Tag Archives: State Parks

It’s gotta be 4:20 somewhere…

Hello!

It is just after 4pm on Sunday April 20, 2014. I have my AC/DC playlist jamming away while I have my window open so I can not only get some fresh air, but I can also hear the Rufous Hummingbirds come and go from our feeders.

While not in the great number or varity of hummingbirds we was so lucky to have while in Patagonia, we still get a kick out of these few 5-6 Rufous’s. With a Anna’s being seen every so often.

Our friends Daphna and Allen visited us this weekend and as usual, we did nothing but laugh… Ok, we ate and drank more, but you know, a good time was had by all. They even brought Maude so Drew could day “Hi!” to her. Sakura of course is above them all and stayed in the bedroom pretty much the entire weekend.

But she made her presence known…

When Daphna and Allen got Maude, we got them a dog toy. One of those “squeak” toys that we thought nothing of. We saw it, squeaked it once, threw it in the cart and later sent it off in the mail forgetting all about it.

Until we visited a few weeks later to be informed, that not only is there 1 squeak in this toy, but 18 of them. And Maude LOVED this toy above all others. To the point that when they took the toy away, Maude would cry. Both Daphna and Allen work from home. They voiced their appreciation in many tones and ways and very colorfully.

So of course we felt bad and decided on our next visit to make this up to them but getting them more squeak toys and putting them in odd places around their house, while leaving a doggie treat next to it. What made this even funnier was at this time of this, Daphna and Allen had many sleepless nights prior to this night, so when we left at 8pm they went to bed…

Only to call us at 11pm letting us know they went to bed when we left but had to get up a hour later to search their house for a full hour for any more squeak toys so they could, at long last, go to bed and SLEEP!

They used many colorful words and gave us an example of what they hear over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over… Xs 1,000.

I tell you this so you can better appreciate this…

When we met up at Daphna and Allen’s hotel room for lunch, one of the first things we saw sitting on the bed, was Sakura’s squeaky mouse. Which is battery operated and very sensitive so any minor vibration will set it off.

My first thought was Maude stole Sakura’s toy, but then I realized I told Drew to watch Maude carefully so she won’t steal anything, so it must have been Sakura coming out of the bedroom when we was site seeing the park, and putting her squeaky mouse in Daphna’s bag just so she can also torture these poor, squeaked to death people.

Cat’s. They are evil.

Our visit even started off on a bang. Daphna told us she planned to leave at 1pm so she should be here by 3pm. We knew there was a zero percent chance this would happen, but we love her for trying. Around 4pm she texted that they just got off the ferry. Around 6pm Daphna text’s me “they are on “whatever road” so will be here in moments”

I heard of this road, but for the life of me, where is it??? Um… Wait a minute… I call Daphna.

After a few questions and a round of debate, Daphna and I concluded that yes, Pauline and I really are at Fort Flagler State Park and no, that we are not, nor have we ever been, at Fort Worden State Park, which is across the bay from Fort Flagler and about a 40 minute drive.

And honestly, this explained so much about prior conversations like “why did you get a room in Squim?” (hour away) and why it took them so long to get here but after hearing about their travel and recent events, it just adds more lore to our dysfunctional, untrustworthy, immoral lives that we all share with each other as we have for the last 14+ years at least.

I made some chili, this time I really went for it, and it turned out really good with a strong kick. Now I know how to get there!

We then took Maude and walked around the park, showing them a small section of Fort Flagler as we talked long into the night and watched the stars from a battery. The weather was as good as we could have had, it could have been 10 degrees warmer, but other then that, it was great.

They left around 12am and we met up at there room in Port Ludlow, WA (20 minutes away) They stayed at the Inn of Port Ludlow which was really nice, nice room, very nice staff, and good food at the restaurant where no one under 21 is admitted which is another reason to LOVE it!

After a really good lunch, we walked around the beach some to let Maude off the leash and she quickly took to the water and even swam with a large branch in her mouth. Apparently this is the first time this dog went swimming willingly.

After this we came back to the park, we walked where we walked last night due to a missing water bottle, we found that and returned home to get our Jeep as we showed them the rest of the park. They left around 6pm and Pauline and I still trying to recover. It has been rare where we have been on the go at this rate for 2 days.

The extra bonus is, we will be just 1 ferry and 1 hour from Daphna and Allen all summer.

This will be a good summer!

 

Our Saturday hike…

Pauline and I pretty much hiked the entire park on Saturday. Of course the GPS went from full to dead 2.24 miles into it, but I think we did just over 6 miles total. We was both feeling it later that night.

We saw a garter snake on the trail, I also had it focused in when he bolted into the bush, I found it again and once again almost got a good shot when he bolted completely.

*sigh

Sunday we took both cats outside. We now have new cat harness’s for both, and I feel much more comfortable using these over the old “strap” ones.

Drew is really starting to enjoy being outside. He is still cautious, he makes sure I am still near him after every few steps, but he walks with his tail up and purrs like mad at times. He will come to Pauline or me and put his front paws on our knees with the look of “I’m going to jump up any second, be ready” and will usually walk around us a few times. When I walk with him, he goes a pretty good pace, and he walks with confidence, and he always walks towards the RV…

He has no idea what to do when he gets to the RV, he just knows that this is his box and he should be in it. He doesn’t seem to want to use the metal stairs, last time he jumped over them both, yesterday I picked him up and put him on them and he wasn’t too cool with that, so I find that interesting.

Sakura still hates the big wide world. She lays as low as she can get, and if she is being held, she will dig in with her claws to make sure she is still being held. But she is getting better. She tucks her tail for the most part, but if we sit or lay down on the grass, she uses us as a cover, and will eat the grass some, and at times, her tail will come out. She enjoys the sun and grass and flowers, she just would rather not go outside to have them.

We will continue taking them out when the weather cooperates and when there isn’t much park activity, no need to give them too much over load of humans.

I used my iPhone on these pics, and honestly, I am so not impressed. I think we will start using our Pentax’s again, I have been too disappointed with pics off the iPhone lately. Tired of the front camera being such a low quality, and even in perfect lighting, they look bad.

Better days? What better days???

I think I spoke way too soon. This is February in the Pacific Northwest. There might be a better day or two, but this is still February in the Pacific Northwest which mean high winds and rain. We have had gust up to 46 mph with sustained wind of 30 mph. It is suppose to calm down in the next few hours to the typical 10-15 mph but until then….

UGH!

Since we are the only RV in the retreat center camp host spot, which has 2 full hook up sites, we did not want to park the typical East/West direction with a view of a building but facing North/South so we could have a perfect view of the water and Whidbey Island and the Cascade Mountains, Mt Baker and at times Mt Rainier.

Worth it!

 

The only issue we have had with this setup, is when the wind comes from the Southeast, it hits our main slide out and shakes the whole rig and when the wind is over 35 mph + the canvas cover over the main slide out flaps in the wind since it is getting hit on the edge so the wind is traveling between the canvas and the top of the slide out like a sail.

There is really nothing we can do to stop this short of pulling the slide out in and living in a even more confined space, and from experience that is just plain miserable to live in.

Now, I kind of wish we pulled in the slide out when the winds are over 35 mph. But reality is, it just isn’t practical.

I went out today to take a better look at the canvas cover and it’s destroyed. There is a 14″+ rip where the canvas meets the RV  on the left side and one of the three straps was so chewed from flapping against the edge of the slide out, I just pulled it off to save time from having to do it later.

We think anything over 50 mph we will bring in our slide out. But until then, we will weather the storm.

I tried to figure out what the best thing to do is, and at this time, I can’t think of anything.  The damage has been done to the existing cover. It will need to be replaced. I don’t want to start putting straps on or weight or whatever on top, since I don’t want the extra weight on the slide out roof, and if the winds did get over 50 mph, I would rather be able to pull it in without having to get a ladder to “free it”.

We estimate this will cost $350-$400 to replace. I have been thinking on this all day and short of pulling the slide out in every time, I can think of no other option we had. The canvas is 12 years old and weak. The wind is strong and constant with the wind coming from the Southeast the angle it’s hitting it is “the perfect storm”.

Since we have been here the wind has hit us from every direction, so short of pulling the slide out in every time or parking in different directions every time the wind shifts, I have not yet figured out what we could have done to prevent this.

We had the canvas replaced with a “vinyl” cover over the bedroom a few months ago due to the same reason, the canvas just gave away. That cost $175. And so far it appears to be holding up, but we have a pretty good wind break protecting us from the West winds. We have been hit by winds from the West, and they rock the RV more then the winds from the East, but they don’t hit the cover on the edge like is happening with the main slide out.

Ok, enough about this subject.

We also have been dealing with internet issues. We had 3 MiFi hotspot’s. 2 used the Verizon network, and the 3rd on the AT&T network. Recently our unlimited MiFi has been cut off with zero chance of coming back so we are now down to 2 and both of those are iffy in the best of times. We do plan to get a 3rd one again, also on the Verizon network, but until then, we have been fighting to get and stay online enough to get our work done.

Anyway, here are some pictures of the last few weeks. It is not all “doom and gloom” here, I just can not think of too many happy thoughts at the moment due to the constant winds getting on my nerves and the internet of tubes is too unreliable so I want to get this posted before the tube burst.

Enjoy the night.

 

 

 

Happy Birthday!

On December 26, 2013 Pauline turned 40 and since it was the holiday the Park staff took time off while Pauline worked the office. So on Friday 12/27/2013 Pauline and I took the ferry to Whidbey Island and drove around Fort Casey to get an idea of the park since we have a offer to host there this Spring.

As soon as we arrived we was lucky to witness two large immature Bald Eagles sitting on the ground working over a carcass. And of course, we left the camera at home since we didn’t think we would get any chance for wild life pictures.

After 30 minutes or so we headed to Oak Harbor and stopped at Starbucks before continuing our journey to Everett. We always take WA 529 South when we come from the North and never once have we ever had to stop due to the draw bridge. That is until this day.

Nothing like traveling 3+ hours and having a 15+ minute stop 3.2 miles from your final destination. Sigh.

Anyway, it was a great day. We had enough time to do a quick visit with Daphna and Allen before I took Pauline to Seattle for a hair appointment while Daphna and Allen had their own errands. Daphna was planning to join Pauline at the salon, but her errands ran late, but she was able to pick Pauline up while Allen and I visited back at their place.

Pauline and Daphna arrived back home around 7pm and we got ready for a Italian dinner while sharing some great wine and great smoke. Somehow, we all ended up in the bathroom toasting Pauline with some wine, I am still not sure how that happen, maybe too much wine or smoke?

We went to dinner, and the food could not have been better. The waiter was funny and apparently he had been having a bad night with bad customers, so he thanked us multiple times letting us know we made his night and he even gave Pauline a birthday Chocolate Mousse that was to die for. Daphna and Allen had some “eggnog gelatin” that was also really good and when you mixed the two… WOW. So So good!

We went back to the house and had more wine and more smoke and many more laughs as we caught up with the last 7 months we had not seen each other. It was well after 2am when we all went to bed.

Saturday we got out of bed around 9am. Pauline wanted to do some errands, Allen had a meeting, so after Pauline, Daphna and I had lunch at a local NY Pizza joint, Daphna and I went to Starbucks while Pauline went to do her errands. After Starbucks we drove around talking before going to the marina and walking around watching the ducks, seeing the USS Nimitz at port and just enjoying the day.

We went back to the house around 3:30pm and the four of us had yet another great dinner as Allen is a master cook. More drink and smoke and laughs. Pauline and Allen went to bed around 9pm while Daphna and I thought we would be doing the same within the hour.

That would turn out to be 5 am.

One conversation went into another went into another… Ugh… We was both falling asleep while talking. So tired, but so enjoyable.

We was both so exhausted from the past few days, weeks, months as we all have so much going on, but no regrets at all staying up that late talking with a loved one.

Pauline and I got up at 9am expecting to slip out quietly so they could sleep in when Allen got up and offered to make breakfast, Daphna soon joined and we left the house at 11am. We arrived at the ferry with about 1:10 wait for the next ferry, but thankfully we have the NFL Package and was able to watch the Saints play. WHO DAT!

Things like that can make waiting a pleasure.

Pauline and I got home around 4pm. My “second wind” died and I think we hit the bed by 9pm.

We had yet another great time in Everett.

Too bad they turned our RV parking pad into a Japanese garden with a chicken coop. I would love to live in a box in that back alley any day.

Gallery

More Birds

This gallery contains 9 photos.

Today we went to Patagonia Lake Sate Park. I have nothing really nice to say about it. The state of Arizona has drastically cut it’s park and recreations budget and it shows. Garbage, garbage, garbage, garbage… People are just stupid … Continue reading