A Long Spit

This weekend we travelled to the Olympic Peninsula and hiked Dungeness Spit. It is a five mile spit of dune and marsh that juts into the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Matt has seen the spit numerous times while transiting between the Pacific and the Puget Sound by ship, but this was our first time to see it up close.

After a picnic overlooking the Strait, we started hiking. It was five and a half miles out to the lighthouse at the end of the spit, and another five and a half back. Along the way we saw a lot of huge logs tossed ashore, lots of sea birds and even a few sea lions.

After about 2 hours we made it to the lighthouse. 

Here is one of the sea lions.

And these ducks were hanging out at the lighthouse.

Have a great week!

The Poulsbo Viking Fest

This is NOT a picture of us. The 42nd Annual Viking Fest was held this weekend right here in Poulsbo.  Poulsbo was settled in the 1880's  by large numbers of Norwegian and other Scandinavian immigrants.   Legend has it they were drawn here by the fjord-like landscape similar to that of their homeland.  Downtown Poulsbo maintains a Scandinavian theme and Viking Fest is a celebration of Norway's Constitution Day and commemorates the adoption of Norway's constitution on May 17, 1814.  History aside, it seems to be a great excuse for the locals to don their Viking attire and also for a parade. 

The festival drew a lot of people all weekend, many coming by boat and docking steps away from all the action.

The parade was the highlight of the festival with a spirited display of Nordic pride.

  

Viking Village was set up along the waterfront with lots of, um, interesting sights.

On Sunday, the Lutefisk Eating Contest was held.  Lutefisk is a traditional Norwegian dish of whitefish soaked in lye during preparation.  Soaking in lye gives it a jelly-like consistency.  After the lye soak, it is soaked in cold water for several days to make it edible. 

The official Viking Fest princesses were lucky enough to get to try bite of it before the contest.  Two of them were decidedly not crazy about it.

Then the contest started.  Six contestants were each given 2 pounds of it.  They seemed like a brave bunch to me.

The competition was intense.

And we had a winner!

In case you are wondering, no, we have never tried lutefisk.  And don't intend to either.

Pass the sunscreen, please.

After a fairly chilly, rainy week, we woke up on Saturday to a beautiful, sunny day.  We were able to shed some layers and even had to apply sunscreen for the first time this year.  While we would have loved to have been out on the water enjoying the weather, the boat that is now ours will not be trucked up here until mid-June.  So we decided to go to one of the many amazing state parks and do a little hiking and have a picnic.

On the way there, Matt had to take some work calls, and out of boredom, I took an arms-length picture of myself.

Here are some of the scenic views at the park.

We had some really yummy cookies with our picnic.

We saw a lot of bald eagles today.  They are so beautiful.  Here is one of them.

Ft. Ward is the name of the park we visited and it served as an Army fort in the late 1800's and early 1900's.  Here is a picture of one of the 4 batteries there that were put in place to protect the Bremerton Naval Shipyard from attack at that time.  The sign said that no shots were ever fired from the battery.

Baylee wanted to be in this week's blog, so here she is at the dog park that is not far from where we live.  She makes a lot of friends there and every now and again, she even runs around a bit.  Not today though.

We loved seeing the sun today and  have red faces to show for it.  We'll have to get a little better with the sunscreen.

Opening Day

On Saturday we headed to Seattle for the day. After getting off the ferry, we headed straight to the U-District farmer's market. It is a big market that does not allow crafts. So, we picked up some items that they didn't have yet at the Poulsbo market.

The market was fun, but the real reason we went to Seattle was for a boat parade commemorating the  "official" Opening Day of Boating Season. This is a uniquely Seattle event sponsored by the Seattle Yacht Club on the first weekend in May to celebrate the upcoming season on the water after a long, rainy off season. The boats are decorated from stem to stern, many taking cues from the annual theme. This year's theme was "Out of this World." So we saw several alien and spaceship-themed boats.

This year's parade had over 300 boats including both power and sail and we saw all shapes, sizes and vintages.  There were even some amphibious cars making the route from Lake Union to Lake Washington.

After the parade we found a waterside Mexican cafe where we celebrated Cinco de Mayo a few days early. Then it was back to the ferry after picking up some food and wine at some of our favorite shops around Seattle.

Mid Week Adventure

Our next adventure didn't happen on the weekend, but it is related to something that will occupy a lot of our future weekends, so it is worth noting.

For the last several months Carol and I have been boat shopping. We were looking for a 2000 or newer sailboat, by a European designer, in the 33' to 36' range. We couldn't find anything in our price range in the Puget Sound, so we had to expand our search to the entire west coast. We looked at boats in San Diego, Long Beach, and all over the San Francisco Bay. After several weekend trips, we found a great boat in Richmond, CA on San Francisco Bay that met our criteria - a 2002 Beneteau 331.

On to the adventure - On Monday afternoon I flew down to Oakland, CA for the survey on Tuesday. This was our second attempt at a survey. The previous week we had to cancel because of small craft advisories on the bay. Unfortunately, this Tuesday was not any better. It rained all day and winds gusted up to 32 knots.

The surveyor, the broker and I got started early.  It was a wet and bouncy ride, and visibility was pretty poor. I was happy to have radar. When the fog started to lift you could just make out San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge. 

Getting into the lift for the hull inspection was no problem, and the bottom looked good.

Overall the survey went well, with only a few minor issues to address. The boat is in great shape and we are looking forward to moving her up to the Puget Sound.