Cypress Island

On Sunday we set sail for Cypress Island with Eric and CJ. Because she had to work in the morning, we sailed to the Larrabee boat ramp to rendezvous with her. As soon as Eric picked her up from with the dinghy, we caught the perfect westerly wind that took us straight to the little cove we were planning to stay for the night.



We rowed ashore, where the boys prepared the seafood boil on the beach. First they threw on the potatoes, artichokes, onions, garlic and corn, and waited a little bit before throwing on the lamb sausage, mussels, clams and crabs. During the feast, Eric and Tyler couldn't contain their euphoric giggles — all the food had been cooked perfectly. I didn't know we lived in a world where potatoes, corn and artichokes cooked at the same rate over a campfire.

The next day we just hiked around Cypress and explored a couple trails.



On Tuesday morning we set sail for La Conner to meet Steve and Karen. We had planned to drive their car back, while they sailed back to Bellingham. A full visual account of our trip can be found here.

Hugs

Slug hug...slug love dandelion (probably lamp too).


Moses hug — I don't know how Tyler can stay asleep when this happens. He does have superhuman sleep powers though...

Horseshoe Bend

We took a nice, easy hike on the Horseshoe Bend trail to enjoy the 70 degree weather. Tyler decided to make things more interesting by walking out to the sandbar in the river:




We finished the hike faster than we had anticipated, so we relaxed at a picnic site while we waited for the North Fork Brewery, Pizzeria, Beer Shrine, and Wedding Chapel to open. During that time, Margarito found the perfect log to stretch out on and watch the river:

Opening Day

For Funday Monday, We went to the Mariners' Home Opener with Eric and CJ. On the way to the game, we stopped at Bob Bailey's house (he's one of the Manor's regulars) to see his toy soldier collection. He's been collecting toys since the 1980s, and set up a room to display his collection. You can check out an article about his home here. We all enjoyed viewing the prized possesions, but my favorites were from the Civil War. Bob is a Civil War buff, so he's collected many items and primary documents over the years. My personal favorite was the letter he had from Robert E. Lee that he wrote to his oldest daughter right before the war began.

After Bob's house, we went and had lunch at Brooklyn before the game. Tyler ordered a medium rare burger, which we all saw was cooked to perfection after he bit into it and the juice squirted out onto Eric.

Then we headed to the game with our peanuts (not Cracker Jacks) and watched the Mariners lose to Oakland, and there were only six hits all game. But it was all worth it because Randy Johnson threw out the opening pitch to Dan Wilson, with Jay Buhner, Edgar Martinez and Ken Griffey Jr. there to meet them. All the old Mariners were back together again and that made my opening day.