Memorial Day Weekend 2012

I know that one of the rules of blogging is to use captivating titles that draw in the reader... but I'm just not feeling original here. Sorry. :)

We debated about what to do for Memorial Day weekend this year, and discussed a visit to my aunt and uncle's near Seattle. Before I could call them, my aunt called me to ask if we had plans yet because they were in need of a house sitter that weekend. It was too bad they wouldn't be there, but since we'd been thinking about going there anyway, it worked out.

It was sort of like being at a bed and breakfast where you know where everything is and how things work. We visit them a few times a year and usually have one or more holidays there, but also this is where I lived during my final internships during grad school (awesome!), so I have all kinds of memories there. However, this was the first time Blake and I had ever had it to ourselves :) which is why it felt like a vacation at a B & B.

On the ferry ride over. Ferries are fun when you don't use them to commute! :)

Funny story: A lady saw us trying to take a self portrait {above} and asked if we wanted her to take our picture. I said sure, because even though I like the 'self portrait look' I also like the 'not self portrait' look. My camera is always on manual and so I told her it was such and asked her if she'd rather me switch it to auto (okay, I actually said: "It's on manual, do you know how to drive this thing, or should I switch it to auto?". She answered, "Oh ya, I've got this." Now, she seemed pretty confident, first in asking someone with a giant camera if she could take their picture for them, and second, she grabbed it from me and looked like she knew what she was doing. She hands it back to me and offers to take a second one if the first wasn't what we wanted. I looked and though... 'gosh that looks a lot like the one I just took of us myself. Weird.' So I asked her if she would take another, with more of the city in the background. So she did. She handed it back and I looked again. I saw this:
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A blank, white screen. Then I realized she hadn't take a picture the first time and this time she hadn't adjusted the exposure. Not wanting to embarrass her or myself, I just lied quickly said that it looked great and thanks very much. Maybe next time I won't ask and I'll just switch it to a priority mode. But she really did seem like she'd know what she was doing!

Nearing Bainbridge

I love the mountains in the background of this one.

Driving down the road to their house.

After dinner on Friday, there was the most remarkable sunset. The view from their home is breathtaking and is known for some really awesome sunset views. This is one of the situations that inspired this post about music. I was trying to capture this amazing sunset and just couldn't get my lens to do it justice. I took what seemed like 300 pictures, trying to see if more water or more clouds was better, or zoomed in or out. Either way it was pretty but not as stunning as just sitting next to my husband and enjoying the view, which got better with each passing minute. Here are some of my favorites:

I the rain in this one.

I love their view, seriously. Can you imagine going to sleep to the one above and waking up to this every day!?

First thing on Saturday, we went to the shooting range (yes, surprising I know, but 97% libral Bainbridge Island has an awesome indoor pistol range!). I was pleased to discover that my aim had not diminished since I last fired my 45 ACP over six months ago (maybe longer). I also broke in my little Smith & Wesson Bodyguard 38 special revolver, which is my carry gun (aren't you scared of me now.. except I only really 'carry' it when I drive late at night to Pendleton and back). Blake's dad gave it to us and I'm ashamed to say that I'd been 'carrying it' for months but hadn't shot it yet. As it turns out, it's easy to shoot and I would have been fine if I'd needed it. Anyway, enough about guns, and obviously no pictures of this cause my hands were full.

After the range we went to the farmer's market and to an early lunch at The Pub (our traditional place for eating after shooting on BI). It did not disappoint. Here was the view from our table...

After walking around downtown BI for a little while we decided to wait an hour for a ferry since one had just left before we thought of it spontaneously walk on a ferry and head over to Seattle to walk around and take some pictures of  the waterfront and Pike Place Market. Here are some photos of that little adventure:

Walking around, waiting for the ferry. I took a picture like this with an old (not smart) phone years ago,
and thought it was fun to take a better one with a 'real' camera. 

(from my old phone) :)

This next picture is actually what inspired the trip. Blake and I are really into drinking tea lately. Blake is walking distance from a little wine, cheese and tea shop near his work and he's been walking over periodically to get a new flavor, type variety(?) of loose leaf tea several times a week. We also pack up a sampling of teas and bring them, with the teapot that was my great grandma's, to Bible study each week and share our love of tea with some other lovers of tea. So the driving factor behind the trek over to the market  was to get Blake a tea infuser mug, like one that I have, which we purchased at Market Spice Tea. That way he can use it at work with his collection of teas.

My favorite part of the market is strolling through the flower section,
drinking my sample cup of Market Spice Tea :)

In the words of Pollyanna: "Simply Gooorgeous!"

Lots of delicious produce too.

We decided to get smoothies... and so had about eighty other people.
So I tried out a little 'from the hip' photography while we waited.

Walking back to the waterfront to catch a ferry.  This is the newest
addition to the area, a Ferris wheel. Scheduled to open at the end of June. 

I bought flowers at the market.. how could I resist! 

Bear with me here. These flowers were gorgeous and I had a full battery. 

I've decided my next camera lens will be for macro shots,
which would have come in handy to photograph this little guy. 

On Sunday, our friends Jason and Whitney came to join us. I was so busy enjoying their company that I didn't take many pictures. Except a couple of them while we were at a bookstore. They are reading through The Hunger Games trilogy together and as soon as she saw it they both plopped down and started reading a few pages.

While we were there, we bought a new cookbook. I guess it's our way of supporting small book stores to always buy a cookbook whenever we go in one. I thought we just did that in Long Beach, but Blake found the book Plenty and we decided that it would be a great addition to our collection. It is an all vegetable cookbook, but not necessarily a vegetarian cookbook. Sometimes the hard part of planning a meal is what to serve as side dishes, and this book will help with that. We also like to experiment with different vegetables and have planted lots of vegetables in our garden, so this book will also be nice when we have a 'plentiful' supply of produce. I read it cover to cover on the way home and am really happy with it.

Photo credit
I'd take my own picture but Blake brought it to work and forgot it there!

We had a super relaxing and fantastic weekend. We did a little more with Jason and Whit, which you can read about here. What I didn't get photos of was dinner or dessert and then sitting around the fire pit by the water.