What a luxury it is to read a good book. What could be better? Here's what. Being able to read that book in the author's home/writing studio while lying in an amazingly comfortable bed and after finishing the book, being able to discuss it with her after she feeds you an amazing dinner. The stuff of fantasy you might ask? You might be right but it actually happened to us. All thanks to Erica Bauermeister, author of The School of Essential Ingredients. To begin with, the book is to be savored like a good meal. It not only tells the tale [View Full Entry]

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Our friends, Justin Porter and Adri Vanbianchi, were wed on September 5. It was an extraordinary celebration!! A coming together of two people so in love, and of their vibrant and embracing families. Although the ceremony had the polish of being planned and rehearsed, it was not at all stiff or contrived. The genuine joy, love and sincerity of the couple and their families radiated as they interacted with warmth, ease and casualness before us all as witnesses. The ceremony was a remarkable combination of complimentary motifs and traditions Elements of Judaism, Hinduism and Buddhism combined t [View Full Entry]

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9/3/09 So correct me if I'm wrong but I could have sworn that the idea was for Melisse and me to travel around for a year collecting experiences and riding out the recession in light of the fact that neither of us had jobs. Huh. It seems that the universe in its best ironic impersonation of the mad hatter is angling to have other plans for us. That's right, we seem to have numerous offers for gainful employment. From College of the Redwoods to Homer, Alaska, the possibilities are flowing in. What to do? Would we be selling ourselves short by [View Full Entry]

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Didn't have internet access there for a couple of days, so I'm going to try to remember everything and get these caught up. Left Seattle on the 3rd. Took the ferry over to Whidbey Island and stopped in Langley. Panicked a little when they told me at the chamber of commerce that the earliest I could get a reservation on the ferry over to Port Townsend was 11:00 pm. Walked around in Langley a little bit and got something to eat. Decided to just make my way up to the ferry terminal to Port Townsend. Got on standby on the 4:30 [View Full Entry]

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Drove down the rode to Olympic National Park in the morning. Started off on Hurricane Ridge. Very nice views of the mountain range and wild mountain flowers all over the place. Walked a trail there and headed down the road to Sol duc Springs. Walked a trail there to a really cool waterfall. Headed back towards Port Townsend after that, but stopped to walk a trail to the Marymere Falls. After that I head back to Port Townsend. I got back around 7:30 and grabbed a book and headed down to the beach to wait for the fireworks to start. Nice [View Full Entry]

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13th June, 2009. Port Townsend, Washington. Another nice day, breakfast and then a walk downtown, walked through the older part of town, old port warehouses etc, lots of restaurants, tourist shops, then down past the marina's and boat repair area's, most of the fishing boats out of the water, looks like they are nearly ready to go back in for the fishing season. The Visitor Center gave us some info on the local Farmers Market so off we went. No bargins here, the Farmers Market was from Dream world, charging prices that were dearer than I have seen anywhere in USA. [View Full Entry]

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We thoroughly enjoyed our B&B stay. Thank you to the kids for the gift certificate. We toured the shops, restaurants, the Rose theater and Fort Worden. Our stay was at the Blue Gull Inn. Cozy, quiet, comfortable, excellent breakfasts and a jacuzzi tub. Clam chowder at Fins ($12) was superb. They use butter clams, shell and all and it is really really good. Of course, we also had salmon and shrimp and wine and a real big check. Ice cream at Elevated Ice Cream Co. was nice. Macadoo's Barbecue is just like in Tennessee. They have catfish and hush puppies!!! We [View Full Entry]

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Washington's incredibly bipolar spring weather teased us with another glimpse of the elusive sun this weekend. Thankfully we were in a perfect place to enjoy this rare scrap of warm weather-the Olympic Peninsula. My parents moved back to Sequim after years of restlessly circulating around the U.S. and now occupy the house that once belonged to my grandparents. Despite leading what I feel to be a rather nomadic existence, the Olympic Peninsula has been one place I have returned to frequently. Port Townsend in particular is a great town. Discovered by the western world during one of [View Full Entry]

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Here is a lovely spring visit to the Olympic Peninsula, west of Seattle, WA, USA. We enjoyed this special time with our daughter, two grand-daughters and many 'critters' but mainly dog Shadow and the cats. I show a few of the neat things we saw and enjoyed there. Tami is a young widow, for nearly 5 years now, and she has raised her three daughters through high school and out into the world. She is ready to return, herself, to univsersity to get her degree and become a teacher. All of these changes require much effort and we spent two weeks [View Full Entry]

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Some in Port Hadlock, others on ferries and across WA to Idaho and nearing the Canadian border [View Full Entry]

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