Kayaking

 Last week, Kari asked if I wanted to do something with her and the kids.  We decided to go kayaking in La Conner.

 I thought it would be best for Saben to go with me, so he could help me paddle the kayak.  (I'm used to going with Ken, who does the majority of the paddling.)

 But, Annika really wanted to go with me, so that's what we did.  Most of the time Annika and I were quite a way behind the other two.

 We caught up in a little cove and had a small snack that the rental guy supplied.

Right after I took this picture, Annika saw a small spider in the kayak right in front of her.  She's very afraid of spiders, so I was afraid that she was going to jump out of the kayak or tip it over!  She did get on top of the seat back before Kari was able to flick the spider into the water.  Over all I was pleased with being able to paddle the kayak for over an hour with just a little help from Annika.

This is a picture that Kari took of Annika and i in our boat.  Notice my stylish hat that the guy at the rental place loaned me!

Mother's Day Gift

 For Mother's Day, Kari gave me the gift of joining Annika and her in a painting class and having dinner together.  Due to my schedule because of jury duty last week, we had to grab a sandwich at Subway before our class started.  The first thing we had to do was get our paint colors on a piece of white board. 

 Kari had asked them to chose a picture that they thought an 8 year old would enjoy painting.  They got a canvas ready for us with the outline of a giraffe on it

 The instructor told us how to mix our paints to get the colors we would be using...

 ...then painted a picture with us, giving instructions on what to do when.

 The first thing we did was paint the back ground a yellowish orange.

 The instructor was really good at helping us with any mistakes or questions we had.

 This is 2 of the finished projects.  Kari's is on the left and Annika's is on the right.

All 3 of us and our finished pictures.  I was quite pleased with the way mine turned out!

Mystery Dinner Theater

 We went to a mystery dinner theater a little over a week ago. The mystery part of it was set in the 1920's and a lot of the guests dressed accordingly.  Unfortunately, I don't have any clothes that look like the fashions from that time period, so we went dressed in our regular clothes. There was a lot of audience participation both in playing some of the parts and in finding out how committed the crime..

 Ken was chosen as a possible bootlegger and was questioned by one of the mob bosses (the one with the microphone.)  Ken gave some good answers to the questions and was dismissed as a suspect.

We worked with the other 6 people at our table to determine who committed the "murder", after spending some time questioning the suspects.  When it came time to decide on who did it, I didn't have a clue!  Luckily some of the other people at our table came up with the right answer, so we got a certificate.  (We were the only table to get the right answer.)

The Stanwood Fair on Sunday

 Sunday morning, Todd called and asked if we wanted to join them at the Stanwood Fair that day.  We decided to go with them, it had been a long time since we had been to it, the last time was probably when Kari was in 4H and took her horse out there.  One of the things we watched for awhile was a medieval fighting demonstration.  The guy in the first picture had been doing it for over 20 years...

 ...whereas the 2 in this picture were fairly new to the sport.

 Seth was anxious to get to the rides, so we headed there next.  He was especially wanting to ride on the "Scrambler", but unfortunately they didn't have a "Scrambler", so he settled for second best, the airplane ride.  We were going to send him by himself, but the man in charge of the ride told Betsy and I that we could ride with him for free.

 His next choice of a ride, didn't turn out to well.  He got on the roller coaster by himself, but was afraid, so they stopped the ride so that he could get off, they even returned his tickets, which we thought was really nice of them.  The top of Seth's head is barely visible in the third car from the right, you can see that he has a death grip on the bar!

 After the roller coaster fiasco, he wanted to go back on the airplane ride, this time Todd got to go with him for free.  Seth discovered he could make the propeller turn if he reached out with his hand and spun it.

 The last ride of the day was the merry-go-round.

 Seth enjoyed going into this tree stump, while he waited for the rest of us to finish our lunch.

 Some bunnies to pet.

 We got to see part of the costume contest for the handlers and their animals.  The Hawaiian goat and handler got 2nd place in their category.

Last event of the day was a snack for everyone.  Most of us chose ice cream in some form, since it was so hot, but Seth went for cotton candy.

Day trip to Stuart Island - Part 2

 After our walk to the lighthouse, it was starting to get late, so we debated about whether to continue on around the island or go back the way we came.  We decided to go on around the island and as we approached the lighthouse area again, a huge cargo ship came by.  It made us feel really small!

 While Ken was taking a picture of the lighthouse from the water...

 ...we noticed a bunch of boats around the corner of the island (which in these waters, usually means orcas are near).  It's hard to see unless you zoom in, but in the distance there's a fin sticking out and that was our second clue that the orca whales were coming.  Randy stopped the boat and we just sat in the water for awhile, spotting a few fins here and there, then...

 ...all of a sudden they were coming right by our boat!

 They came close to us and we were in the position of knowing we weren't supposed to be so close to them and not knowing whether we should sit still and let them pass or if we should move away from them.  I guess we were supposed to move away from them, even though they came to us, we weren't chasing them, because we got stopped by some volunteers from the "Whale Museum" in Friday Harbor, who told us what we did was illegal and if the patrol boats had seen us we would have gotten a ticket.  They just gave us a brochure about rules in watching whales and as they left Randy said  "Did you give one to the whales, also?", since they came to us.

 After the excitement of seeing the whales we decided to go back the way we had come because it was way past lunch time and it was the faster way to get back to their house, but we were very glad that we had decided to start out going the way we did!  After eating, we walked around the area closer to their house and scared up some deer that spent quite a bit of time looking us over.

 One last look at one of the bucks in front of someones cabin.

 This rock is what Jamie calls the "phone booth".  They can't get phone coverage at their house, but if they walk down to the beach, then they can get phone coverage.  Our phone kept telling us we were in British Columbia, even though we weren't, so we couldn't have used our phones without paying a larger fee, even from the "phone booth".

 One of their neighbors has a giraffe head sticking out of their shed.

 This little deer was on the lawn at their house as we were leaving to go home.

 Time to head home.

A view of some of the islands with Mt. Baker in the background that we saw on our way home.  A gorgeous day, with friends and lots of critters.

Day Trip to Stuart Island - Part 1

 We left Arlington Airport at 8am on Wed. to fly with our friends, Tim and Mary Beth to Stuart Island in the San Juan Islands.  We were going to spend the day visiting some other friends that have a summer house there.  This was what we saw when we landed on the grass airstrip on the island, Randy and Jamie, waiting to greet us, waving USA flags.

 After getting the airplane parked to the side of the runway, we walked to their house and stood on the deck watching the gold finches swarm their bird feeder.

 Jamie was making us breakfast, right after we arrived.

 Lots of yummy things for breakfast!  This trip has been offered at the MOPS auction for several years and each year we had bid on it, but in the end we didn't bid enough to get it.  This year, we "rigged the auction", so that we could get the trip.  Randy and Jamie have so many visitors during the summer, especially on weekends, that they were considering not offering the trip this year.  But then they thought that if we bought the trip, without it going into the actual auction, they would do it, knowing that we are all retired and could do a weekday trip instead of having to do a weekend, which worked out well for all of us.

 Mary Beth, Jamie and I with the view from their upper deck in the background.

 The first group going out to the boat in the dingy.

 2 on board and Randy is coming back to get the women.

 This is a view of their house (the one with the red roof) as we start on our boat ride around the island.

 Jamie is telling us something as we go on our boat ride.

 We docked on another part of the island and walked 1 1/2 miles (one way) to a lighthouse.

 Turn Point Lighthouse on Stuart Island.

This is a reference marker, by the light house, that marks one of the turns in the boundary line between Canada and the USA.

 Time for a rest, a snack and some water before heading back to the boat.

 Coming up the trail from the lighthouse.

 Taking a break at the top.

Getting back on the boat to continue our trip around the island.