Islands + Boats = Good Ole Fashion Trisler Fun

This past weekend we had our first out of town visitors: Mom and Dad Trisler! We had been looking forward to this visit so much; brooke was counting down the days like a little boy waiting for Christmas!


we had a weekend full of fun and adventure. from fridays evenings visit to Pike Place Market and the REI Flagship Store to saturdays romp around the Puget Sound's islands and ferries, we couldn't get our fill of 'visitin'.' we even spent some quality time walking along the Cedar River spotting out sockeye salmon and looking at all 514 floating homes on Lake Union... somehow we even managed to score a tour!

saturday's road trip itinerary.
growing up brooke's parents would pack the car,
load the brothers, and see how many miles they could
drive in one weekend. he vaguely remembers one
childhood weekend that included fish-n-chips and
10ooo miles of driving.
he decided it was payback time!


the only two ladies in the current Trisler Family;
and what ladies they are!

the first stop on our whirlwind-of-a-day was Langley
on Whidbey Island. this town has everything a person
could dream of: a tiny harbor with sea stars, a little
town with just the necessities, and an amazing coffee shop:
useless bay coffee. the above is right on the harbor and was
called the boat yard inn. i think the family will stay
here on their next visit!

Mom and Dad Trisler at the Historic Coupeville
Wharf.

someday, this will also be a Mom and Dad Trisler.

while in coupeville, on whidbey island, andrea had a
mission to find 'the one that got away.' we looked at the
above cottage, when planning our move west, but
unfortunately someone else snatched it from us!
we found it...and it was more awesome then the photos!

on saturday we rode three different ferries. while onboard
one of them, we found a newspaper that reported of a guy
who rode all of the washington state ferries in one day!
the above is our second, the klickitat. Mom got a kick that
we were taking the klickitat to kitsap.

it was a beautiful day to walk around our favorite town:
port townsend.
we stopped at Pygmy Boats to show Dad their selection
of wooden kayaks...he was quite impressed. their shop is in
this cool little harbor next to a boat yard; so naturally we had
to have a look. in our family, his Dad is infamous with
finding many things, but two worthy of noting here are cool
boat yards and bakeries. to this day i'm not quite sure how he
does it. he'll say, "turn down here son." and low-and-behold,
there's something sweet! i guess it's a "Dad" trick.

on the peir in port townsend, washington before we
hit up another boat yard on the way down to
bainbridge island.

on the last ferry boat ride of the day from bainbridge island
to downtown seattle. 6.5 seconds worth of exposure time +
a windy boat ride home ≠ good pictures...
although i know it will end up on justin's desktop!

on sunday we decided to take it a little easier. we started our
morning with a stroll along the Cedar River in the rain to catch
a peek at the sockeye salamon 'doing you know what.' actually,
most of them were dead by now, but there were still a few fightin'
to the bitter end. Mom and Dad marveled a the size and colors
of these guys. Mom couldn't get over their behavior and Dad kept
moving down the river to see more and more.

Although there is no picture evidence, later we drove up to lake union to look at all the floating homes. Much to our surprise we were able to tour one that was for sale.

All and all it was a great weekend and look forward to seeing more of these characters over Christmas! Thanks for stopping out our way!

fire on the mountain / september snow

fall has begun. the warm sunny days have been replaced with cool crisp evenings, smelling of damp leaves and a warm fire. the rain has finally set in here in the pacific northwest. we will embrace it, and continue our adventures.

there has been a weather advisory out the past few days, saying there will be a few inches of snow (and yes, i said snow) above 4000 feet. snow in september?...we've got to check this out.
so we loaded up the car with coats, hats and gloves to go see this winter wonderland atop mt. rainier. we came upon many beautiful fall landscapes along the way. take a look:

we spotted a sign for a historical church and just had to turn off to see it.
how has life gotten so complicated?

waiting for brooke to finish taking photos of the kirche.
'kirche' is german for church.

the nisqually river...hidden somewhere between the rocks.
just wait 'til spring... then you'll see it!

'happy to be so.'

looking up the nisqually river to where a glacier used to reside.
winter is quickly wrapping us with it's fluffy white blanket.

brooke couldn't get over how the mountain side
seemed to look like it was on fire. we couldn't help but sing dave wolfenberger's version of 'fire on the mountain'

a minute after these photos were taken a group of people can walking down
the path with packs and skis strapped to their backs.

they had taken the opportunity of snow to hike up rainier
to enjoy some early season back country skiing.
it's september people!

just like going to the festival of lights...except there was snow!
...and i guess no lights.

it's september!

so tempting.

this little guy jumped out from the brush, onto the road in
front of us, to say hello.

we saw this little haunt on the way in and quickly determined we'd stop
for dinner on the way out. about a mile from the entrance of
mt. rainier np, the copper creek inn won our hearts over as one of our
favorite local eateries. they use local ingredients for their food,
serve local wines, and don't forget about the blackberry vinaigrette
salad dressing!

copper creek inn

least we forget, mt. rainier is a volcano.

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.

rocky mountain np -> grand teton np

today our road was long and hard. leaving estes park, co this morning around 9am, we traversed the rockies multiple times. as if struggling up pass after pass wasn’t enough, rain began to fall; turning dried up creek beds into raging rivers. there were certain points where the wipers ceased to keep up with the heavy water droplets. after taking a beating for a few hours, it seemed the appropriate time for a break as we rolled into the quiet town of lander, wy. lander is a great little community in the middle of nowhere; are type of town. we stopped at wild iris outdoors to stretch our legs and take a break from ‘the burden’ tugging at our back. what a great little outdoor outfitter. after refueling our stomachs at our favorite road trip restaurant, taco bell, we conceded back to the road for another punishing five hours of rain, incline, then fall. hitting dubios, wy at full steam, we didn’t slow until we saw a construction sign that read, ‘pavement ends.’ not sure what to expect what W-DOT means when they say ‘pavement ends,’ we discovered very quickly they mean, ‘pavement ends… but the road continues as a mud pit.’ we drove, in four-wheel, through mud for about ninety minutes until we arrived at the the moran entrance station of grand tetons to a perky park ranger that asked if we had come up from jackson, wy. we answered no, but why; she responded by saying there was a report of a man hitting a tatanka [buffalo; pronounced: Ta-tonka]. this happens more than one might think. we searched two campgrounds until we had found the very last open camp spot at colter bay. a spot with a parking space big enough to fit the xterra and ‘the burden.’ though grass would have been nice to rest our weary bodies on, a six percent grade kept us from pitching the tent in the appropriate tent location, so we put the tent on the gravel pad in front of the truck. at that point it didn’t really matter we would sleep. our headlight rays faded at 12am as we slinked deep into out down sleeping bags as the rain started to get heavy. today was long, we’ll wake tired, but at least we’re in our favorite park. goodnight.