Headin' Home

This will be the last post of the series. It's Saturday, and we're in Sutherlin Oregon at the Escapees Park. This is the spot before jumping off into California and home. The run through California is 2 1/2 days of solid driving. So we will put ourselves into a trance and drive, drive, drive.

Armani makes himself comfortable with our mascot, Little Smokey, as we hit the road.



Our first stop after leaving Washington State was Florence, OR. It's a favorite stop for us, with many good memories from past trips. Florence is on the coast, and has a nice harbor, with some interesting scenery.

Of course we had to stop at the Beachcombers Bar and Grill, which serves some of the best clam chowder on the coast.

Here's a picture of a perfect lunch at Beachcombers...

Luckily we only had time for a few meals there. Below are some more "permanent" residents. Perhaps this is one way they, "Grow 'em so big" in Oregon.

Our next stop was at another Escapees Park in Sutherlin. This makes a handy jump-off point for California, and is a very attractive park itself. There is a large wooded area in back of the park with lots of wildlife. There are turkeys, deer, bobcat, black bear, and puma. We spotted a puma slinking back into the woods on our walk this morning.

We were fortunate to encounter some old friends - Al and Joan. We met them at the park in 2002, and occasionally encounter them here and in Mexico. Small world. They have a permanent spot at the park, and decorated it beautifully. We are having a dinner of fried perch, which they recently caught. Delicious !

They are getting ready to return to California in two days. Next year we will be sure to stop at the park and spend some more time with these nice folks.

Al Fin...

Wrapping It Up

This is Charlie, a neighbor who became a friend during our stay. Quite a background - prosecuting attorney, personal injury attorney, and general playboy (mostly retired). He thinks he looks uncannily like Edward Kennedy. Charlie is from Chicago, so we had a lot to talk about. He also had many great stories about his various life exploits.


Our last two activities while at the Escapees Park were a quick trip to Seattle and the Wooden Boat Festival. In Seattle we took the Underground Tour which starts in Pioneer Square. Below is the starting point:




A guide gave a quite entertaining narrative in an old time bar (one of the first ones in Seattle).



Seattle started-out as a saw mill, located in the tidelands - which is now Pioneer Square. People slowly filled the tidelands in with sawdust from the sawmill, and began building on top of it. Naturally, the streets and buildings began sinking. The streets flooded easily, especially during high tide. A newspaper of the day related a incident were an 11 year old boy drowned in a pot hole. That marked the beginning of serious improvements.



Most original storefronts are actually about 15 feet below the current street level. There are underground passages to follow as we examined the original store fronts, now underground.

Much of the underground is illuminated by skylights embedded in the contemporary sidewalks above.

This is a view of the same sidewalk skylight from below. Pretty amazing:

Another problem that "Old Seattle" had was sewage disposal. Although they quickly adopted the new invention called the Crapper, when the tide came in, it caused a back pressure in the system, resulting in 6 ft. geysers out of the toilet. Uncomfortable for an active user. So Old Seattle had bathrooms built on small towers about ten feet above the original street level.

This was a fascinating tour, and well-worth the $12 admission fee. It was also good to be back in the sun light at regular street level in Pioneer Square. The street performers were back at it again also:

Part of Pioneer Square has a tiny park with a waterfall. It's refreshing to sit in the shade, escaping from the noise of downtown Seattle:

Our last activity was visiting the Wooden Boat Festival in Pt. Townsend. I was somewhat disappointed in that it mostly consisted of seminars involving building and maintaining wooden boats. Something I am distinctly not interested in.

There were some nice large boats in the harbor:

And a demonstration of a wooden kayak being constructed:

This is a very tedious and exacting process, using tiny tools. When the strips are fitted and smoothed-out, a very beautiful kayak is the result:

Next: Head'in Home

Misc.

Just got back from an excellent movie - Julie and Julia. We don't go to the movies much anymore. Most seem pretty moronic, with weak acting and unbelievable plots. I had high expectations of this movie because Merril Streep was the leading character - and was not disappointed. She nailed Julia Childs' character precisely. Highly recommended. We saw the movie at the Rose Theater, which is a small, renovated old-time theater. A live person actually steps in front of the screen and gives an introduction to it. Standard procedure for the Rose.

This posting is kind of a collection of pictures taken during this trip, which weren't included for one reason or other. Also some favorites. I like the one below, which reminds me of the old Victorian architecture which is so prevalent in Pt. Townsend. Taken from a pier extending into Puget Sound:

The singing Fat Lady is the mascot of Water Front Pizza, our favorite hangout. I'm now a member of their Slice Club, and get a free piece of pizza after buying ten. A major disappointment of the trip was losing my first Slice Club card when it had ten stamps on it. I think it fell out of my pocket when I was retrieving crab traps.

This is a Pig Mobile, spotted while in Seattle. I think they were selling hot dogs.

Speaking of pigs, here's some pics from the recent county fair:

When I spotted the Swine sign I first thought that the local politicians were appearing at the fair with their children.

Turns out it was just a proud mother pig showing-off her babies.

Below is a particularly good shot of Captain John at the helm of his crab trawler.

Before embarking on a voyage, the good captain prays briefly to Neptune for a bountiful catch and safe voyage.

We're only allowed to keep male crabs of a certain size. Below, marked by the "V" is the male type of bottom shell. Towards the end of the season, only one in five crabs are males.

Females have a larger bottom shell as seen below. They get fat and sassy eating most of the bait in the traps. When pulled aboard, they just curl-up and wait to be returned to the water to raid more traps. Nice life.

One of Mimi's favorite activities was playing bridge with the ladies. Here they are beginning a new game.

Mimi also joined a Yoga group. This is her "Touchdown" pose.

We are always on the lookout for new fine dining experiences. It's hard to get a decent hamburger, due to the ban on fast food joints near town. Outside of town we discovered Fat Smitty's. Their special Smitty Burger is guaranteed to precipitate a coronary attack. We limit ourselves to a plain burger, which is just fine.

Inside Fat Smitty's, the walls and ceiling are covered with dollar bills - tacked there by various customers.

This is real money, and I estimated several thousand dollars having been tacked-up. Wonder what their insurance company says about that.

Hasta Luego...

Seattle

Our stay in Washington is quickly coming to an end. We decided to head south a week from Monday, right after the Wooden Boat Festival. This is an event that we see advertised every time we visit Pt. Townsend, but haven't stayed late enough in the season to attend. Pictures to follow!

We have been very bad about blogging this trip. Aside from general laziness, not much happens here. That is just fine with us. Our upcoming trip to Mexico will more than make up for our lack of blogging now. The last few days have been very fall-like. Rainy and cool. Hard to believe that Southern California is experiencing a heat wave.

Mimi and I made one trip to Seattle, and Mimi made a follow-up trip with some of her girlfriends. Seattle is both close and far. Separated from Pt. Townsend by Puget Sound, the only way to drive to it is by going south for about 70 miles, around the bottom of the sound, then back up for about 50 miles. Just far enough to keep those city folks at bay most of the time. A short-cut is to drive south about 25 miles, and take a 1/2 hour ferry ride to downtown Seattle. This is a great trip. The fare is free going to Seattle, and dirt cheap coming back. A perfect day trip.

Below is the ferry. It carries both passengers and cars. Very comfortable.

Pike Street Market (don't ever say Pike's Place - the natives hate that) is a giant, permanent farmers' market along the waterfront. It takes several hours to browse, and is difficult to pass-up many of the unusual and tasty food items. I think we did exceptionally well on this trip. Chocolate linguine anyone?

The fish market, near the main entrance, is especially captivating. You may have seen the fish mongers throwing large salmon across the counter on T.V. A customer chooses from the fish in front, and an assistant tosses the item to someone behind the counter to wrap it. It's then tossed back. I don't know what they do with fish they drop or miss catching.

I thought that Parrot Fish are tropical...

The rest of Pike Market consists of stalls with a narrow aisle, so the crowds get heavy.

This is Margie, a friend that went with Mimi on her second Seattle venture.

There are lots of hand crafted items. A nautical or fish theme is very common.

This street performer is playing an ancient Chinese string instrument. Lots of other performers are there, including one playing a small upright piano. Don't know what he does with it after hours.

Outside of the market are some nice park areas. This one overlooks the harbor of Seattle.

If you turn around, downtown is about a block away with buildings perched on descending terraces - like a miniature San Francisco.

Just north of the ferry landing is Pioneer Square. The oldest section of Seattle, it has a very comfortable park where one can easily spend the afternoon listening to musicians play. Seattle is a very people-friendly place.

A major sculpture is dedicated to fire fighters, who had their hands full protecting the wooden structures that once made-up the waterfront. It's fun to sit in the park and watch Japanese tourists posing with the statues for pictures. A group of five or six of these tourists can take a 1/2 hour - each posing with the statues, then in small groups.

Seattle is famous for its glass blowing industry. Pioneer Square has a small shop with an active glass blower.


He's making candle holders.

Other craft shops are also present..

This is Mimi's group from her second trip. From left to right that's Phyllis, Margie, Priscilla, and Susan. There is literally a Starbucks Coffee bar on every corner.

That's it for now folks....

Gett'in Crabby - The Deadliest Catch

Becoming a successful crab fisherman was one of my main projects for this trip. I love to eat crab, to the point that Mimi accuses me of becoming one. When we arrived earlier this summer, we went to the waterfront an bought two live Dungeness crab for dinner. They cost over $40! - and we had to do all the prep work. So that was an incentive to begin Project Crab....


There's a reason that fresh, picked crab costs over $30 a pound. Catching them is not easy, nor is keeping them alive. Then there's the cooking and picking. Very labor intensive with lots of "crab parts" left over.


Below is a picture of me on the way out to drop two crab pots in a nearby bay. The pots are collapsible, so they can be transported more easily. Along with each pot is a bait box, to keep the crab from stealing the bait by dragging it out of the pot. I usually use cut-up chicken (keeping the breasts for cooking), salmon parts, and a can of cheap cat food. The cat food is for "back-up". When the good bait is gone, the cat food can still leaks food particles into the water, continuing to attract the crabs. The crabs have ravenous appetites, and little is left in the traps when pulled in the next day.

When I reach water about 80 ft deep, the traps are tossed overboard, with a leaded 100 ft line attached to a buoy. The traps sit on the bottom, each side having a little swinging door that shuts by gravity when a crab enters. Like a roach motel - they check in but don't check out!

Once the pots are set, I return to the dock. The pots can soak for a few hours to a few days before checking. I usually check on them daily. Back at the dock there are several other ways to crab fish. I use a ring, baited with some chicken and lower it to the bottom off of the edge of the dock. Checking them every 1/2 hour usually yields a few crabs. Those caught by the dock are Red Crab - smaller than the Dungeness Crab caught by the pots in deeper water.

Another fun activity on the dock is to use a Crab Hawk - a small trap attached to a fishing pole. The chicken is placed in the middle, and the trap is heaved out like a giant fishing lure. It goes out about 50 to 100 ft. from the dock. Checked every ten minutes, it yields a surprising number of crabs.

Below is a denizen of the deep... a starfish. They try to hog the bait by lying on top of it. Ugly suckers. That's where the big, black rubber gloves come in handy.

Here are the two crab pots that I pulled in today. A very nice catch. Only male Dungeness crabs can be kept, meaning I have to throw back at least 1/2 the catch. Then only those males with a 6 1/4" shell can be kept. More thrown back. Today I was able to keep six - which is considered a good catch.

Here's pot #2...

I use the thick black industrial rubber gloves to handle and clean the crabs, making me look like Dr. Strangelove to bystanders. The crabs are extremely nasty, and have inflicted injury even through the gloves. These crabs don't live to get big by being nice ! I won't go into detail about the cleaning process. Needless to say it's messy. Luckily we have a nice fish cleaning station at the park, which makes the job easier. A little secret I discovered is to put the live crabs on ice for a while, which makes their reactions slower. Moving quickly, I can have one cleaned before he knows what's happening.

We discovered a turkey frying pot with burner on sale in town. It turned-out to be a perfect crab cooking rig. At first I was filling the pot 1/2 way with water and boiling the crabs. Works well but uses a lot of propane! One of the local crab specialists in the park suggested just putting about an inch of water in the pot, with a steamer device on the bottom. Then pile the crab in. The steam in the large pot cooks them just as well, with little propane needed.

Next is the best part - eating them. Lots of cracking and picking is required. I like to accumulate all of the picked pieces in a dish of melted butter. Heaven !!

Mimi has developed a system to preserve the left-over crab. She places the pieces in small plastic containers, covered, and flash freezes them. Then they are removed from the container and vacuum sealed, being returned to the freezer. We're going to try some recipes with the frozen crab to see how they taste, soon.

After going through the whole catching and cleaning process, I understand why that little packet of crab is sooo expensive in the store.

******