Deja Vu - Same boat, same bridge, same quilt......

The first time I went under the Tacoma Narrows bridge was in 2005. We had Lynne and Roy Kuch on board with us, and Lynne and I sat on the aft deck, stitching quilt squares. (Lynne's quilt has probably been in use for the past 6 years.) Today, as we went under the bridge, I sat here sewing quilt squares for THE SAME QUILT. Hmmmmm. Here's a shot of the Tacoma Narrows bridge from a different perspective than you're probably used to:


I blogged from Olympia, but it didn't post to the site - I was using the Port of Olympia's connection - guess I got censored. It must've been something I said. :)

We have never stayed in Tacoma before. We're at the Dock Street Marina, which was voted the Best Marina of the Year in 2009. It's pretty snazzy, as marinas go. Free showers - all the hot water you need! Plus, we got a pretty nifty messenger bag with a go-cup....okay, they gave us ONE go-cup. I guess it's for the captain - I may go up and see if they'll sell me another one. After all, the crew does as much work as the captain, why shouldn't I get a cup, too???? (I have no idea what I'd put in one, since it doesn't look like it's a thermal mug, so coffee's going to get cold anyway, but that's not the point....)


This is the Dock Street Marina - pretty tight quarters (it'll be fun getting out of here if the wind's blowing!)....we're directly in front of the Chihuly Glass Bridge and the Glass Museum....and here's where we're eating dinner tonight:



We'll be here tomorrow night, too, and then head to Blake Island on Monday. Then, it's Shilshole on Tuesday and home on Wednesday.....then a quick trip to Carla's to get all this hair cut off my head! :)

Fair Haven Marina, Grapeview, WA

We were here last in 2005, right before we drove to Chicago for Rebecca's graduation from U Chicago...it hasn't changed much. Still a really pretty little marina - about the size of the marinas north of Desolation Sound.

From Poulsbo we took a quick run over to Bremerton and their spiffy new marina. They really did a great job on that place. It's just beautiful!

I love cruising with sailors. With Pearl Jem along, Nellie is never the last boat in! Hey, hey!! Unfortunately, they went home yesterday, so we're back to being the slowest boat in the fleet. Oh, well, somebody's gotta be last.

We took off from Bremerton about 0745 Saturday morning and headed over to Dockton County Park on Vashon Island. We hadn't realized that Dockton is clearly the redneck yacht club of Puget Sound. Those old Bayliner owners party hard, let me tell you! We went out to catch a 24' Carver that came racing to the dock, only to find that he had no lines, no fenders, pretty much nothing to grab or catch. After crashing into the dock, he took out his two tiny little fenders (about 10" long) and tried to stuff them between the dock and his boat. Then it was, hey, hit the beer!

Here the is the view we got as we left Vashon Island yesterday morning at 0615 (had to catch the 0730 slack at Tacoma Narrows).....
This is when we remember why we left Illinois in 1973.....

Last night we anchored in about 26' right in front of Penrose Point State Park - nobody around except a few boats. What a peaceful, quiet night - welcome after the dock parties at Dockton! This morning we left around 0830 and came down here to Grapeview. On our way down Ken Hulett on Sapphire pointed out this hazard to navigation, commenting that this is the first time he's had to navigate around a house!
And here's a nice shot I got of Sapphire....

...and now, we're all just sitting on our decks, napping in the sun! It's a glorious 70 degree day - perfect boating weather!

Poulsbo - ya, sure, you betcha

Good old Poulsbo - Scandinavian capital of the Northwest. One of my favorite NW places. The bakery - well, we're not going there at all - waaaaaayyy too dangerous a place for me! I think I gained a few pounds just walking past.

The water was pretty calm, although Mary got us all up at 6:30 to leave by 7:30 because she got antsy. That's our Mary - up at 5, wants to leave by 7. :) Good thing we all love Mary!

Since I am Chocolate Queen for the cruise, I've been busy. For those of you who chose not to accompany us on the cruise, so far you have missed Dove bars, chocolate-orange-hazlenut cookies and chocolate decadence with fresh raspberries and whipped cream. Ha. I'm on a roll!

I did take pictures, but with the old camera, and that chip doesn't fit into my laptop - if I figure it out, I'll add pictures when I can. Mary's chip fits, so I may just post her pictures - and since we all know that Mary takes great photos, you can count on good pictures!

Looking for great weather tomorrow - supposed to be upper 60's and sunny all weekend - the perfect NW summer day.

Right now, it's 9:00pm (that'd be 2100 hours for boating buddies) and we have a gorgeous sunset over the western part of Liberty Bay.....the Mariners are trouncing Tampa Bay (ahhh, gotta love those 4-home run games).... life is good.

Tomorrow, it's on to Bremerton and the Pyrex Museum!

Port of Everett

We left Oak Harbor this morning, the first day of my 66th year, around 9, after pumping out....kind of dreary and gray, but not very cold. The weather turned nasty about 2/3 of the way down Whidbey Island - a cold, steady rain. Just enough rain to get me good and wet while I set out fenders and lines. As soon as we docked here in Everett, the rain stopped and it got warm. With any luck my sweatshirt will be dry by tomorrow morning.

Boy, Everett Yacht Basin has really changed since we moored Nellie here. Even Scuttlebutt Brewery has a new home - big fancy restaurant instead of the 5 card tables in the front of the brewery. We ate a lot of dinners on those card tables back when Bob was living aboard!

No pictures today - not only was it gray and dismal, our "new" (purchased in 09) camera doesn't work. Sigh. Just give me my Brownie back.

Tomorrow it's on to Poulsbo! We had happy hour on board Sapphire with the Huletts - ummm, Terri and Ken have set the happy hour bar very high. I will need to get to a fancy store tomorrow (or call a caterer) to even get halfway as good a spread as they put on. The good news is that we don't have to eat dinner since Terri's appys were so plentiful!