Fun – Page 41 – Sheila365

Simply the best.

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.

From a distance.

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.

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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!

Three day weekend!

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!

SoCo birthday night.

I went downtown tonight to celebrate Laura’s birthday. We ate at Perla’s, and strolled up and down South Congress til it was time to call it a night.

champers night cap at Hotel San Jose…

the (blurryish) soco view towards downtown… A reflection of the Frost Bank Tower on the building next door… Happy Birthday, Laura!

1st weekend of Summer: 630′

Summer arrived yesterday morning at 5AM central time (or thereabouts). Yesterday we set out for a raftup to mark the occassion. Marty & Sue joined us on Nirvana. We met up with Dancer, Kalliopi, Voodoo, Solace, Sapphire and Karma. It’s been a very long time since we enjoyed a raftup with that many other crazies. We had a fun evening, and a nice, relaxed day today. Fair winds and non-stifling temps. All is well.

Same hiker, different woods.

I took a walk through a nearby park today. Different scenery than the shaded, lush, tall forest paths up north. But nice to be here.

Lots of gaillardia (aka Indian blanket) around. Another one of my favorites.

Shrinky dinkies.

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.

Paddling around.

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 🙂

Checking out the Falls.

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.

Tacoma.

On the way back from taking Monte to the airport today, i stopped in Tacoma to go to the Museum of Glass.

I enjoyed this interactive exhibit with dozens of lighted letters, just waiting to spell something.

On the way home I checked out a few different vantage points. This is a shot of the old (left) and new (right) Tacoma Narrows bridges. Mt Rainier is lurking behind the old bridge.

Friday evening on the Sound.

This afternoon we hit the Sound, again, with Fran, Art, Rebecca and Aaron. We hopped onto their boat at this beach.

Then motored over to watch a local marina’s Friday night regatta up close.

Then toodled around to see what we could see. On the left, a sea lion sunning himself on a buoy. In the background, Mt. Rainier, Blake Island and a Seattle-bound ferry.

It was beautiful out, but not necessarily warm.

And, a lovely sunset.

Extendo holiday weekend.

I took the day after Memorial Day off, turning a 3-day weekend into 4-day. Yahooty!
I took mom to a doctor appointment this afternoon. And then Fran joined us at the golf course for a round. It was another gift sunny day!

Afterwards we teamed up at trivia night at a local pub – Team Muggs (Mom, Noreen, David, Neil, Lucille, Fran, Monte & me). And we won > $200 !!

A few scenes from Sunday.

Today Monte and I headed to Seattle with Fran, and met Colleen. We took our time making it from the waterfront to Safeco field to watch a Sunday afternoon Mariner’s game. Another fun day with a few of my sistahs. Here are just a few moments from the day…