8/30/11 This will be my last post before we go on the Alaska cruises. Currently we are set up at the Elks Lodge in Port Townsend. Tomorrow we will move our rig to the dry storage area for the 16 days we will be away. Then we will drive our car to the Kingston ferry which will take us across Puget Sound and over to Edmonds. My wonderful granddaughter, Paige, works at Nordstrom only 9 miles from there and we will be taking her out for lunch and having a visit. She will also help Elaine find a suitable outfit for the Oct. 8 wedding of her son, Darran, and Marielle, the best daughter-in-law ever. In the late afternoon we will return to Edmonds to stay with Linda Lightfoot and Greta McKay. Linda and Elaine have been friends since kindergarten, back in Illinois! The next day we will drive to Richmond, BC where we have a hotel booked, and where we can also leave our car for 2 weeks while we are cruising. Lynda & Jo, 2 other friends live near there and will be visiting us at our hotel that evening. Friday we take the hotel shuttle to the ship and the next adventure begins!
Since I last posted, we have been very busy because the Sekiu fishing and the processing continued until a few days ago. I showed you a few pictures of Elaine and Peggy and their big fish, but I neglected to show what happens next: cleaning the fish! Here is a picture of Chuck, Elaine, George and Ron at the cleaning station, which is right on the dock where they moored their boats.

Then the brining, smoking and canning commenced. I took lots of pictures at the many social functions we had with the group but none of them turned out very well so I won't include one here. But here is a very unusual picture, because everyone knows how Elaine is not very fond of animals and is also allergic to cats.

This dog in her lap is Sassy, George and Judy Hilke's dog, who was so cute and friendly and who decided she just loved Elaine and jumped in her lap at every opportunity. After a few times like this, I think she had won Elaine over!
A few of the days at Sekiu were sunny and gorgeous from the very beginning of the day, and on one of those days we drove out through Neah Bay to the very northwest tip of Washington called Cape Flattery. There is a nice hike from the parking lot on a fairly easy trail, through a nice forest, which they say is 1/2 mile, but really is a bit longer. Towards the end, there are a few places where a side trail took us to nice overlooks, such as me at this one:

In the forest we saw this interesting sight, a tree artistically hosting some fungus:

Then we reached the end of the trail where there was a viewing platform and we could see the island about 200 yards away with the lighthouse on it. Here are some pictures from there:


And some lovely views of the coastline:

Sunday we left Sekiu and drove back to the SKP park at Chimicum. Ron & George had been out crabbing in Port Townsend and everyone got together again for a crab feed and potluck at Chuck & Peggy's lot. Everything was delicious and we met some very nice people who are park members.
Yesterday was my 67th birthday, so we went into Port Townsend for a scenic walk. Port Townsend has a lot of historic buildings and many of them have been nicely restored. Here is a picture of me on one of the wharfs with Port Townsend in the background:

Most of the buildings are from 1889 such as this one:

Then we walked down to the marina, where there are some interesting boats, especially during the Wooden Boat Festival which will start on Sept. 9 this year. Here is Elaine at the marina:

On our walk back through town, we passed a row of women with a sign in front of them which said: "Women In Black". They do not speak because words cannot express the tragedy that war and hatred bring, and they dress in black because they are mourning the lives broken or lost through violent acts such as war. They meet every week on Mondays and stand there making this silent statement for an hour.

This was very sobering, so we went to drown our sorrows and also celebrate my birthday by having a microbrew on the outside deck of Sirens, a local restaurant and bar. Here we are enjoying the amber ale on tap there:

Of course, one beer isn't enough to celebrate 67 years of a great life, so we returned to David & Ann's at their lot in Port Hadlock for another tasty Happy Hour with more delicious treats and chilled champagne and wine. Here Elaine & Ann are setting up the feast:

Then Joss, Gail and David joined us for the goodies:

Of course, we brought them some recently caught salmon, and we will be bringing some on our visits tomorrow too with Paige and Linda & Greta. Does knowing this induce any of you to encourage us to visit when we are in your area? We hope so!!!!