Sunday, July 26, 2009

Eily Sky

We were pumped when we heard our friends from Cincinnati, Eric and Britt Hauck, were going to be on tour this summer, traveling all the way out here to Seattle! Brooke was bummed he couldn't join them for their tour, but was excited to play with them during one of their shows out here.

Eily Sky in concert. Check them out. They're awesome.
Dude on the hammered dulcimer, Britt, Dustin on bass, Eric on acoustic, Brooke on electric.


It was great to get a little taste of home. We miss these guys. We miss Ohio.


Afterwards we went to Elliott Bay Brewery for some food and brews. It was great to visit and catch up before they took off on the roads.

Monday, July 20, 2009

lavender festival: no boys allowed

Each year the Olympic Peninsula holds a lavender festival located in Sequim, Washington. With so many of Brooke's family members loving this fragrant herb, I asked them to fly out and join me in attending the festival. We were all so excited!


Robyn (cousin), Susie (Aunt), Mom and I at the Lavender festival.


With 7 farms on the tour and one large street fair, we took in plenty of scents. Rows and rows of lavender. Lots of pink, purple, and green!







It was a great weekend full of laughter and fun! Thanks for coming out everyone! Can't wait for the next one:)

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

saturday morning kayak to vashon island

nothing wakes you up like a early morning kayak!



we set out to kayak over to vashon island from our little neighborhood-puget sound-side park; seahurst park.


here is the pattern that we laid out, and what we kayaked. in all, it was about8.5 miles of beautiful puget sound!


what an absolute majestic view of mt rainier. when you're at water level, it looks massive!


brooke enjoyed watching the ferries in the distance.


we also got to see a seal and "baby orca whales." [note: we actually couldn't see what they were, although they were jumping in the distance and looked like baby orca whales, we can not confirm this].


safely back on shore. what a great paddle! next time i think we'll head out to blake island, which is a little further. maybe we'll over night!

Saturday, July 4, 2009

Winthrop: Wolf Creek Trail

this is the sight we see, before we close the back of our truck and head into the woods!

this weekend we've chosen to go backpacking outside of winthrop, washington. so we'll head up and over the north cascade mountains.

the pass looks like this.


as we headed up and over the pass, the light dimmed; unusual for the afternoon. after further examination, we realized there was a wild fire in the mountains, and the smoke from the fire was diffusing the sunlight. Crazy...cool.


We made it to camp at Pearrygin Lake State Park. It was about the only place in the area with water and trees for shade. Most people don't know, but Eastern Washington is more like a desert.


downtown Winthrop is like an old western town.


Townsend and Andrea hanging out by the lake.


It's finally cooling down.


Nothing beats a west coast sunset.
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Friday morning we took off into the woods. Our plan was to hike 8 miles up to a beautiful meadow area along the Wolf Creek in Okanogan National Forest.


Taking a lunch break at the creek. With 97 degree heat, it was pretty warm. It was nice to take a break in the shade.


Part of the hike was through an area that had been hit by a fire years ago. The dark skeleton-like trees were very eerie.


A beautiful grouping of dandelions. Softball size dandelions.


Townsend didn't do so well in the heat. After the first 5 miles, this was all he wanted to do. So we let him rest for a while. Brooke took a little nap himself.


We decided not to go all the way to our final destination. The heat and the physical exertion was a little too much for our four-legged-friend. (He's a dog!...where's all that energy!?) So we found a random campsite along the way and called it quits....


literally.


Townsend was very happy we decided to head back down the next day, instead of pushing up to the meadows. He had had enough. This was the only time he looked happy:)


I guess we were happy too. It was warm.


Brooke looking down to the river.


We welcomed the cool water rushing between our toes. Ahhh.....
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We decided to take a different way home, south on 97, through Chelan and Ellensburg. The landscape is so much dryer out here.


Big barns like this always draw us close to home.


Waiting for Brooke to grab dinner. We stayed inside the air conditioned car:) Now let's head back home and try and catch some fireworks!