Weekend in Brinnon

Hello Blogosphere!

My Memorial Day Weekend was spent in Brinnon, WA visiting my parents (dad and stepmom) at their cabin on the Hood Canal. Fiance-with-the-mostest left on Friday morning for his brother's graduation from Hamilton College in New York. Congrats to the grad!

I arrived in Brinnon late on Friday night. After work, I had to pack and water all of our little plant-alopes (yes, my nickname is Jackalope and I have zero qualms about converting any noun to "lope"). They got a long drink, which I hoped would be sufficient until my return today. I was on the road by 8:30pm, and fortunately I made it by 11pm - good time for driving around through Olympia. The Hood Canal bridge is closed, which makes the Olympia route the most efficient. You'd think there would be a better route to a destination only 26 miles away as the crow flies!

On Saturday morning we walked down to the state park. We had time for a short walk/hike before the belt sander races at Brinnon Days. That sounded too good to pass up!

What, you might ask, and belt sander races? Well, here's a picture of a sample souped-up belt sander:

And how do you race a belt sander? Why I'm so glad you asked!



After the excitement of the races, we decided a relaxing kayak in the canal was warranted. The tandem kayak needed to be transported from the cabin to the water, so we strapped it to the roof of the car and drove down to the marina. My dad and I paddled the mile back to the beach below the cabin, and Cathy came out with her kayak.

We continued down to the state park, this time via water. There are tons of seals along the shore, and they seems to enjoy spying on kayakers. I hope I'll have experiences like that when my friends and I go on a kayaking expedition in the San Juans in late June!

That evening, we packed our dinner (pizza and salad) and went for a hike up Mt. Jupiter to a viewpoint. It was a little steeper and longer than I thought, but once I had my dinner I was happier about it. You can see all the way to Seattle and Bellevue from up there!

This photo of our shadows from the top is one of my favorites...

As is this one of the light at sunset...


Sunday we did a longer hike up a road that has been washed out in several places, and is now a great trail for hikers and mountain bikers. There were cool wood bridges, and waterfalls large and small. It was a 8 mile hike roundtrip, but not a lot of elevation gain. It was definitely a good work out, but a lot of fun.

Now don't think I'm all about my food all the time. I'm really not, I swear. But I have thyroid issues and tend to get low blood sugar, so sustenance after a lot of exertion definitely improves my outlook. I also just thought that our lunch spot on this rock with a huge waterfall to the right was amazing. And how cute is the picture of my parents?

My Sustainable Seattle Masthead Gallery pick for the week was actually a photo I took of my dad's hiking poles on this rock.

This morning I drove back. Again, it only took about 2.5 hours - very good time. I had to get here by 2pm so that I could volunteer at the 7 Hills of Kirkland bike race. Sustainable Kirkland partnered with the organizers (actually, the organizers are members...), so a few of us took shifts staffing the compost station. I have to say, compost monitors make a huge difference in contamination of the bins. I've felt like people just need the time to familiarize themselves with composting, like they did with recycling, but I think that there are just too many things to remember. Most people are so well intended, but with continually changing rules, it's difficult to do it right.

A short time ago I returned from watering at both our gardens. Everything is coming up, including weeds, so we have to find time to tackle those. I also added 3 more bags of topsoil to our potato mound- they are growing like crazy! Later this week I need to plant more lettuces and beans. Gardening is so exciting!

Now I await the triumphant return of fiance-with-the-mostest, who arrives late tonight. I suppose I should entertain myself by cleaning the condo?

Finally, I wish you all a Happy Memorial Day. It's exciting when people come together to think about the lessons we've learned as a country, the people who have given so much for us all, and the value of patriotism as a means of community engagement. There are so many things sustainable about stopping to remember...