July 7, 2010

We've had an amazing,  beautiful, boating week since we last conversed.


On June 30 we "saddled up" and headed to south Puget Sound.  Our destination was Home, Washington, on the Key Peninsula.  Nancy Schneider, one of my nursing faculty buddies and her husband, Gerald, invited us to their cabin on Carr Inlet for the Fourth of July weekend.  Nancy and Gerald combine forces with their good friends, Karin and Paul Gruver, who also have a summer cabin in Home, to host a weekend of boating, eating, talking, eating, shopping, eating, fireworks, and eating.

We decided to take three days to get there and do some exploring on our way south.  Our first anchorage was at Kingston, on the Olympic Peninsula across the Sound from Edmonds.  Once ashore, we shopped for some essentials...a cat brush, a clamp...and stopped for a beer on a lovely deck overlooking the harbor.


Our second night was in Quartermaster Harbor on Vashon Island.  We chose this spot to anchor because it's well out of the wind and wakes of big ships, and we thought it would be a good place to go ashore and look around.  It was a lovely spot to be in, but we couldn't find any place to dock the dinghy and go ashore.  Probably won't go there again.


July 2 we arrived at Home and anchored in Von Geldern Cove, across from Paul and Karin's house.  Ideally we would have anchored in front of the Schneiders, but it was too shallow and too exposed to wind and waves.

Jerry, Gerald, and Gerald's brother, Gary, quickly got into the holiday spirit. 

Nancy, her son, Jonathan, and his girlfriend, Kayla, and I went into Gig Harbor for a little shopping and lunch at Tide's Tavern.


By the Fourth of July, Nancy and Karyn were planning menus for 35 people.  Karyn's Canadian relatives drove in, Nancys' niece and her boyfriend came, and...well, I lost track of everyone!

Finally, late in the evening on July third Mount Rainier magically appeared across the bay in the east.  We had not yet seen this magnificent peak and it was truly awe-inspiring.

The Fourth of July dawned with clouds and a threat of rain, but the hardy folk of Home, WA, did not let that dampen their holiday spirits. 

To participate in the parade, one simply shows up with red, white, and blue apparel.  If one brings a garden tractor, crepe paper-festooned bicycle, or even a wagonload of pirates, all the better.  It was the dearest, funniest, americana-est parade I've seen in a long time.

The Schneider/Gruver young folk got all decked out to be in the parade, but arrived too late to take a position at the end, so they simply led the parade!  You can see the dress code is rigid and the queenly wave is required.

Gerald Schneider, his brother Gary, and friend Paul Gruver have made pancakes and sausage for the town, at the end of the Fourth of July parade for several years.  What began as a simple process, has evolved into banners, aprons, and feeding about 150 people. They do all this for free and their holiday spirit is amazing to see.


Thanks, guys!