The Beautiful Life in Washington

With a salt sea breeze wafting by our dockside vantage, we watch the big Bayliner gliding out of the harbor up the channel. The woman minds the ropes as she coils them up on foredeck while her husband ducks inside and takes interior stairways to the fly bridge where he looks for all the world like a king who has just ascended his throne. But I guess that’s probably what one would feel piloting a quarter million dollar yacht. This is a beautiful area in a very urbane, yet small, vibrant city. Every corner is clustered with coffeehouses, small boutique cafes and unique businesses. Flowers and outside tables and chairs grace outdoor spaces and fresh fish and oyster bars and markets beckon.

We’ve just finished browsing the Saturday farmers market in Percival’s Landing, a rejuvenated downtown area only three blocks from the state capital building, filled with condos and warehouse style lofts. We find masses of gorgeous flowers in stalls and the best looking vegetables I have seen since 2006 in Wisconsin. Oh good…the new crop of Washington apples is out and available in bulk!

We’re at the yacht harbor today actually setting foot into a boat brokerage office, still dreamin’ our dreams. Well in actuality, Marc is probably humoring me but he’s a good sport. We tour a few trailerable boats up to 27 feet that appear to need a lot of work. We step aboard an older Tollycraft 30 footer from the ‘70’s, still in need of work but at least offering a smidgen more of the space we figure we would need. Marc gets really intrigued by the screen door; a novelty we’ve not seen aboard a boat before! From the Tolly we sneak aboard a 40 foot Bayliner and indeed find the kind of space we are looking for! From the aft deck I note the harbor view and peacefulness that is part and parcel of such a lifestyle. Hum—this is looking
g-o-o-d.

Once finished at the yacht brokerage, we leave and decide to approach closer to the capital for some photos. Just a few blocks away is a very inviting grocery store advertising fresh Coho Salmon at $2.99/lb, head off. Yeh, gotta pull in here! Inside the place is just brimming with everything quintessentially Pacific Northwest right down to the end cap on the aisle and the smell of fresh coffee from the front kiosk drifting enticingly over the entire store. The vegetables look like a Whole Foods Marketplace and the fresh baked sourdough like it just came in moments ago from San Francisco. We get two whole salmon (fresh in today) and muse that this wonderful store is walking distance from the marina. Hum. Liveaboard status might have just leapt up another notch!

The Capital looks beautiful and enduring above Capital Lake and a special Iraq memorial commemoration is going on. The entire grassy lawn is filled with coreplast gravestones inscribed in marker with every fallen soldier, journalist, and death in Iraq. It says a lot about this city; located so near to Ft. Lewis, now sending the bulk of the force fighting in Afghanistan off to war. Support for the military is huge in this area.

We leave not having had enough. This is a walking town; an interesting town, and I’m sure we’ve only just scratched the surface on this one marvelous nearly fall day.

How Cool is Blogging? Read on to See!

I’ve often heard from strangers out of the blue when something I’ve done on our website peaks someone’s interest. It happens particularly regarding the photo story videos I have done in the past that I post on our main webpage.

I’m sitting in Ft. Lewis, WA fretting continuously about finding a job when unexpectedly a strange email address gets delivered to my inbox with the title “yacht envy blog”. Faithful readers may recall an entry from May 12th about me wistfully watching two of the most beautiful yachts I had ever encountered in Charleston motor on out the harbor and head north. I was wondering if they could perhaps even be on their way to Alaska. Well, today I may have found out the answer to that question. To AF from Victoria, BC please know that you thrilled me to no end by writing! Thank you for this gift.

Hello Claudia,
You don't know me but I was directed to your blog when I too searched out the yacht Kodiak and it's smaller counterpart "Gaelforce".
I too was mesmerized by these two yachts two days ago when I saw them anchored together in Poet's Cove on South Pender Island, B.C. I just thought I'd drop you a line and tell you. They were together and I too, am envious of privilege and also wondered as they powered out of the harbour Monday where they may have been headed next.
Perhaps a lottery win one day will allow either one of us to vye for anchoring space with them! LOL
Enjoyed your words on the yachts Kodiak and Gaelforce :o)

Thrills

Time seems to go faster in big cities and I now think I know the reason. I can say this because in a mere blink of the eye, the entire weekend has just about passed!

Saturday we joined Rachael for Military Appreciation Day at the relatively new Cabela’s store in Lacey. For those of you who have never experienced a personal visit to one of their stores, you’ve really missed out. Always their stores have a) many fine specimens of stuffed animals on display; b) a huge gun section, one room of which is the gun library featuring old and rare findings, and c)an aquarium of warm and cold water game fish. After wandering and a delicious lunch of game meat in their café (elk sandwich, venison brat) we grew weary of fighting heavy, heavy crowds so headed south on I-5 to the Capital Forest.

This is one of the few places available in the area to do any target shooting and Rachael wanted some practice. The Capital Forest is a very nice setting south of Olympia with campgrounds, ATV and hiking trails. Marc was thrilled to find so much brass for reloading just lying around for the picking-up.

Sunday I joined Rachael in a work foray to the Tacoma Dome for a wedding faire event. Since we got out so early in the morning we just missed the heavy returning north bound traffic, already starting to form going into Seattle by noon. Marc worked on finally clearing our freezer of all those delicious blackberries we picked previously and is on a jam-making extravaganza this afternoon!

Oh yeah, back to the reason: half of one’s time is spent in traffic! For twenty years we’ve missed this dubious thrill. Is this going to be worth it?

A Bridge Away: Gig Harbor, WA

Within the past few years a new bridge was opened, and thus more lanes to better connect mainland Tacoma to the Key Peninsula a world away. The Key area is fast-growing it seems; whereas Tacoma teems with crowds, traffic and noise, Gig Harbor floats serenely just above sea level, boasting itself as the maritime city. The harbor dominates everything since the town is village-sized and we hit it on a spectacularly pretty day warmly glowing. Finally, I smell salt sea air again after so many months!

We’ve come to just generally check out the area; check the ambiance, check on rural property; check on the Gig Harbor RV Resort which is our first stop. We however, won’t fit, so we can cross that one off our list. We drive rural roads and narrow highways for hours looking at land parcels but find nothing that takes our eye. One nearly landlocked piece seems interesting from the roadside view we have of it—it sits far across a front field with no current access; five acres beckoning to be explored, but how? The easement sits behind the neighbor’s fenced yard and would require a ton of money to even get the grade and driveway put in to run such a distance. It too is crossed off the list as are all the others; every one of them has something wrong. We are discerning and picky buyers and on our budgeted amount, this area just isn’t it.

Famished, we head back to Gig Harbor to walk her streets, explore the docks and eat. Kelly’s Kitchen serves up breakfast and lunch in a nice atmosphere but fairly high prices. Oh yea, we’re back near the big city now! Down on the town dock we watch as boaters come and go with Marc even helping in a large 40 foot aft cabin Carver. We find out the guy lives aboard right there in Gig Harbor for a mere $300 month moorage and $36/electric (electric rates in the Puget Sound area are the lowest in the nation; Gig Harbor is 6/cents KWH.) So, as the probably $700,000 water-front condo dwellers with their $3000/mo mortgage and high HOA fees and taxes enjoy their water view, right outside their deck, the boat dweller experiences the water up close and personal at a mere fraction of the cost. It doesn’t seem like a bad way to live to us. Honey, do we have enough money for a boat like this?

The Echoes of History

One recent day we spent some time wandering the marvelously old former Red Shield Inn which now houses Ft. Lewis’s military museum. It is two stories of dioramas and displays of weaponry, uniforms, and historical artifacts and an outside yard full of old tanks and missiles.

The Inn itself was originally built by the Salvation Army in 1919 and was used as a lodge and social center for Camp Lewis soldiers and visitors. Following WWI the US Army directly purchased the inn and ran it as the Ft. Lewis Inn. Due to stimulus money, the old building is due for some renovation within the next two years and shows she needs it.

We always find something surprising in museum visits; some little odd quirks of history that prove fascinating. Today was no exception as we read the stories of the statue of Saddam Hussein which were destroyed at his palace in Iraq and ended up here in the state of Washington.

A blast to the past was a training poster showing the way the Viet Cong tunnel systems worked.

And of particular interest to me was a ring of old skeleton keys which opened doors in Hitler’s private rooms in his Berchtesgaden getaway.

We are really enjoying our time here on Ft. Lewis. It is a tranquil oasis compared to the hustle bustle of the rest of the region and enjoys much open space, forested areas and lovely old buildings. The base is huge; the largest military base I have been on and occupies prime location just south of Tacoma stretching nearly to Lacey and over to the bay. Unfortunately, picture taking is frowned upon save for some excluded areas like the museum, so in the interest of wanting to keep my digital camera I have decided not to test the rules. Of course, of most interest to us, it is a prime source of area civilian employment and we hope just maybe a job will be waiting here for us. Time to go to ground and do some work figuring it all out!