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*I haven't posted since I was still in Madison, more than a month ago now. My time there was great, old friends, the Corn Fest, family treasures, etc. I had lots of post-worthy experiences, but since I didn't write up anything when I first got back, it isn't going to happen. I uploaded more old family photos to my gallery here, but mostly to have them hosted online somewhere, should my computer die again and wipe out everything. That was a painful lesson to learn.
One of the treasures I returned with was a little green dress. ( Remember this? )
*Days after my return, Luke presented his final project for Antioch University, a 40-minute talk about forest stewardship. His plan now is to try and get into grad school next winter.
*Also just after my return, I said goodbye to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lara7, who is moving to the island of Fiji. She's pretty much the closest friend I've had here in Seattle, so while it's an amazing opportunity for her, it totally sucks for me. Been feeling kind of lost lately.
*I was getting increasingly frustrated with my computer, not being able to do things everyone else seemed to have no problem with. I finally gave in and let Luke put Firefox on it. Now I'm still confused and frustrated, but it seems to be able to do some things it couldn't before. Adding photos to an LJ post is a different struggle now, but I'll muddle through.
*A couple years ago, Luke and I went to the Puyallup fair, and had a blast. I took some great pictures that day, but I didn't get around to uploading any to LJ. Now they're gone forever, part of the painful lesson mentioned before. Luke and I went to the fair again, week before last. This time however, I got my photos up quickly. ( Do The Puyallup! )
*I've been pretty down lately, and I've been feeling a bit of wanderlust. Luke has no school commitments this fall, so I wanted to go on a road trip or something. I've missed being able to do stuff like that, since Luke got so heavily into school and park work this year. I suggested maybe another camping trip, and Luke was willing to give it a go. We picked Ft. Ebey State Park, on Whidbey island. When we went camping last July, we borrowed a tent from Lara and Paul. They've packed up their tent and taken it to Fiji, so we'd need our own. You can rent them, but we decided to buy one. The sporting goods store had a selection of simple-looking, inexpensive tents, so we picked a Coleman 5-person dome tent that looked very easy to put up. That was really all I cared about, but we should have looked more closely. The fact that it was called the "Sunrise Point" should also have been a clue.
We arrive on Whidbey island Wednesday morning, and find it shrouded in a cold fog. It was clearing as we got to the park, and selected an empty campsite. After Sept 15th, sites are first-come first-served. Most of the other campers were in RV's. We took the tent out of the package and it was indeed easy to set up. Then we finally discovered our mistake. It had open mesh on two sides, no windows you could zip up and close. It had a rain fly, so we'd have privacy, and wouldn't get rained on from above, but that wasn't going to keep the cold fog out. Crap. I felt like an idiot. We talked it over and decided that if we were truly miserable overnight, we'd pack up first thing, leave the park, and drive around the island all day, because there are nice little towns and things to see all over.
The sun had come out, so we got the rest of camp set up, and went on a hike. Ft. Ebey is really a lovely place. Our site was totally private, in a stand of second-growth Douglas firs. We had dinner and got a good fire going. The fog closed back in. The campground was pretty quiet, and very dark. We realized as the fire burned out that we probably weren't going to be warm again till we got up in the morning and made breakfast. We went to bed at 9pm. It wasn't as cold and wet in the tent as I was expecting, but it certainly wasn't very comfortable. I didn't sleep much.
We got up about 8am, and things were pretty damp outside, but we decided to stay. After breakfast, we jumped in the car and drove north to another state park. It was so foggy in places, I couldn't see more than 50 feet ahead. We made it to Joseph Whidbey State Park. It was mostly swampy open space, but we walked the trails anyway. There wasn't much activity this time of year, but this would be a great place to see birds in the spring. There were countless slugs along the trail, we probably stepped on several, you couldn't help it, there were that many.
What will haunt me about this place, is what we saw just as we started down the first trail. About ten feet off the path, curled up in a ball on the cold wet ground, a little grey kitten stared intently at us. We stopped short. It didn't approach us, or run away. It somehow managed to look both terrified of us, and beseeching. If I managed to pick it up, what then? Drive around the island till we found an animal shelter? But picking it up was not an option. Luke is deathly allergic, having it with us would render the car uninhabitable for him. We just had to leave it be. I will never forget that little face.
Next stop, Ft. Casey State Park. We shook off our blues here. The sun came out, and we walked around the old battlements. There was a large family of quail feeding in the grass, along with several deer. We watched the Keystone ferry pull in and out. Mt. Baker was even visible. We stayed for several hours and had a picnic. Then we went back to camp, and bought extra firewood. We had a great fire that lasted till 10! We both slept better, and woke to an even wetter morning on Friday. We broke camp, stuffed every wet thing haphazardly into the car, and drove to the nearby town of Coupville, where we had a wonderful breakfast at a place called the Knead and Feed. We really like Coupville.
We hung around the Keystone ferry dock for a while, then headed for home, arriving around 2:30. If this had been our first camping trip, I don't know if we'd go again. But we had so much fun back in July, we know we'll camp again in warmer weather. Too bad we can't take back that tent, and get one with windows that close.
Today, Luke went to a work party at North Beach Park, and I did laundry, and hung things on the balcony to dry.
Nothing else to report.
One of the treasures I returned with was a little green dress. ( Remember this? )
*Days after my return, Luke presented his final project for Antioch University, a 40-minute talk about forest stewardship. His plan now is to try and get into grad school next winter.
*Also just after my return, I said goodbye to
lara7, who is moving to the island of Fiji. She's pretty much the closest friend I've had here in Seattle, so while it's an amazing opportunity for her, it totally sucks for me. Been feeling kind of lost lately. *I was getting increasingly frustrated with my computer, not being able to do things everyone else seemed to have no problem with. I finally gave in and let Luke put Firefox on it. Now I'm still confused and frustrated, but it seems to be able to do some things it couldn't before. Adding photos to an LJ post is a different struggle now, but I'll muddle through.
*A couple years ago, Luke and I went to the Puyallup fair, and had a blast. I took some great pictures that day, but I didn't get around to uploading any to LJ. Now they're gone forever, part of the painful lesson mentioned before. Luke and I went to the fair again, week before last. This time however, I got my photos up quickly. ( Do The Puyallup! )
*I've been pretty down lately, and I've been feeling a bit of wanderlust. Luke has no school commitments this fall, so I wanted to go on a road trip or something. I've missed being able to do stuff like that, since Luke got so heavily into school and park work this year. I suggested maybe another camping trip, and Luke was willing to give it a go. We picked Ft. Ebey State Park, on Whidbey island. When we went camping last July, we borrowed a tent from Lara and Paul. They've packed up their tent and taken it to Fiji, so we'd need our own. You can rent them, but we decided to buy one. The sporting goods store had a selection of simple-looking, inexpensive tents, so we picked a Coleman 5-person dome tent that looked very easy to put up. That was really all I cared about, but we should have looked more closely. The fact that it was called the "Sunrise Point" should also have been a clue.
We arrive on Whidbey island Wednesday morning, and find it shrouded in a cold fog. It was clearing as we got to the park, and selected an empty campsite. After Sept 15th, sites are first-come first-served. Most of the other campers were in RV's. We took the tent out of the package and it was indeed easy to set up. Then we finally discovered our mistake. It had open mesh on two sides, no windows you could zip up and close. It had a rain fly, so we'd have privacy, and wouldn't get rained on from above, but that wasn't going to keep the cold fog out. Crap. I felt like an idiot. We talked it over and decided that if we were truly miserable overnight, we'd pack up first thing, leave the park, and drive around the island all day, because there are nice little towns and things to see all over.
The sun had come out, so we got the rest of camp set up, and went on a hike. Ft. Ebey is really a lovely place. Our site was totally private, in a stand of second-growth Douglas firs. We had dinner and got a good fire going. The fog closed back in. The campground was pretty quiet, and very dark. We realized as the fire burned out that we probably weren't going to be warm again till we got up in the morning and made breakfast. We went to bed at 9pm. It wasn't as cold and wet in the tent as I was expecting, but it certainly wasn't very comfortable. I didn't sleep much.
We got up about 8am, and things were pretty damp outside, but we decided to stay. After breakfast, we jumped in the car and drove north to another state park. It was so foggy in places, I couldn't see more than 50 feet ahead. We made it to Joseph Whidbey State Park. It was mostly swampy open space, but we walked the trails anyway. There wasn't much activity this time of year, but this would be a great place to see birds in the spring. There were countless slugs along the trail, we probably stepped on several, you couldn't help it, there were that many.
What will haunt me about this place, is what we saw just as we started down the first trail. About ten feet off the path, curled up in a ball on the cold wet ground, a little grey kitten stared intently at us. We stopped short. It didn't approach us, or run away. It somehow managed to look both terrified of us, and beseeching. If I managed to pick it up, what then? Drive around the island till we found an animal shelter? But picking it up was not an option. Luke is deathly allergic, having it with us would render the car uninhabitable for him. We just had to leave it be. I will never forget that little face.
Next stop, Ft. Casey State Park. We shook off our blues here. The sun came out, and we walked around the old battlements. There was a large family of quail feeding in the grass, along with several deer. We watched the Keystone ferry pull in and out. Mt. Baker was even visible. We stayed for several hours and had a picnic. Then we went back to camp, and bought extra firewood. We had a great fire that lasted till 10! We both slept better, and woke to an even wetter morning on Friday. We broke camp, stuffed every wet thing haphazardly into the car, and drove to the nearby town of Coupville, where we had a wonderful breakfast at a place called the Knead and Feed. We really like Coupville.
We hung around the Keystone ferry dock for a while, then headed for home, arriving around 2:30. If this had been our first camping trip, I don't know if we'd go again. But we had so much fun back in July, we know we'll camp again in warmer weather. Too bad we can't take back that tent, and get one with windows that close.
Today, Luke went to a work party at North Beach Park, and I did laundry, and hung things on the balcony to dry.
Nothing else to report.
