can't remember which night.  Seattle got a huge rainstorm Sunday - measured a quarter of inch - but we got little or nothing here.  Today is actually Monday and we're having rain today. But again it comes through in waves.  The plant leaves are wet, but you have to be out in it for several minutes before you're sure it's really raining.

Today our seal is back.  We saw him on our first day but after that nothing.  The seal is very quiet and sneaky.  The top of his head sort of emerges so that just his eyes show and then he submerges.  He is fairly close to the shore - about the same distance as the boat anchor buoys.

Got a call this morning from our property manager and it looks like we'll have a couple renting the house from mid-June on.  They have asked permission to have their 8-year old golden retriever come with them and we said OK.  The man is to have some major surgery at Stanford and it's nicer to stay in a house than in a hotel.

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