LAST MORNING WALK OF 2024

 It was a beautiful last morning walk of 2024.  The clouds cleared away to reveal a beautiful sunrise.  

Good-bye 2024!  It was fun.

It's been windy lately.  There are several trees down in Lincoln Park.  This one is across the main Bluff Trail.

Do I go under or around?

PORT TOWNSEND TRIP

 Darrell, Jelly and I headed out early for Port Townsend.  Darrell needs a lot of hardwoods for upcoming projects.

First stop was on Bainbridge Island to visit with Pia the Peacekeeper.

Then, after I dropped Darrell at Edensaw, Jelly and I went to Fort Worden for a damp morning walk.  There were lots of trees down from the strong winds and rain last night.  We crawled over and around three that were across the road on the way up.

It wasn't raining in Port Townsend, but it had rained all the way until we got here.  And it was raining as soon as we got back out to the road home.

It's nice to be home.

BAYFIELD WISCONSIN

I left St. Croix and headed north.  It rained most of the way.  I went up and around stopping a few places to see the lake.  I was headed to Bayfield, where the Apostle Islands Visitor Center is and from where the ferry to Madeline Island loads.

The Visitors Center was closed.  That was annoying because I had looked up their hours and they should not have been.

I saw the MISA headquarters, they were closed, too.

But it was soon time to get on the little ferry to Madeline Island.  I did a quick from the car while crossing.

FRIDAY THE 13TH

 It's day 13 of th #30daysketchbookchallenge and the prompt is "Boats."  

Of course, I had to do the iconic Puget Sound Ferry Boat.

ON MY WAY TO COUPEVILLE

 I left early this morning to catch a ferry from Mukilteo to Whidbey Island.  I'm taking a Dancing With the Wall Workshop with Irene Roderick this week.  

The traffic was very light and I got there faster than I needed.

It was a beautiful morning.

Boarding the ferry at Mukilteo

Uh oh, there's a large bank of clouds over the island.

I love ferry rides.

Yep, it was very foggy on the island.

Since I arrived early, I thought I'd go up to the Ebey Landing Lookout.  But this is all I saw it was too foggy.

I wonder what the lookout looks out onto, hmmm.

Well, that didn't work out.  I still had an hour before class started, so I headed up the road to Oak Harbor to find a Starbucks.  I picked up breakfast and lunch, too.  Then I headed back down to Coupeville and unloaded my sewing machine, fabrics and supplies.  

The workshop is being held at the Pacific NW Arts School in Coupeville.  We jumped right in and started working on our projects.

Here is how my workwall looked at the end of the day.

Afterward, I was very tired and went straight to my room at the Coupeville Inn.

BEAUTIFUL MORNING WALK

 The clouds blew away, the sun came out and we went for a walk in Lincoln Park this morrning.

It was very windy though, but beautiful.

TRIP TO OAK HARBOR

 Darrell is buying a tool for his shop so we're going to Oak Harbor to pick it up.  We left early and got some breakfast at PCC in Fremont.  We headed up I-5 all the way to Mount Vernon and then turned and headed to Whidbey Island.

We stopped to take pictures of the bridge at Deception Pass.

Then we headed down to the State Park to the beach.  It was very windy and very cold - but beautiful.

Next stop was at the cabinet shop where we picked up his new tool.

It's a panel mover cart so he won't have to wrestle with plywood sheets anymore.

Next stop was lunch at a nice little cafe in Coupeville.

After a short tour of Fort Casey we headed for the ferry home.

We were looking forward to having popcorn on the ferry, unfortunately the cafe was closed.  This is the Tokitae ferry, we've never been on it before.  It has some great photos of orcas.

JOY IN OUR MORNING WALK

 It was another perfect morning for an early walk.  We've been going right after sunrise, usually around 6am, in order to have Lincoln Park mostly to ourselves.  We saw a sparkling ferry:

And on a trail through the woods, we saw Joy:

OFF TO PT

Darrell and I caught an early ferry to Bainbridge, had breakfast at Starbucks then drove up to Port Townsend.  We got to Edensaw just as it opened.  I didn't bring the dogs - I'm not going for a walk because I'm still sick with sinus issues (I'm not saying infection).

While he was picking through the piles I was sketching.

There were two cats in the showroom and only one cat bed. 

One of them was not happy.

He tried to get inside my bag - but alas, it was too small.

CHRISTMAS EVE MORNING

We had a nice walk in Lincoln Park this morning.

We've had lots of rain lately - 3.25 inches just the other day.  A few trees came down in the park, one of them right across the path from the pool up to the ridge.  There were guys out clearing that up right away.

OFF WE GO

I'm all packed up and headed to Union, Washington for the last Joe Retreat with Joe Cunningham and Patricia Belyea.

The easiest way for me is to take the Southworth ferry across the water, but instead I headed out early from Seattle to Bainbridge and went north to Port Gamble.  Quilted Strait is having a sale and I have a credit that's burning a hole in my pocket.

Leaving Seattle on the way to Bainbridge.

I bought a dozen fat quarters, then headed back south to Union.

Once at St. Andrews Retreat, I unpacked and made my bed, set up my machine and changed out of my heavy shirt - it is too hot inside!

We had a nice dinner and introductions.  There was some changing of rooms, it's a long story, but I was happy to change and ended up without a roommate. 

FERRY FUN

I made my way to Port Gamble this morning for my Design Class with Joen Wolfrom.  I take the ferry from Seattle to Bainbridge Island.

On the way home, I was the second to last car onto the ferry and was hanging off the back of the ferry boat.  

It was a beautiful afternoon, and I stood out on the deck and just enjoyed it.