April 29, 2011 - MacKaye Harbor guy's trip

I (Steve) had my semi-annual guys boat trip this weekend.  There were supposed to be 4 of us going, but at the last minute one of my friends found out his Mom was in the ER over in Bremerton so he obviously cancelled.  That left three of us.  Mike and Ted arrived Friday afternoon at 4:00.  After standing around on the dock looking at our "new" boat for a while, and then getting a tour of the inside, we were ready to go.  We left the dock about 4:45 and took a short trip over to Kiket Island.  We dropped anchor and cracked open a few beers to celebrate our new boat.  Even though we've had Adagio for almost a year now, these friends had never seen it.

We spend the evening listening to music in the salon and catching up with each other's lives.  On Saturday morning I woke up at 8:00 and pulled anchor so I could get through Deception Pass at slack current.

Deception Pass coming up.

Mike and Ted slept in a little and got up just about the time we arrived at Deception Pass.  We continued on to MacKaye Harbor on the south side of Lopez.  This is a nice bay, but can be exposed to some really nasty waves that will roll you all night.  Fortunately, we had calm conditions.  In fact, it was actually glassy-smooth at times.  We anchored here and then had breakfast.  Coffee, scrambled eggs and sausage - yummy.

Ted was not feeling too good.  He had a sore throat when he arrived on Friday and it was much worse on Saturday morning.  So, Mike and I took a dinghy ride over to Iceberg Point to go hike around while Ted took a nap.

Mike at the end of the trail; Iceberg Point.  Time to turn around.

After we had walked the entire length of Iceberg Point and turned around we noticed several whale watching boats not far offshore headed slowly our way.  We stopped and watched them and then POOF, several Orca whales surfaced and spouted!  Wow, what luck.  The whales were between the boats and shore, fairly close to us, and coming our way.

One of the Orca whales we saw on Saturday

Three of the five (approx) whales that passed right in front of us

The fleet of whale watching boats following the whales

At times I think I counted five whales in this pod.  One had a very large dorsal fin.  There appeared to be one smaller whale.  I was quite exciting to sit on a rock at watch this free show for more than 30 minutes.  Very lucky!  Too bad Ted was back in the boat asleep.

Ted's not feeling too good.  It was 70 degrees in the boat.

That night we BBQ's hamburgers and watched a movie.  We stayed up way too late so we slept in on Sunday.  Ted was still feeling pretty lousy on Sunday so we took it pretty easy.  We headed back in the afternoon to made the slack water at Deception Pass around 4:15 and then anchored just off Hope Island to BBQ chicken for dinner.  After dinner it was back to Shelter Bay.

It was a nice weekend with some decent weather.  The whales were definitely a special treat, but its always great to get together with my long-time friends.  I know these guys will be a part of my life forever....

April 08, 2012 - Decatur Island/Lopez Pass

Finally we got to use our boat again.  The weather was great too.  No skiing this weekend, but we will try to get in another trip or two before Grouse Mtn closes for the season.

I (Steve) drove over to Moses Lake on Friday to meet Kathy's parent and to get our kids back.  We left them there on Monday so they could spend some of their spring break with their grandparents.  Its so great that they get opportunities like these to get to know Kathy's parents.  They had a great time skiing, playing in the snow, playing games, etc.


Now, on to boating!


As soon as I returned from my 9 hour round trip to eastern WA we headed down to the boat to get underway.   It was a nice afternoon and the forecast for the weekend was great.  Almost no wind with lots of sunshine.  Unfortunately the current at Deception Pass was just about at it's peak with a current of more than 8 knots.  In an 8 knot boat that's not going to work so we headed for our usual staging location; Kiket Island.  We anchored there for the night.  After dinner we played a few games of "Clue" and "Phase 10" then retired for the evening.

After breakfast Saturday morning we pulled anchor so we could arrived at Deception Pass for slack current.  Then across Rosario Strait to Lopez Pass to one of our favorite off-the-beaten-path locations on the south end of Decatur Island.  We have heard that it is called Tumbalo, but it isn't names on our charts.  We dinghied over to the spit for some beach time, and an Easter Egg hunt (a day early).

Playing the game "Headbandz".
You ask other people questions so you can figure out what card is on your headband.

Kids having fun on the beach

Kevin and Cindy pose for the camera

Adagio anchored at Tumbalo.  Olympic Mountains behind.

Looking southwest toward Mud Bay/Hunter Bay and Lopez Island

Kevin finds some Easter Eggs - Decatur Island

You find some interesting creatures underneath the rocks

Our friend Steve S. is out with his daughter Aubrey and her friend.  They come by to say hello so we head back to the boat to assist with tying our boats together.  But they had it under control by the time we arrived.  We visit with Steve for several hours until it is time for them to leave so they can get home before dark.

Steve and Aubrey (and her friend) leaving after a nice visit

 We BBQ chicken and asparagus for dinner.  Food always tastes better on the boat :-)

On Sunday we sleep in until about 8:30, which is pretty late for our family.  After breakfast Kevin and I (Steve) go for a dinghy ride around Center Island.  It's a little cloudy and cool, but we go around Center twice.  Kevin drives the entire time.  He loves to drive the dinghy, FAST!

Kevin ready to take me for a ride

                                        Kevin checks the depth sounder, then scans the horizon

It's a lazy afternoon on the boat.  I take a little nap while Cindy, Kevin, and Kathy watch a Harry Potter movie.  We need to be back to Deception Pass around 5:30 for slack current so we pull anchor around 4:00.  On the way back Cindy reads a book while Kathy and Kevin play monopoly.

Kevin beating Mom at Monopoly.  Kathy looks a little concerned  :-)

What a wonderful trip.  It was only two nights, but the weather couldn't be beat for this time of year.  It's been so long since we've been out that we were starting to forget how nice boating is.  We never seem to have this much time at home to be with the kids, without distraction.

For us, this last picture is what our boating is all about:

Too bad Kathy had to step back to take the picture -- Great family time!

April 2, 2012 - Idaho Ski trip

Schweitzer closes in 1 week so we headed over to North Idaho on Friday after the kids got out of school at noon (a half day) which is the beginning of Spring break.  This is our last Idaho ski trip of the season, but we anticipate several more trips to Grouse Mountain just outside of Vancouver BC before they stop skiing there, which could go into May.

We were going to go skiing on Saturday but the forecast was calling for the snow to turn to rain by 11:00AM.  So we instead went to the mall to see a robotics exhibit.  It was extremely interesting.  Basically, there is a "club" in the high school and they compete in national events following strict rules that tell them the task the robot must solve, how the robot can be built, the max dimensions of the robot, etc.  What a learning experience for these kids.  Apparently most of them go on to great colleges and head into engineering/computers/science.

Here, Kevin is rolling a big ball back to a robot that will lift it up and drop it somewhere else.

Kevin and a few of the robots in the background.

These high schoolers built a robot to solve the Rubic's Cube.  It had a camera that looked at the colors, and a computer figured out the steps needed to solve it, and then the robot manipulated the cube.  Amazing.

On Sunday we did go skiing and it snowed hard.  It was a pretty good day of skiing.  Kevin is getting very brave.  He is now asking to go down black diamond (advanced) and double-black diamond (expert) runs.  Cindy is not quite as daring, but she is turning into a great skier.

Kevin about to head down an advanced run.

Cindy and Bob skiing in the trees.

Nice view of the village.  Bob and Kevin on the far left side.

Bob (Pops) displaying his near-perfect form.  Looking good Bob!

Sunday was April Fool's Day.  We have a long standing tradition in our family of making foods for the kids that look real but are made with totally different ingredients.  This year it was sushi rolls made from green fruit rollups, rice crispy cereal, and gummy worms.  They also enjoyed chicken pot pie made from pudding, corn and carrots formed from Starburst candies, and chicked made from dried apple slices.  Yummy :-)

April Fool's chicken pot pie.

Sushi?  Well, it looks like it, but it's not.

On Monday Steve, Bob, and Kevin went skiing.  Cindy opted to stay home with Mom and Grandma.  It was great skiing on Monday. After skiing, Kathy and Steve drove back to La Conner while the kids stayed with Grandma and Grandpa (Grams and Pops) for the rest of the week.  We hear the kids are having a great time in Idaho without us.  They went skiing, played in the snow, worked on crafts, played Wii and Legos, played lots of games with Grams and Pops, and more.

We get them back on Friday, and then we are heading out on the boat for the weekend.  Finally, a blog entry that features the boat?  It's about time.

March 25, 2012 - Skiing, Grouse Mtn B.C.

We are nearing April and ski season is going to be winding down in a month.  So, we opted to skip boating this weekend so we could spend the entire weekend skiing.  We drove up Early Saturday morning and went strait to Grouse Mtn.  We were on the slopes just shortly after the mountain opened.  Kevin and Steve on their snowboards, and Kathy and Cindy on their skis.  I (Steve) hadn't been on a snowboard in at least 10 years.  Kevin wants more than anything to be a snowboarder.  So, Kevin and I spent the morning together practicing on our snowboards, while Kathy and Cindy roamed the mountain on their skis.

Kevin and Steve on their snowboards.

Kevin and Steve snowboarding, as viewed from the chairlift.

The weather was fantastic.  In fact, it was almost too warm.  We were definitely overdressed by afternoon.  The snow became soft and slushy by afternoon.  It was typical spring skiing.  Full sun, warm temps, and soft/slushy snow.  It would have been great boating weekend.  But ski season is coming to a close, and we just can't pass up opportunities like this to ski with our kids.

The spectacular view over Vancouver B.C.

While we were there on Saturday they were having a snowboard competition.  The jumps were HUGE!  We stopped and took our lunch break on the slopes next to the jumps and watched the guys fly.  Amazing!  It was a great way to eat lunch; sitting in the snow, soaking up the sun, watching some really good athletes compete.

The BIG snowboard competition on Saturday

What a nice way to spend our lunch break.  Sun, heat, and a great show!

Saturday was a great day of snowboarding and skiing.  The slopes were pretty crowded, which is always a bit frustrating (waiting in lift lines), but the weather was spectacular.

We stayed at a really nice hotel about 10 minutes from the mountain.  It had a small kitchen so we were able to avoid the cost of eating out for both dinner and breakfast.  That really helps out on the cost of skiing.  The hotel had a very nice indoor pool with hot tub and sauna.  We spent several hours in the pool area Saturday night.

Cindy leaping into the nice pool at our hotel.

Sunday we had breakfast in the room and were at the mountain in time for the first runs of the day.  It was another beautiful day with full sun and warm temps.  With no competition today there were noticeably fewer people in the lift lines.  The kids went ice skating today, and we took a tour of the "Eye of the Wind".  It's a modern wind generator high atop the slopes of Grouse Mountain with an amazing observation room at the top.  You are more than 4000 feet above Vancouver, so the view is without compare.

Cindy checks out the ice at the skating rink.

Inside the observation room atop the "Eye of the Wind"

The wind generator was HUGE.

On Sunday Kevin went down his first "Black Diamond" runs.  Black Diamond runs are ADVANCED runs. Usually we go down Green Circle (beginner) or Blue Square (intermediate) runs with the kids.  But Kevin is quite adventurous and wanted to try a black diamond run.

Kevin, then Steve, go down a "Black Diamond" run.

We are SO proud of our kids.  They are becoming good skiers and they love getting out and exercising all day.  Sure, they sometimes complain when it's cold and windy, or they sometimes don't want to get out of bed at 6:15 in the morning so we can drive 2 hours to Grouse Mountain, but they always have fun and look forward to going up gain.  We can't ask for much more; it's a great family activity!

March 5, 2012 - Skiing & Snowmobiling in North Idaho

Again, a blog entry that doesn't involve boats!  Well, man can't boat ALL the time!  Since it's winter and our kids are really enjoying snow skiing, we are doing a lot less boating that we usually would this time of year.

We made another trip over to Sandpoint Idaho on Wednesday night, after I (Steve) finished a two-day water maker technical training class in Seattle.  Water makers convert seawater into pure/fresh water that is safe to drink.  Most long-distance cruising boats now have water makers, and they require quite a bit of maintenance and a well planned installation.  I am now a certified RACOR/Village Marine water maker technician.  Woo Hoo.....If you want to learn more about reverse osmosis water filtration, go here:  Village Marine's website

There hasn't been much snow in north Idaho this winter, which has made snowmobiling directly from Kathy's parents house pretty much impossible.  But luck was on our side and north Idaho received a lot of snow just a few days before our arrival, and it snowed hard again when we arrived.  Enough snow had accumulated so we were able to bring the snowmobiles down to the house.  There have only been two weekends all winter this was possible, and we just happened to be there for one of them!  Most winters we can ride directly from the house up into the forest trails, but this year the snow just hasn't been there, and a lot of the trails have been unusable due to lack of snow.

For the 4th year in a row Kathy's parents have allowed us to bring our friends over.. There were 16 of us this year, which is the smallest group we have had.  Mark and Jennifer were at St. Maarten in the Caribbean on a no-kids family reunion so their kids (Aidan and Grace) came to Idaho instead.  Every year our group takes over the house while her parents go off and have a fun vacation somewhere else.  This year they went to Parma Idaho to go skiing at Bridger Mt.  This winter trip is a special time for all of us because it is very rare that we can take a group vacation like this, and go to such a fun and beautiful location.  It is truly one of the highlights of the year for all of us.  The kids REALLY love it!

Every year we have built a sled run in front of the house.  It has turned out to be extremely popular with the kids who spend the bulk of their free time sledding on "the tube run".  They get a lot of great exercise playing in the snow with minimal "screen time"; this is good wholesome fun!  We were very lucky with all the new snow.  Just a week earlier there was not enough to build it, which would have been a huge disappointment for the kids.

We built the sled run on Thursday morning and also did quite a bit of snowmobiling.  Everyone in our group of friends can ski so Friday we all went skiing at Schweitzer.  Kevin has been dying to try snowboarding so we rented him some gear and put him in a two hour private lesson.  He's now a snowboarder and he loves it!  It was a great day of skiing with good snow, no lift lines, a huge mountain to explore, and lots of friends to ski with.  Saturday we played around the house on the sled run, in the snow, and out on the snowmobiles.  It warmed up Saturday and everything started to melt.  By the time we left on Sunday the sled run was almost gone and riding snowmobiles from the house was impossible.  Our timing couldn't have been better.  In fact, this was perhaps the ONLY weekend of the entire winter that there was enough snow to make this all possible.  We live charmed lives...

Rather that outline every event, I'll just post some pictures with captions:

Sledding in front of the house.

You can see the ski runs at Schweitzer Mtn, across the lake in the sun.

Some of the kids having fun at Kathy's parents house.

Kathy and Tess dropping out of the woods back onto the road.  Wheeeeeeee!

Jamie and Grace coming through one of the woods "trails".

Aidan, Cindy, Grace, and Kathy on the Stella chairlift.  Schweitzer Mt.

Getting ready for a steep downhill trail.  Everybody ready?

I think the kids are saying "hey grown-ups, let's get going!"

Vaughn takes Steve for a ride over the landscaping adjacent to the driveway.

Jamie and Grace, then Tess and Kathy, on one of the trails.

Aidan and Mark return from a fun ride through the forest.

Kathy and Steve stop to enjoy the view of lake Pend Orielle.

Lunch break after a few good hours of skiing.

Tons of new snow.  Schweitzer Mt. Ski resort.

Grace and Cindy riding "Musical Chairs".

Kevin puts on his snowboard.  Emily is ready to ski!

Kevin can now snowboard.  He's so excited.

Kevin links two turns together. Most people can't this their 1st day.

Dinner for the kids. 

Video "phone call".  Aidan & Grace chat w/their parents (both on a sailboat in the Caribbean).

The human pyramid!