I haven't blogged in a year. Deal with it. The other day the kids and I went down to Percival Landing to play and throw a football around. As it started to get dark we walked along the boardwalk following a seal that was playing in the shallow water. We walked all the way down to Port Plaza and out onto the dock. We lost the seal, but a gray whale popped up out of nowhere. It was pretty amazing. Gray whales don't often make their way to the farthest reaches of the South Sound. Usually they are either lost or sickly, but after sending pics into Cascadia Research, they determined that the whale was healthy and just adventurous. I really love that playing in the park downtown can turn into whale watching in this town.

Catch Up

We are bad bloggers. We'll try to catch up

Halloween

Grant went as Percy Jackson



Evie was Snow White



and Mim was a gnome



It was cold but dry for a change. This is the first year that the kids have actually wanted to go out to more than just our immediate neighbor's houses. The candy lust finally hit and we went to house after house all around the neighborhood until Mim was too cold and bored and we headed home. Grant had to throw out some of last years candy to make room for this years. Evie at last years in about 2 days and polished off this years fairly quickly too.

Seabrook

We drove out to Seabrook this weekend with the Leonards. The weather was surprisingly nice for October. It was dry and sunny and warm within reason. You kind of know what you are going to get when you head to the Washington coast; rain, clouds, fog, wind, and gorgeous scenery. So when the weather is nice, it is just an unexpected bonus.



This is one of the trails to the beach. The main trail is down a staircase, this one is through a forest.



Filled with "fairy houses"



Being Washingtonians, any day is a good beach day to the kids.









One of the things we really like about Seabrook, is the architecture. Rather than the standard nod to traditional building, where you get glued on "craftsman" details in a modern sprawling subdivision, the Seabrook homes are built with a real attention to architectural detail and elements in a new urbanist neighborhood.







We're now officially ready for fall.

Mt Rainier

A few weeks ago we decided to meet up with the Leonards and go for a hike on Mt Rainier. Before we could go though, we had business to take care of. There was no way we were missing the Olympia Pet Parade. I sometimes run into people here that have never gone. To that I say, You. Do. Not. Live. In. Olympia. There is no way you can understand living in Olympia until you have sat on a curb downtown and watched your friends and neighbors march by with their ducks dressed as Harry Potter, or their dogs as superman or.... Guineazilla!



After the parade we had ice cream in the park with the rest of the town, and then on to Rainier.



The weather was perfect, but there was quite a bit of snow on the ground. This wasn't a real issue until about halfway through our hike when it covered the trail and made things a bit more exciting than we would have preferred. The kids hiked like pros with no complaining, no one fell off a cliff, and the wild flowers were beautiful.

Point Defiance Zoo

Michelle and the kids have been to the zoo a hundred times, but somehow always without me. I finally convinced them to take me this weekend.

The aquarium was our favorite part. It's organized geographically from the North Sound down to Olympia. The sharks and sun starfish were highlights.



Mim loved this puffin until it swam right up to the glass and tapped at her finger. Then she couldn't get away fast enough.



I saw a kid crying at the playground and he told me he couldn't find his mom. We finally found her after about 15 minutes with the help of zoo staff. Not 4 minutes later, another kid came up to me crying and saying he couldn't find his parents. While we were calling his dad's cell phone (memorize those numbers), he actually walked up, yelled at the kid for not keeping up and left. I told Michelle it was time to get out of there before we ended up having to take any orphans home.



Evie spotted reindeer in the artic tundra exhibit and was worried that they actually belonged to Santa. I assured her that Santa would hear about this and come free them from the zoo, riding on a polar bear and destroying everything that opposed him. This seemed to comfort her.



Mim got hungry and started licking her leg clean of some flat fruit she had stuck to it. We took that as a sign that the kids were hungry and it was time to go.

Sailing

Our friends, the Johnsons took us out on their real sailboat. Unfortunately, there was no wind. We motored around the inlet to Gull Harbor or so and watched a couple of replica tall ships have a faux battle, complete with booming, smoking cannon.

The kids loved spotting seals and were completely unafraid to wander the deck and sit on the sides trying to drag their feet in the water. I can't say I was as comfortable with their daring.

Sunflower

Grant went to Lil' Luffer's sailing camp this summer in Bud Bay.



We have always felt like we weren't taking advantage of living so close to the water, so after watching Grant sail around Bud Bay, we were inspired to buy our own little boat. It is a Snark Sunflower. It's perfect for us. It is cheap, light, and simple. We can throw it on the roof of the car and even Grant can help me carry it into the water.






We have no idea what we are doing, but have managed not to capsize yet. We have stuck to lakes for now, but we hope to take it out on one of the inlets once we are a little less clueless.