DIY: Basement Renovation Pictures

Over the past year and half I have worked on rehabbing the basement. This was a big project involving a lot electrical work, framing, and drywalling. It is largely finished and I'm posting pictures of the basement rec room and laundry/dressing room. This only represents about half the basement, the remainder will be rehabbed to create nicer more utilizable space but this will come later.
This view is from the back of the laundry/dressing room at the rear of the house looking toward the front. In the center is cabinet with aquarium (see previous post). At right (relative to the aquarium) are small cubicles for underwear and socks as they come out of the dryer (lower left). My closet, not seen, is to the left of this picture. There a two large built-in cabinets with louvered doors; one is seen at the left of this photo.
This picture is taken standing in front of the aquarium looking toward the back of the house. My closet is to the right in this picture (the door with clothes hanging on hooks) and my chest of drawers in toward the back.
Here, I'm standing in the same spot only looking toward the other side of the house and the rec room I made. Jane added some nice pictures and the room is very comfortable and a great place to watch TV. Also because 2/3 of the room is underground this room is naturally cool in the summer and warmer in the winter.
In this photo I'm in the rec room and taking a picture of the staircase that I filled in and I thought looked great carpeted and the small desk tucked underneath the staircase where I'm working now. The little cubby at lower center is where Astro hangs-out when we are down here. There is a couch along the backwall and built-in cabinet with the TV on top to the left of this photo. I like this room and the kids entertain their friends here.

Water World

I wanted to post a couple of pictures of the fish in my aquarium. I have a 20G long planted aquarium and a few fish. I planted the aquarium with several Amazon Swords, Vallerseria, Crypts, Java Moss and Java Fern. The substrate is Fluorite base with gravel on top. Occassionally I hook-up a homemade CO2 set-up and have have three lights set on timers; 20-60 Watts per gallon to provide enough light for good plant growth. For fish, I have swordtails, one dwarf gourami, a couple ruby-nose tetras, two plecos and three catfish. I have tried to photograph some of the fish but can't capture the fish that are moving but have a couple nice pictures of the catfish. I've had my aquarium for 6 months, have had Ich that killed my tetras, a gourami seared by the heater, transgender swordtails that keep making more baby swordtails, blackbeard algae and one of my catfish currently has a white fungus on several of his, or her, fins.

But I really enjoy this set-up and the quality it has lent to the basement laundry-dressing room area. I will try to find out how to better photograph the set-up and post at a later date if successful. Right now, just the fish I have been able to photograph are the ones that sit still for awhile.

At some point I would like to get a little larger set-up and more interesting fish. I like the various catfish, but the swimming ones are not very interesting. I not sure whether I like the plants or fish more but think it both. I have contrasted an attractive planted tank with saltwater set-ups and the planted tanks in my opinion are far superior in eye-catching interest. I'll post other aquarium posts under Water World.

Robert Redford as a Christ-like Symbol?

I finished reading TGG last night. My conclusion---good book, it makes you think. Just as a sidebar, most books that I was assigned in High School, when I have read them as an adult, I still didn't enjoy them. However, TGG was really good as evidenced by the fact that I finished it in a couple of evenings. Judy is resisting my placing her report in this blog. Something about "other people" stealing her ideas even though there are about a million sources offering various interpretations of TGG all over the internet so why are her's so important. Talk about hubris.

Anyway, one can speculate on the meanings of the three principle symbols FSF created in his novel. The Valley of Ashes operates on multiple levels. Representing the ravaging of the environment during the industrial revolution and where the wealthy irresponsibly dispose of their problems without considering the consequences. This is a desolate ghetto-like region, whose inhabitants (like George and Myrtle Wilson) are desperate for a chance to escape to a better life. In their desperation they commit immoral acts that have consequences they cannot escape. Overlooking them are the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleberg, which everyone believes represent God. But is he a punishing God, like I was taught in grade school or a caring God like that offered to today's masses. You be the judge. Myrtle trys to escape her hopeless situation by having an affair with the rich Tom Buchanan (whose never going to leave Daisy and marry Myrtle) and for her troubles gets her nose broken by Tom during an argument and her body torn apart by Daisy in a car accident. George Wilson is so broken over Myrtle's affair and her death that he goes and murders the innocent Gatsby and then commits suicide. That sounds like a God with a warped sense of fairness. Or maybe that's the point FSF was trying to make. The rich get away with murder (literally and figuratively) and the poor suffer. Lastly, the green light. That symbol didn't resonate with me, but I think it refers to one's dreams or aspirations that are always out of reach.

There is also the thought that FSF cast Gatsby as a Christ-like figure. At one point in the story FSF refers to Gatsby as the son of God (his father being God, I guess) and later at the end as Mr Gatz (Gatsby's father) is talking to Nick he says, "He (referring to Gatsby) had a big future before him, you know. He was only a young man.....If he'd lived, he'd been a great man....He'd of helped build up the country." One could say the same thing about Jesus Christ. Maybe there wouldn't be so much animosity between different religions had JC lived and been able to unite all religions. Just as JC was sacrificed, Gatsby was also sacrificed, but for what end? My thought was that, although tragic, Gatsby knew that he was never going to win Daisy back (green light) and that he didn't care if he lived or died. In the end his death (like that of JC) was tragic because he never fulfilled his potential or attained his goal.

What I have been wondering about is that period after Gatsby fired all his employees and entertained Daisy at his estate. FSF doesn't reveal much concerning their activities other than when Gatsby tells Nick that Daisy spends a lot of time at his estate (wink, wink, nod, nod--elbow to the ribs). What do you think they did there all alone? Were they intimate? Wouldn't it have been interesting if Daisy were pregnant with Gatsby's child when she accidentally killed Myrtle Wilson. Then, after Gatsby's death she raises him as hers and Tom's child and keeps the secret hidden. But she leaves a secret code that will reveal the true identity of the child. Have you ever noticed how the one apostle sitting to the left of JC in the painting of the Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci looks like Robert Redford?

The Great Gatsby

I have started reading the Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Both, my boy Elroy and daughter Judy, the noms de blog for my two kids have been reading this book in English class.
Last weekend we rented the original (1974) movie based on this book called.......The Great Gatsby. I remembered that my high school had organized a class trip to see this movie (in a movie theater) when I was a teenager and thought it might be interesting to see the movie again 32 years later. I, of course, knew that Robert Redford portrayed Gatsby and Mia Farrow that of Daisy, but was surprised to see Bruce Dern (miscast as Tom Buchanan), Karen Black as Myrtle Wilson (boy, is she odd looking or what?) and especially Sam Waterson as Nick Carraway. I didn't think Sam Waterson had been around acting for so long. Anyway, I'm no movie critic but the movie was paced a little slow for me and I found it odd that the actors appeared sweaty (the actresses glistening) throughout the movie. Okay, the movie was set in the twenties, it was summertime and there was no air-conditioning but it was little odd. However, the costumes and sets were fantastic and really captured high society in the roaring twenties. As I have been reading the book I've been struck how closely the movie script followed the novel's dialogue. A few scenes in the book were left out or changed in the movie, I guess that's no surprise, but the scriptwriters didn't change much of FSF's original dialogue. I would think that is unusual in moviemaking, but that isn't the focus of this post anyway.

I don't know how deeply I can plumb the imagery (the single green light, the valley of ashes, and the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg) that FSF employs to create mood and convey social commentary, but I would like to someday include the research papers that Elroy and Judy will undoubtably generate for their classes. Hopefully, if volunteered, those will appear in a later post. However, on the surface, I have really enjoy the writing so far. Last night, my favorite passage was Nick's very first impression of Gatsby.

"He smiled understandingly--much more than understandingly. It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. It faced--or seemed to face--the whole external world for an instant, and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor. It understood you just as far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself, and assured you that it had precisely the impression of you that, at your best, you hoped to convey. Precisely at that point it vanished--and I was looking at an elegant young roughneck, a year or two over thirty, whose elaborate formality of speech just missed being absurd. Sometime before he introduced himself I'd got a strong impression that he was picking his words with care."

Wow, doesn't that presage what we later learn about Gatsby. I just had to read and re-read that passage when I came to it and later, as FSF slowly reveals more and more about Gatsby's true life, it echos to illustrate how Gatsby's transformation was only superficial. I think that is why the book is called the Great Gatsby, as if he is a trickster or illusionist. Here is a picture of the estate that was Jay Gatsby's mansion in the movie.

Seattle and Olympic Penninsula Vacation (Part VII)

August 14th and 15th. Over the next two days we would retrace our steps back through Port Angeles and Sequim and stay over the 14th in Poulsbo and spend the 15th back in Seattle. Leaving Seiku, we planned to visit the Salt Creek Recreation Area. Supposedly, this area was a good place to explore tidal pools. The Salt Creek RA is easily accessed at the terminus of a nice pull-in campground. No hiking involved, just two minutes from the car to the water. As we started exploring the Salt Creek RA the weather was great, the sky was blue and you could see Vancouver Island looking across the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

While we were there it wasn't low, low tide. But there were enough tide pools to hold our interest and we lingered there awhile. I kept walking further and further along the shore until I was called back and told it was time to start heading back to the car. Just at that instant as I turned, I spied in a tide pool the washed-up skeletons of a couple of sea urchins. That was kinda cool. We left Salt Creek and stopped at Joyce's general store for a quick snack. Joyce's is a local legend--an old store that has been in operation a long time. Afterward, we made a quick pit stop in Port Angeles, then made our way to Poulsbo. Poulsbo calls itself little Norway--and the town has this nordic/viking flair. It's cute, but not tacky-cute, and had good eateries and some interesting touristy stores. Toward evening we drove in Bainbridge, and this was the place we had been looking for. Upscale shopping and lots of it. By the time we got there it was evening, but we planned to go there the next morning.

The next morning, after a sumptuous complimentary breakfast at the Poulsbo Inn (my favorite stop of the whole trip--biscuits with sausage gravy, make-your-own belgian waffels, and lots more), we drove into Bainbridge, where we did shopping. Around, ten am I left the fam at the Bainbridge ferry while I drove back into Poulsbo to drop-off the rental car and then take the bus back to the Bainbridge ferry--yada, yada, yada, we arrived back in Seattle.

In Seattle we found our way to the Panama Hotel in the International District. The Panama Hotel, I learned from one of the staff is the oldest continually operating hotel in Seattle. Evidently the owners are trying to restore the hotel but aren't quite there yet. Our room was cozy and the ambiance was interesting but suspect. There was a nice tea room on the bottom floor, however, I'm not sure I would stay there again. It was nice being in the International distric,t among all the asian restaurants and stores, but Seattle is a big city with some hard-luck looking characters and safety always has to be a concern. I didn't feel as safe at the Panama Hotel as I did in the Seattle Hostel. Further, it was an steep uphill walk to the hotel and once there after entering the front door we were greeted with a big flight of steps to climb to get to the front desk. After all the hiking we had done on this vacation we were all moaning when we saw the steps. All-in-all, the Panama Hotel was okay. As we were leaving we were also told we could have complimentary donuts in the tea room. That wasn't mentioned when we arrived and would have been nice to know. However, by this time I was geared-up for the flight back home and nothing was going to bother me. Once again, I was impressed by how easy it was to get the #194 bus out to the airport. No problems. There were long lines at the secruity checkpoints, but we boarded the plane and got back home without any major incidents. We had a great time, saw some unforgettable sights and spent 12 days together without any major blow-ups. Exhausted, but in a good way, we made our way back home with many good memories and experiences.

Seattle and Olympic Penninsula Vacation (Part VI)

August 13th. I was excited about today's itinerary. We left Forks and headed northwest to the town of Neah Bay to see Cape Flattery and hike down to Shi Shi Beach. The drive out to Neah Bay was along a coastal highway and even though there was a lot of fog there were some scenic views of the Strait of Juan de Fuca. To get to Cape Flattery you have to register with a representative of the Makah Indian Reservation. We picked-up our day pass at the popular Warm Restaurant, where we would have a late lunch later in the day. Cape Flattery is the most northwest part of the continental US and is touted to have remarkable views of the Pacific Ocean and Strait of Juan de Fuca.

The trail to CF was only a half mile and even though we were tired of hiking made it easily. True to all the guidebooks the views were stunning. You can't get to any beach here, there are just sheer cliffs with a few overlooks. In places there are no fences or guardrails to keep one from just walking off the cliffs which was a little disorienting, especially for me. At one overlook, some dad was holding on to his son while the son was dangling over the cliff, I suppose to see what was at the bottom. Personally, I'd let my imagination take all the risks.

After CF, we drove to the Shi Shi Beach trailhead. All the guidebooks I read said SSB was special. Since there was a 2 mile hike to get to the beach, purportedly fewer tourists stopped at this beach. This was our last hike of the trip and it was a hard hike. Certainly longer than 2 miles, closer to 3 with one mile of muddy trail just to test us. As we neared the beach access it became apparent that the access to the beach wasn't going to be easy either. There was a narrow, steep, dizzying descent. I remembered thinking that what goes down, must eventually go back up. Anyway, this was our last beach, and we stayed awhile climbing over the sea stacks at low tide and just getting our last sense of this place that we enjoyed. The day was really foggy, so that limited how far to sea we could view. For reasons that are not exactly clear to me a lot of people come to this beach to camp out. We passed many backpackers, moving very slowly, who had camped out on the beaches for a few days. On our way back, we stopped in Neah Bay for a late lunch at the Warm Restaurant and toured the Makah museum. The museum had a small but very nice collection that demonstrated how the Makah tribe lived. There was a nice exhibit of what a long house looked like and displays documenting how they hunted whales from large dugout canoes. The marina at Neah Bay was so beautiful. By the time we were leaving, the fog had cleared and the skies were blue, the marina was filled with small fishing boats and there were eagles swooping over the water. I wanted to stay longer to take pictures but of course we had to hurry to our nights lodging in Seiku. I won't write much about Seiku, and Curly's Resort, where we stayed. There wasn't much to write about. A small town, of which 90% was RV parks and campsites. It was an odd place that had several large examples of chain saw art, including this large eagle, I'll say no more. However, the evening was saved, because on TV there was a football game between the Washington Redskins and Cincinnati Bengals...what luck. The rest of the crew actually like Curly's. As for me, I think I would have preferred to stay in Neah Bay.

Seattle and Olympic Penninsula Vacation (Part V)

August 11th and 12th. The plan today was to go to Beach 4 in Klaloch and Ruby Beach, then make a quick visit to the Hoh Rainforest before going to our next motel, the Olympic Suites in Forks. We would use Forks as our base for an excursion to Rialto Beach in LaPush the next day. Initially, I didn't plan on going to Beach 4, but fortunately had read that it had great tide pools in a travel guide. Our first stop of the day at Beach 4 was amazing (the Lake Quinault Lodge was soon forgotten but not forgivin)! This was my third "I can't believe this" experience of the trip. The first two being Hurricane Ridge and the giant trees of the Quinault Rainforest. There were tidal pools everywhere and each held anemones, starfish, hermit crabs, tunicates, barnacles, different kinds of shellfish--it was amazing.

We spent a lot of time here and if I had to do it all over again would have stayed longer, it was by far the most interesting of the beaches we visited over the next couple of days. Next up, Ruby Beach was okay, but paled in contrast to Beach 4 in Klaloch. We kept looking for ruby-colored beach pebbles but were not rewarded for the effort.

I think you have to wait for evening to see a ruby-sunset or whatever. Unfortunately, we didn't stay long into the evening on any of the beaches. Next, after a short, quick hike through the Hoh Rainforest we started towards Forks. The Hoh was great, but not exceptionally different than the Quinault Rainforest, and having hiked through Quinault enough this didn't really hold our interest. Anyway, on the way to Forks we passed by the Hoh River which had most blue-green colored water of such exceptional clarity that I had ever seen. We didn't have any planned escursion on the Hoh River, but looking back I wish we had a least stopped to explore this river and take some pictures. I thought Forks was a nice little town. It had a supermarket where we bought food and the Olympic Suites was better than I had hoped for. A rather secluded location; a nice suite with a complete kitchen and laundary facility and a river we could climb down to and have all to our own. However, other than the grocery store, the town seriously lacked any outlets to occupy our time.

On our second day we visited Rialto Beach. There were some impressive sea stacks but not much in the way of tidal pools here. At one point, we almost got stranded as the tide was coming in fast and we had to huury to get across a channel before it was too late. It is rather disarming to stand as the tide is coming in and look out to sea and realize that there is a lot of water out there and it can be dangerous to wander around and loose track of the time and tide. There are lot of warnings about this especially when you hike across where a river or creek cuts the shoreline. These inlets may look shallow and no big deal at low tide, but can be impassable at high tide. It was at this point that we all started getting weary of hikes and headed back to Forks to try to find other options. There weren't any. At one time there used to be an Art Trek that presumably lead around to various local art galleries. However, there only seemed to be one art gallery left in Forks that featured local dabblers in arts and crafts (but mostly crafts), but we weren't tempted to purchase anything. We briefly amused ourselves walking through an odd festival/flea market in a local park. Again, nothing tempted us. In fact it was a little depressing, so we went back to the hotel to chill the rest of the day.

Seattle and Olympic Penninsula Vacation (Part IV)

August 9th and 10th. This part of the trip was entirely my fault. I had been building up expectations for our two-day stay at the Lake Quinault Lodge. This lodge was to be our special treat after staying in hostels and budget motels. I'm not sure what I was expecting but boy were we dissapointed by the accomodations. Our room was very small, barely enough space to accomodate the two beds and a sink. The sink was not in the bathroom, but in the corner of our room, how weird is that. The indoor pool didn't have enough deck chairs, the game room for the kids was bleak. The ping pong paddles had to be 50 years old with all the rubber surface stripped away and the management doled out one ball at a time like they made from gold. The only on-site restaurant was very expensive and we don't eat very expensive. The staff was polite, but curt. Overall, the ambiance didn't ooze warmth and welcome. There were more expensive lakeside cottages that perhaps were nicer, but overall the experience was a let-down and I'm not sure I would be willling to go back.

Okay enough negatism; on the plus-side the lodge was in the middle of the ONP Quinault Rainforest and we could simply walk outside to trails that wound through the area, and it was on a very scenic lake, and the great room was grand. One morning after an early morning hike, we relaxed in the great room while a roaring fire crackled in the fireplace. That was nice, but it would have been memorable (in a good way) had there been complimentary coffee and a moderately priced breakfast available. Despite my dissapointment with the Lake Quinault Lodge, the surrounding rainforest was worth visiting. This area, in particular, has a handful of noteworthy large 'giant' trees. We visited one on a driving tour around Lake Quinault. This spruce, the largest in the world, perhaps a 1000 years old, was really impressive. Pictures do not do it justice--so I didn't include one here. But seriously, all the trees here are big trees and on any hike you see huge moss-laden trees. We enjoyed walking the trails and observing the thick mats of moss hanging from the trees and stepped over more than a few banana slugs. Although the vacation brochures virtually guarantee that you'll spot herds of elk, you'll see more slugs than anything else (funny, they didn't mention that in the brochures). One of the more interesting sights were trees, and sometimes large trees, that would grow out of the trunks of fallen logs. Evidently the need for nutrients in a rainforest is so great, and fallen trees are a good source of nutrients, that new trees will grow out of the fallen logs. These are called 'nurse' logs becuase they support the growth of---oh, you get it. Lastly, one other downer was when driving on the western side of the ONP, anytime you travel outside the boundaries of the park there are vast areas where all the trees have been cut down and the view is one of acres and acres of tree stumps with weeds growing in between. What a pitiful sight it was to see such destruction. Even if timber is their major industry, they should have left the trees along the roads in place to provide a buffer. This picture (I think representing a salmon), painted on a back of a barn we passed by on one of our hikes at the Lodge, will be my lasting good memory from Lake Quinault.

Seattle and Olympic Penninsula Vacation (Part III)

August 8th and 9th. On the morning of the 8th, I rose early to take the bus back to Poulsbo to rent a car from Enterprise car rental. I thought we would need a car to travel on the western side of the Olympic National Park, which turned out to be the case. I got back to PT and the Olympic Hostel just as the rest of the fam was finishing a morning hike around 9 am. We drove toward Port Angeles on SR101, stopping at Sequim to visit a lavender farm.

Sequim claims to be the lavender capital of the world and the farm we visited was exquisite. Vast fields of lavender with hordes of bees buzzing all around. It was really magical. We also planned to briefly hike on the Dungeness Spit (supposedly the longest spit in the world). However, I think we were all a little tired from yesterday's activities and cut the hike short as the DS didn't overwhelm us. After a quick, but ennervating lunch in Sequim, we proceeded to Port Angeles and the Flagstone hotel.

Port Angeles was an okay stop. The town was a blue-collar working class harbor with huge transport ships in the harbor night and day. The Flagstone Hotel, were we stayed, was a real bargain. Clean, inexpensive, near the town center and with a million-dollar view of the Olympic Mountains (reserve a room on the third floor with a view) that we would visit the next day. Toward evening we visited the Marine Science Museum and got to touch sea cucumbers, starfish, anemones, sea urchins, crabs and other tide pool creatures. Although small, this museum prepares you for the diverse aquatic life you can expect to find in the tidal pools and the docents were appreciative of our interest and spent a lot of time showing us around. The best attraction was an anemone, whose scientific name was something, something, elegantissima. A very attractive anemone!

The next day we planned to drive up to Hurrican Ridge and hike along the alpine meadows. In town, the weather was overcast and very foggy. I was really concerned that we wouldn't be able to see anything because the fog was so thick. There is 17 mile drive up to Hurricane Ridge and as we started to ascend the mountains the fog was completely enveloping. There was little visibility, although what vegetation we did manage to see on the sides of the roads appeared lush. Just as my anxiety that this would be a wasted day had climaxed, we broke through the fog that blanketed the lower valleys and had this magnificent view of the Olympic Mountain Range. This was one of the most impressive natural sites I have ever seen. The valleys were completely in fog, but up on Hurricane Ridge the sun was shining and the air was cool and clean.

Later, as we hiked along the Hurrican Ridge and Elwah alpine meadow trails the views were stunningly beautiful. There were wildflowers in bloom and majestic views in all directions. There was wildlife also. We saw eagles soaring on the wind currents, a marmot, an elk (or mule deer) and a family of grouses scatching for food among the alpine grasses. As we were heading back it appeared that the fog was climbing up one side of the ridge and we thought we might get fogged in and loose visibility. However, as the fog climbed higher it dissipated into wispy tufts that lent an eerie feeling to our aerie perch. We headed back down to the visitor center, each of us wishing we could spend more time here. This was probably the 'big' highlight of this trip and if we came back here again we would allot more time to hike along the trails and explore. Next, we drove apporximately 21/2 hours to the Lake Quinault Lodge. Here would begin our tour of the western side of the Olympic National Park.

Seattle and Olympic Penninsula Vacation (Part II)

August 6th and 7th. Today was the culmination of a lot of advance planning to coordinate the ferry and bus transfers we would need to take to get out to Port Townsend. Leaving the Seattle Hostel, we walked a couple of blocks to pier 52 and caught the Seattle-Bainbridge ferry to Bainbridge island. This was about a 30-45 minute trip that provided a very nice view of Seattle and (in the distance) Mount Ranier. At Bainbridge we pick-up the Ktsap Transit #90 bus to Poulsbo and then transferred to the Jefferson Transit #7 to Port Townsend. The transfers went smoothly enough and I enjoyed just sitting back and relaxing while someone else drove. At PT we took the #12 Fort Worden bus out to Fort Worden Park and the Olympic Hostel where we were staying. Both Bainbridge and Poulsbo were very nice towns with good shopping, especially at Bainbridge, but more about that later.

Fort Worden park was great. Fort Worden once bristled with batteries of canons to guard access to Puget Sound. There were extensive trails some that allowed us to explore the old military installations. The movie "An Officer and a Gentleman" with Richard "I got nowhere else to go..." Gere and Louis Gosset Jr. was filmed here. The Olympic Hostel was situated very close to the beach and we took long walks along the beach both into PT and out to the Port Townsend lighthouse.

The scenery was spectacular. The hostel on the other hand left much to be desired. The walls were paper thin and every single noise seemed magnified and bothersome. An older lady in the neighboring room thought we were inconsiderate and accused our kids of being too loud and keeping her and her teenage daughter up the previous night which was one of those true, true and unrelated statements. Although our kids can be bothersome, the previous night's din was mostly from the women's dorm down the hall. I know because it kept me up for awhile. Anyway, I think the lady was a foreigner and their customs probably encourage them to be obnoxious and rude.

Anyway, we had great hikes along the coast of the Puget Sound and the next day went on a guided 4 hour kayak outing to Marrowstone Island. We chartered the trip through PT Outdoors. The guides showed us how to maneuver a kayak, paddle and scream like a girl if we got into trouble. Our destination, Marrowstone Island, is referred to as bird island but was populated by a pack of harbor seals. As we approached the beach where we spotted the seals basking, other seals swimming in the water around us would poke their heads out of the water and bark; it was really neat. We were not allowed to get too close to the seals on the beach, but what we did see was worth the trip.

As we were paddling back, at one point the guide was waving to us to get closer to where he was close to shore in front of PT. Soon after, I heard this loud horn and looked over my shoulder to see a large ferry boat approaching the PT harbor, a little to close to us. After the "girl-scream" we quickly paddled to catch-up with the guide. Later on the way back to the Marine Science Center at Fort Worden, we encountered strong headwinds and choppy water that was a real challenge to paddle through. But we all made it back in high spirits and not too tired out.

In the evening, we hike around the military installations and scenic overlooks in the park.

Seattle and Olympic Penninsula Vacation (Part I)

August 4th and 5th. Our family vacation this year started by flying to Seattle and then to head out to the Olympic Peninsula to trek around the Olympic National Park. Due to the price of round-trip airfare and a booking oversight our flight left the airport at 7:00 am (when flights are less expensive), so we got up real early to get to the airport on time. The advantage to leaving early is that we would arrive in Seattle around noon and have the rest of the day to sight-see. We flew into SeaTac airport, hooked up with the #194 bus to downtown Seattle and found our way to the HI Olympic Hostel fairly easily. I say fairly easily because there were a few tense moments. After we disembarked from the bus, we walked to where I thought the hostel should be, but didn't see any hostel. No hostel for you! My navigation skills were immediately criticized until we spotted the HI Olympic Hostel out of view, down a flight of stairs and across the street--not my fault. However, once we arrived, all was well.

The Hostel was centrally located in the downtown area two blocks from Pike's Place Market and the waterfront piers and maybe four blocks from Pioneer Square. This was our first experience staying in a hostel and we all enjoyed the experience. We had our own room, which I guess is a luxury at a hostel, but did share the bathroom facilities with the other denizens. Most of the hostelers were young people (with laptops and ipods in use) but there were a few elderfolk. The room was clean and the staff at the front desk friendly. The kids really enjoyed the pool table in the common room and I enjoyed the complimentary breakfasts and economy of making our dinners in the shared kitchen. Walking around Pike's Place Farmers Market was interesting. Most of my attention was drawn to the food vendors (in particular the mini-donuts and frozen yogurt) and the three Fs....fruit, fish and flower stands. Unfortunately, there were also a lot of small "junky" touristy shops. As in most urban tourist destinations, there were also a lot of street performers. None particularly good, but they did try to entertain in their own unique fashions. Pictured below, one street performer was feeling her groove thing while roviding a visual interpretation of her partners muscial renditions.

The second day we visited the Seattle Asian Art Museum which was small but enjoyable. From the front of museum there was a nice view of the Seattle Space Needle. The museum had a nice exhibit of pictures taken at Shi Shi beach that whetted our appetites for our planned adventures to come; visiting various beaches along the west coast. There was also an interesting exhibit featuring stacks of slide projectors that cast images on the walls of the room while recycled television tubes, hanging from the ceiling, made popping noises. Both the projectors and popping noises were activated by our walking around the room. It was weird but definitely interesting. Also in Volunteer Park was a small botanical Conservatory that we walked through. I learned later that we missed the blooming of a particular large and foul smelling skunk cabbage that was an item on the national news a few weeks later when we were home. Timing is everything! Afterward, we met a particularly friendly squirrel in Volunteer Park. By the time I had taken this picture, he or she had eaten or buried half a scone and a handful of grapes. The squirrel encounter was definitely a highlight for the kids. The remainder of day we spent with a family friend who lives in Seattle.