Happy Birthday H
Mr. H is a grand eight years old today.
Which means he has a bike with gears. 7 gears, not six, and not eight, 7. That’s 7 gears. First gear is easy on the legs, seventh goes fastest (usually), first is for going up hills, seventh is for going down, third and fourth gears………….
Birthday Time
Harvey is almost eight.
Eight? That’s scary.
To celebrate we had a soccer and bakugon party.
No, I don’t know what a bakugon is either.
Apparently that’s because I’m > 8 and have no hair.
It also transpires that I am unable to spell bakugan. How embarrassing.
Note: This post was updated on 2020-11-15 to remove broken links
A note from the editor (and his lovely boss)
April 2009 was starting to look very bare on c r o s s o a k.
Blame for this should be targeted squarely on welcome visitors from the homeland.
Or not.
So I’ve had a bit of a splurge and am almost caught up, as a result, you’ll find some of the fun stuff we did with Brov, Boj & Amza in the links below.
Some isn’t.
CYA
Don’t mess with Amelie
Four things to do while waiting for a ferry
A Walk to Cascade Falls
Mount Constitution
Proper Walks
Beach Fun
Orcas Home for a Long Weekend
Pause at Deception Pass
Chart Madness
Cousins
Family Ford
The Marshmallow Man
The Great UNO Championships
Wenatchee Walk
Chilling Out
Easter Egg Hunting
Trail Singing
Discovering
Ski Time
Visitors
Almost back to Anacortes
Watching the Olympics emerge from the evening gloom as the ferry chugged back to Anacortes.
Four things to do while waiting for a ferry
1. Do your homework.
2. Make strange faces in the back of the car.
3. Try to extract short straw from bottled water using a short straw (this one gives hours of fun).
4. Puzzle over how to convert two short straws combined together into one longer straw back into a short straw that is short enough to be used to drink water from a bottle while resting that same bottle on your lap.
A Walk to Cascade Falls
On the way down (or up) Mount Constitution is a very child friendly walk along some creek I didn’t catch the name of to some pretty little waterfalls that I probably got the name of wrong.
Note: This post was updated on 2020-11-21 to fix broken links
Mount Constitution
Mount Constitution in Moran State Park is a 2,409 ft mountain on the eastern lobe of Orcas Island with a fire lookout at the top.
Note: This post was updated on 2020-11-21 to remove broken links
Proper Walks
A small collection of proper walks .
Note: This post was updated on 2020-11-21 to fix broken links
Beach Fun
Having the beach right outside the front door was great for beach combers.
Dusk paddlers.
And avant-garde foot impressionists.
I think Finn managed to look under every rock on the beach for crabs, worlds, urchins and other creatures-of-the-sea.
Orcas Home for a Long Weekend
Home on Orcas was a snug cabin right on West Beach, so called because the beach faced west, great for evening sunshine and the odd spectacular sunset.
A perfect spot for just sitting and watching the world.
Some people liked it so much they decided to stay.
Pause at Deception Pass
After a HUGE brunch at the Maltby Cafe, we were early for the ferry from Anacortes to Orcas Village, so we took a small detour and stopped off at Deception Pass.
Down on North Beach there were some fab views…
…and even fab’er people to take pics of.
But we nearly stayed too long – we only *just* made the ferry, the car behind us tried and failed to squeeze aboard.
Although that didn’t prevent Finn from having fun,
or from being his normal mischievous self.
Chart Madness
Well, I guess you have to laugh.
On the USA side of this chart, depths were marked in feet, while on the Canadian side they are in meters. Apparently it’s so a boat can use its depth sounder to check whether its crossed over the border between the two countries.
The Marshmallow Man
Disappointed with my ability (or lack of) to roast marshmallows on the barbeque, Graeme resorts to using the heat lamp.
Very U S of A.
Wenatchee Walk
Saturday was a spring day so we decided to go for a wonder along the Wenatchee
with some great views of the river, mountains and sky.
Fantastic day.
Chilling Out
After our little ski trip at Stevens Pass we all felt a little achy – especially Graeme’s shoulder and head.
Note: This post was updated on 2020-11-21 to fix broken links
Easter Egg Hunting
First: Amazing Star Wars eggs – Uncle Graeme was the egg transferring champion.
Second: a rocky, hilly, tree-y garden for a egg hunt.
Trail Singing
Hiking back up from the beach at discovery park, Finn entertained with some trail songs, complete with accompanying percussion sticks.
Discovering
A stroll down to the beach at Discovery Park, where she could sell sea shells on the sea shore.
Ski Time
There was still a little snow in the mountains…
…so we took the boys and Graeme & Jo up to Stevens Pass for some fun on skis in the snow.
Visitors
We’ve been busy with visitors! Brov & Boj & Am-za came to town.
”Awesome” said Finn.
We’ll try and find some more piccy’s to post later…
