I went to the Mariners game tonight with Fran and Art. They were inducting their former manager, Lou Pinella, into the Mariners hall of fame – a big deal for the team and fans.
I collected my Lou bobble head.
And got some awesome shots at sunset from the waterfront.
I love the Seattle waterfront. On Thursday Mom and I joined Fran, Aaron, Rebecca, Colleen and Jake for the afternoon. Took a ferry ride, rode the Great Wheel, found a few geocaches along the way, ate lunch, and took in another beautiful, sunny, Seattle day.
Today’s low tide was 4.5′ higher than last week. So…no problem getting out. We spent the entire day on the boat crabbing. And boy did we get some big ones.
This is the same place that we were high and dry last week. 
One of the pots:
And one of the huge dungeness crabs:
Oh, and I learned that Pacific rock crab is pretty much the same as Florida stone crab. Delicious lesson. Yum!
Mom and I headed for Vashon Island today to visit a friend she’s known since gradeschool. I had never been to Vashon before; it’s beautiful. You can only get there by ferry.
And once we were there we were awestruck by their waterfront lot and home on the Colvos Passage. This shot is from the living room…. amazing.
Francine brought over a humongous bowl of dungeness crabmeat from their haul over the weekend – ginormous hunks of claw meat already cleaned and ready to eat. So, I made crab cakes tonight for the first time, and I think they turned out excellent.
Spongebob would be proud. 🙂
Here is the recipe I used:
– 2 cups dungeness crabmeat, flaked
– 1/3 c crushed cracker crumbs
– 2 Tblspoons mayo
– 1 egg
– 1 tsp mustard powder
– 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
– 1/4 tsp garlic powder
– 1/2 tsp kosher salt
– Juice of 1/2 lemon
– 2 green onions sliced and diced thinly
– 1/2 green pepper diced finely
– Black pepper to taste
1) Mix all of the above together well in a bowl.
2) Form into cakes (6 or so) and dust each with:
-Flour
3) Heat in large skillet on med high:
– 1/4 c olive oil
4) add crab cakes to pan and cook 4-5 mins, then flip and cook another 3-4 mins.
5) remove and place on paper towel.
Plate with lemon and Dijon mustard remoulade.
I met Fran and Art and kids this morning at a boat ramp to do some crabbing in the Sound. We meant to beat the low tide.
But. Didn’t. Quite. Make it.
🙂
Sometimes you get the crab. Sometimes the crab gets you.
Monte and I have just returned from Panama City Beach – a week-long celebration of Gene & Jo’s 50th wedding anniversary with their entire family. I am grateful to have been included in the celebration. It was simply awesome. The location. The beach. The silliness. The catching up. The family. The celebrating. Thank you Gene & Jo!
I’ll share just a few pictures of the beautiful setting:
We arrived in Panama City Beach at sunset last Saturday, after an extra long drive, due to I-10 shutdowns.
One morning we were treated to a view from our back deck of an amazing double rainbow.
The sea was different every day. This was from one morning after overnight rainshowers.
A week of amazing sunsets.
Surf-side fireworks one night.
One of the few pelican shots I captured.
Julie flew home Wednesday to join her dad and brothers on a long-planned climb to the top of the 14K+ foot peak that is Mount Rainier. I can only aspire to do something like this one day. For now, I am watching their ascent via satellite-based location technology. Amazing.
Points 1 – 4 on the map are the last 4 pings they’ve sent on their way up. I will watch all night and all day tomorrow. Can’t wait to see the pics!
We celebrated the long 4th of July weekend on the lake. On Friday, Julie joined us for the day for a sail and a float in Arky South. Kalliopi tied up to us for the afternoon. And we whipped up an All-American grill-ful of burgers and dogs for dinner.
We took Julie back to the marina at sunset.
We had a nice view of a nearby fireworks show from the bow.
Saturday morning we took care of some chores on the boat before setting off for a long sail, ending up with anchoring off Starne’s Island to watch the Volente (day-after) 4th of July fireworks show. Voodoo, Sapphire, Dancer and Karma also showed up and we anchored nearby eachother.
The lights in this shot show the great many boats that turned out for the show. And the dark hump in the middle of the shot is Starne’s Island, from where the fireworks would be shot off.
We had a great spot!
After the show, nearly all the other boats left, and the water calmed down enough to stay overnight. Sunday morning, before we left, I kayaked from the boat to Starne’s Island to hunt for a lone geocache hidden there.
This tree on the island is home to 4 giant blue heron nests. None of them were home during my visit.
We made it back to the slip Sunday afternoon and wrapped things up.
Another great 3 day weekend spent on the lake!
I’m headed home today, after a nice, long visit in the Pacific Northwest. I’ll share a few of the sights I took in along the way…
Roadsters on the way to the airport:
On the plane I chose a starboard window seat, expecting the normal fly by with Mount Rainier on my right. It turns out we flew south of Mount Rainier, so instead I had a view of its neighboring Cascade peaks Mount Adams (in the foreground) and Mount Hood (beyond and to the left).
The Columbia River gorge, with the Miller Island to the left, where the Deschutes River joins the Columbia, and beyond it, the Dalles, and then Mt Hood in the distance.
It rained a bit while I’ve been gone, and I could see the 630.5′ high Lake Travis through the steamy haze.
We flew over my neighborhood, and I got a shot of our house! Funny.
And Big Blue’s Austin offices… quickly being swallowed up by the Domain and other new development. Looks like noone works weekends anymore.
Home sweet home.
The afternoon was filled with family stopping by to see mom and aunt Ellen. Rebecca and Aaron brought some shrinky dink paper… an arts and crafty kind that you decorate and then put in the oven to shrink and harden. We made lots of doodads. These that I made are destined to become keychains…
How?
You can buy the sheets of paper. Google sez #6 recyclable plastic can also work, but I haven’t tried that. Make sure to use permanent markers, and allow for 3x or 4x shrinkage. Punch a hole before shrinking, if you want to make into a keychain. Bake at 325-350 degrees for less than a minute. They will ball up and then flatten out again as they shrink. I put them in the oven on foil with a little flour or cornstarch to keep from sticking to the foil.
My mom’s sister is here visting, another is arriving this week. Today they’re spending the morning together catching up. So, I headed out to go kayaking near Hood Canal with Noreen, her friend Tammy and her son, Matt. I think I’m starting to sound like a broken record, but it was a BEAUTIFUL day. The water was flat and calm, and the tide wasn’t fighting us too badly.
My front row seat:
This area is full of bald eagles. Here’s a pair that were watching us as we went by:
And yes, the obligatory panorama 🙂
TGIF, folks!! Time for another gorgeous mountainscape:
And a few of mom’s favorite flowers:
Today I had the chance to go for a small road trip. Just a 90 minute drive, each way, up to Snoqualmie Falls. I went for it. I packed mom along with me, with her wheel chair for maximum ease of checking out each nook and cranny of this naturally beautiful place. And we were off…headed east to visit one of the most popular scenic places in Washington State. It turned out that Noreen and David were coming west over the pass from Eastern Washington from a wedding, and we were able to time it so that we met for lunch at the beautiful Salish Lodge at the falls. The flow was high, due to snow melt… swelling the falls to a thunderous level. You could feel the water falling, you could hear it beating the rocks below, and you could feel the spray 300′ up from the bottom.
I can’t tell you how pretty it was, so i’ll just share 2 shots:
and a panorama:
An awesomely beautiful day.
Sheila365 