labor day weekend [pacific coast style]

labor day this year held no big plans, so we decided to take it day-by-day to see what might unfold.

friday: liz
we got to see one of andrea's good friends, liz. she was in town for a wedding and was able to stop by to hang out and catch up on friday and monday.

liz m.

saturday: 21 arces
we arose to blue skies and a world of possibilities. we have been buying a lot of our fruit and vegetables at the local farmers market [right across the street] and have decided to look more into organic and sustainable foods. through some studying we found a local organic farm about thirty minutes away that was open for tours and decided what better way to spend a sunny saturday then to walk through a farm!

the 21 acres community garden behind sits behind us.

andrea found a new good friend.
when we arrived back home we started browsing through craigslist for goats;
$50.00- $100.00 isn't bad at all!
can he survive on our balcony?!

total BFF!

strange bird house.

plenty of these guys.

sunday: harambee & matt & danelle
one church we've found that we really like is just a block away and looks like, from the outside, an indoor skateboard park! it's amazing. great people, great ministry. after church we grabbed some food and then hung out with our friends matt and danelle all afternoon. danelle and matt are getting married on friday. andrea and danelle worked on their programs and thank you cards, and matt and i listened to a lot of music, told stories about teaching, and checked in with mapsforus.org. [thanks scott!]

monday:
we woke in time to have an early lunch at a thai place with liz before she was off to return her wrecked rental car and to hop a train to portland. on the way home andrea and i brainstormed what our afternoon might look like. we decided to head for up the coast for bellingham, wa.

on chuckanut drive.
right after we stopped at samish bay organic cheese farm.
some of the best cheese ever!

san juan islands in the background.

found the above painted on an old building in fairhaven. one of our favorite towns.
history: i thought rainier beer was a cheep beer my dad would bay for $2 dollars a flat.
my family nicknamed it 'the slug killer.' boy was i wrong!

next to the rainier wall.

monday night: the world is too big for us to have bed times
what to do when you're two hours from home and it's seven pm? take all back roads. we knew right away that we'd make the trip again, so we didn't stop a lot for photos.

deception pass.
a bridge connects fidalgo island and whidbey island.

deception pass.

deception pass.

on last years trip we stopped by this place and bought a brown crock. some of you may remember it; it sat next to the bench in our house. although they were closed, we stopped out front to photograph steve's awesome building. it's sits north of coupeville on penn cove. steve, the owner, is a nice guy who graduated from calvin college in michigan. he told us stories of driving from grand rapids michigan to coupeville, wa in two days when he was in college! crazy.

we arrived home after hours of driving and a ferry boat ride, tired and in need of rest.