Remember September?

I decided to do a September recap post instead of blogging about each event individually ... otherwise it would probably be November before you heard about all the fun things I did and I'd never catch up!  I will post separately about my trip to San Francisco so I don't overload you with pictures right now :)

September was a fun month around here!  It started with a weekend in Seattle with R.  We went to Bumbershoot, a music and arts festival that takes place at the Seattle Center over Labor Day Weekend.  It's a three day festival and we chose to go Saturday.  

We saw The Improvised Shakespeare Company, Trombone Shorty & Ray LaMontagne.  We also looked at lots of cool concert posters in the Flatstock exhibit, enjoyed some delicious food and had a beer or two in the beer garden.

View from the beer garden

Space Needle

R. and our brick of fries :)

The next day we got sandwiches from Royal Grinders in Fremont, which I had been dying to try, wandered around the shops and market in Fremont, and then headed over to Gas Works Park.  Check it off the Seattle Bucket List!  It was a gorgeous day and a great way to spend the afternoon!

View from Gas Works Park

Sitting in Gas Works sparked an idea ... we wanted to go kayaking!  We couldn't go that afternoon, but the following Thursday we headed down to Agua Verde Cafe & Paddle Club and paddled around Lake Union for a few hours!  Sadly, we have no pictures.  We were afraid we might tip so we chose not to bring our phones or cameras.  But we had a great time, it was reasonably priced and we didn't have to wait for a kayak (probably because we went during the week).  We had gorgeous weather and afterwards, we had delicious tacos!  

The next weekend I attended my first Calendar Square Party with our new squadron.  The squadron has a huge calendar in their ready room on the boat, so each wife/fiance/girlfriend makes a 10 x 10 square for their sailor to put on the calendar each month.  It's basically like making a scrapbook page.  J. left right around the same time the September squares were due, so I didn't make him one for September.  I made him two for October to make up for it :)

One for his birthday 

and one for Halloween!

We ended the weekend with a boat tour through Deception Pass (thank you Groupon!)  It was another gorgeous Sunday and we took the sunset cruise.  I have to say that I am glad we went on the cruise, but I am also glad we went for the Groupon price.  I'm not sure I think it's worth full price.

Deception Pass

The sunset

We saw a Blue Heron and a Harbor Seal!

Love Instagram!

After that was San Francisco, but that trip really deserves its own post :) 

The next Friday, I went wine tasting in Woodinville with E. and Seattle Stevie.  We were bad bloggers and didn't take any pictures, but we had a great time and visited some great wineries.  I'll link the wineries below so you can check them out the next time you're in Woodiville!

Tefft Cellars

Januik Winery

Columbia Winery

Redhook Brewery (for lunch, no beer tasting!)

Apex Cellars

Goose Ridge Winery

Trust Cellars

Saturday was our squadron's halfway party.  We celebrated being halfway done with this deployment!  It was a fabulous evening and I can't thank Aimee and Vanesa enough for planning it!  We had dinner at The Oyster Bar on Chuckanut Drive and then went to the Terrace Wine Bar in Oak Harbor.  The views from The Oyster Bar are amazing.  We had a private dining room, but there was a balcony off the back of the restaurant with tables for two.  It would be the perfect place to go for a date and each chair had a blanket on the back of it in case you got cold.  I absolutely loved it -- if we get a warm weekend next January I want to take J.

CK13 and me in the van

Our room at The Oyster Bar

Not the best group shot, but you can kind of see the view in the background!

Our end of the table!

Group shot we sent to the boys!

I stayed the night with one of my favorite squadron wives, CK13.  CK13 was 8.5 months pregnant and started having contractions at the dinner, but played it off and told us that they were Braxton Hicks contractions.  They ended up being the real thing and the next day, baby Noah arrived!  

He is absolutely adorable.

And that was September!

It took me about an hour to write the recap so I can't imagine how long it would have taken to write about each event individually :)  Now you know why I was so bad about blogging last month!

The Mother Visits the Pacific Northwest - Part I

My mother just left after spending a week out here with J. and I.  We did a lot during her visit, but also managed to squeeze in some time for relaxing!  She arrived on a beautiful day, so we headed out to walk the dogs.  We had a great view of the sun setting over the harbor.  Those are the Olympic Mountains in the background:  

Me and the Mother

Sometimes I can't believe I live here!

 The next day we lounged around all morning and then headed north to visit Deception Pass.  I'd walked over the bridge a couple of times but had never hiked down to the beach.  We decided to head down and check it out:

And I was so glad that we did ... there was a seal playing in the water about 5-8 feet from the beach!  That little black speck in the middle of the picture is his head!  Someday, I will get a better camera and be able to take much better pictures :)

Looking at the bridge from the beach

My mom on the beach with the bridge in the background

Looking out towards the San Juan Islands from atop the bridge

While we were walking across the bridge, we happened to look down and noticed that our seal friend had joined another seal and were frolicking in the water ... it was so much fun to watch!

Those two white things amongst the kelp are the seals!

 When we finally tore ourselves away from the seals, we headed to the base to see J. and his jet.  The mighty Growler:

J. and The Mother

She fit under the wing!

The squadron patch

A Growler painted for the Yellow Jackets squadron

After our visit to the base, we headed into Anacortes and gave The Mother a quick tour of downtown before heading to Adrift for dinner.  We had a great meal with G.S., N. and Mr. R. and then came back to get a good night's sleep for the weekend!

Weekend Recap!

We had a great weekend ... and, even better, there's only one more weekend to be ruined by bar prep!

Friday:  J. had the day off and was SUPER productive.  He put tons of things on eBay, put together our new TV stand (the old one was broken in the move), hung pictures, went grocery shopping, made dinner, got everything ready for hiking on Saturday, and did tons of laundry.  I spent the day with my BarBri books.  Ugh.  The end is in sight though!

Saturday:  we spent the day in Anacortes!  Anacortes is about an hour north of Everett, on Fidalgo Island. It is absolutely beautiful up there and it's where most of our friends in the Navy live.

Here's a visual - Everett to Anacortes:


View Larger Map

And a map of the island:


View Larger Map

The plan was to meet up with our friends, the R.'s and then head over to Deception Pass to do some hiking and have a picnic lunch.  But, Mr. R. had found a great spot for lunch that was on the way to Deception Pass, so we headed over there.  And we were not disappointed.  It was a gorgeous day and I think we saw a total of 5 people while we were hiking and having lunch.  It was fantastic.

The view from our picnic spot ... there was a light fog, which cleared up as we ate.

It was beautiful.  The sun was shining, the fog was gorgeous and the water was sparkling.  The best part was that there were no other people out there.  What a hidden gem.

Kayakers below our picnic spot:

Pretty cactus like flowers that were growing on the rocks:

(I think the proper name is Echeveria)

Lucy came too!  And she's looking very pretty with her bouquet:

That "little" island to the left is for sale ... for $14 million you can have a gem in the Pacific Northwest.  Comes with a house and a landing strip for your plane!

And then we packed up and headed over to Deception Pass State Park.  Come back tomorrow for pictures of the bridge and the deserted beach that we found!

S.E.J.

Deception Pass

Today, we're going hiking in Deception Pass State Park.  The link to the state park website is here.  Josh drives over this bridge every day that he goes to the base, it connects Whidbey Island (where the base is located) to the mainland.  It is gorgeous up there and I am really excited to do some exploring!

Picture of the bridge:

We're doing a 5-mile hike and stopping along the way to have a picnic.  Our friends, the R's, are supposed to meet us up there as well.  It's supposed to be 72 and sunny, so I am hoping to get some sun!!!!  And maybe lounge on the beach for a little bit!

Aerial view:

                                                                                (photo courtesy of Wikipedia)

Hopefully, I will take lots of pictures and have a good recap tomorrow or Monday.  Hope you all have a great weekend!

S.E.J.