2008 Sequim Lavender Festival

Friday, July 18, 2008

Today my mom, Joe and I all went to the Sequim Lavender Festival. This is a nice escape from the office but also is work as we are "hired" by several clients to look over what is offered and get back to them on what is new and fab coming down the lavender lane. So while we're technically working, we're really having a grand time.

The day started out overcast and foggy (just right for yours truly - the sun causes me to overheat rather quickly) but by noonish, the fog had burned off and it was nice and sunny. Definitely better for taking photos. We started our day with breakfast at The Oak Table Cafe and then headed out to the various farms on the Farm Tour.

All photos are available at my smugmug gallery. I've included a few of my favorites from each farm we visited below. All farm information can be found on the tours link above - links to each farm are located there.

Enjoy!



Cedarbrook Lavender Farm


Cedarbrook Lavender Farm


Cedarbrook Lavender Farm


Cedarbrook Lavender Farm


Cedarbrook Lavender Farm


Jardin du Soleil Lavender Farm


Jardin du Soleil Lavender Farm


Jardin du Soleil Lavender Farm


Jardin du Soleil Lavender Farm


Jardin du Soleil Lavender Farm


Jardin du Soleil Lavender Farm


Jardin du Soleil Lavender Farm


Jardin du Soleil Lavender Farm


Olympic Lavender Farm


Olympic Lavender Farm


Olympic Lavender Farm


Olympic Lavender Farm


Olympic Lavender Farm


Olympic Lavender Farm


Olympic Lavender Farm


Port Williams Lavender Farm


Port Williams Lavender Farm


Port Williams Lavender Farm


Port Williams Lavender Farm


Port Williams Lavender Farm


Port Williams Lavender Farm


Purple Haze Lavender Farm


Purple Haze Lavender Farm


Purple Haze Lavender Farm


Purple Haze Lavender Farm


Purple Haze Lavender Farm


Purple Haze Lavender Farm


Purple Haze Lavender Farm

watermelon cake and sunny evening at the lake

Thursday, July 17, 2008

In preparation for my touring the Sequim Lavender Festival tomorrow (and the hundreds of photos I'm sure to be taking) I emptied my camera tonight and ran across a few shots I wanted to share.

Sister #2 owns a custom cake decorating business up in Alaska. It was her oldest daughter's 8th birthday on Sunday, so sister made her the cutest watermelon slice cake. Everyone was very impressed and the kids loved them! What a clever idea.

Yesterday evening we headed to the cabin on the lake for an evening swim and marshmallows on the campfire. I took a few shots, nothing terribly spectacular, but here they are anyway.

And as I stated earlier - we're going to the Lavender Festival tomorrow and I expect to be creating a massive post either tomorrow evening or on Saturday, detailing everything we see. I'm really looking forward to getting some photos as it's always a beautiful festival to attend.







Peeking through the cabin door.


sun shining over the lake


sister #4 lost in thought


and her daughter, being her usual goofy self

Port Angeles movie theaters - and the lack thereof

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Joe and I don't really get out much. When we do, it's usually to take in a movie. Having lived in Seattle, Tucson, DC area, and near SLC, UT - we're used to having nice big stadium seating theaters to go to.

Not here.

The closest *nice* theater is Gig Harbor which is 100 miles one way from here. There they have a beautiful, brand new, state of the art, fully digital theater with glorious stadium seating. Here they have old, worn out theaters that are years past their expiration.

There are 2 such places here to watch movies at. The first is a theater from circa 800 BC in downtown Port Angeles. As far as theaters go, it's the pits. There are 3 screens - 2 downstairs and one in the upstairs loft. One must creep up the rickety, narrow stairs and once you're up there, it's like a small club room or something. The seats are actually higher than the screen (which wouldn't be a bad thing if you were further than 30 feet away - the back row is *maybe* 30 feet away from the screen so it's really like sitting in a large living room and watching a movie) and the only good seats are in the front row... unless you enjoy counting the hairs on the person sitting directly in front of you. The seats are pretty worn out and I would guess they've lived through maybe 10+ lifetimes. They need replacing.

And believe it or not, that's the *good* theater in this place.

The 2 lower theaters are dreadful. We went to see HellBoy 2 on Monday night and what a nightmare. I cannot even decide where to begin.

I guess I'll start with the brilliant green EXIT sign that sits directly under the left side of the screen. This thing is so bright, you could hang it in the sky and it would light up the country. It was like the full moon and a trainwreck at the same time - you just couldn't. look. away. My retinas are permanently scarred from the harsh green laser beams that came from that sign.

The movie only covered the middle 75% of the screen so the sides were blank screen. Huh? I cannot honestly recall a time when a movie didn't fill the screen. What are we - in the dark ages or something? When we asked the night person about it after the movie, she said something about the movie not being pan. Whatever that means. Actually, I'll tell you what it means - though they charge enough to gain admission to this theater that one must mortgage their home to get in, that money isn't goinging to bringing in quality. No, they're using it somewhere else... far outside the theater. But the size of the film was only half of the equation - the sound only came out of the front speakers. No side speakers!

That means that in the midst of the heavy action scenes where I should have been vibrating in my seat and my teeth should have been rattling around in my skull, instead you could hear the person 10 rows back cleaning the popcorn out of his teeth. Yum. Just what I wanted to pay $9.50 to listen to.

And that brings me to gripe #... what number am I on now? Well, whatever. They charge $9.50/person to get in to this rattrap! Come on! We can get into the digital theater in Gig Harbor for the same price and amazingly enough, they actually take CC's there. Here you have to march to the bank and get some cash out if you plan to watch a movie. Welcome to the modern age where even an ebay seller takes credit cards. Good grief.

Finally, the screen itself is like 20 feet above the seats so you're practically lying on your back before you're able to really view the screen. Nothing like getting close and personal with the lap of the person behind you.

The other theater, Deer Park, is newer but still way past the expiration date. The $2 theaters in podunk VA are better than the Deer Park theater. And like it's ancient cousin downtown, this theater also snubs the plastic money and only accepts the paper variety. At least the seats aren't located 2 floors beneath the screen but once your rear hits the seat, you're immediately on your back. So in order to be even remotely comfy it requires bringing pillows in to shove between your back and the seat back. Nothing like walking into the theater on a Friday night carrying your pillow. Wow, we're cool now.

After HB the other night, that was the final straw. We're officially on strike and will not be patronizing either Port Angeles theater again. Better to make the 200 mile round trip drive to GH and do a double, or even a triple!, header and see the movies in comfort and style.

The joys of living in a town that is against growth and modernization. One of these days I'll do a post that shows just where this gets you. There are a myriad of abandoned buildings and defunct businesses around here - it's quite astounding. Burger King is an empty building in a weed field now... BK. Every other town in the country is adding fast food and here they are fleeing. Go figure that one out!

whales, sunburns, surfers, swimmers and steak

Sunday, July 13, 2008

What do whales, sunburns, surfers and steak have in common? Well, I'm sure there are plenty of things most of them have in common - but for this entry, the commonality is that we experienced them all on our trek yesterday.

Last Tuesday a few of my sisters and I went to First and Second Beaches in Neah Bay. Well, we had such a good time that plans were made to go to Third Beach on Saturday (yesterday). There is a trail one can use to hike there so we loaded up and headed out.

I figured that just because one was in the wilderness, it didn't mean you had to dine like a savage so I pulled a Martha Stewart out of my hat and brought the following: sirloin steak cubed and soaking in a jerk marinade; mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, onions, green peppers cut into pieces and zipped up in a gallon ziploc bag; fingerling red potatoes parboiled and put into another ziploc with 1/2 cube butter and salt/pepper; a bag of gluten-free brownies; marshmallows; and a snifty metal basket for cooking a large quantity of food over a fire. Joe became a sherpa and hauled down approx. 25 pounds of soda/water/ice tea in a collapsable cooler. What a great guy - he did it w/out complaint!

We arrived at the beach and I immediately built a fire. Since it was 11am, it was decided we would eat sooner rather than later so I pulled out the meat and dumped it into my wire basket. I then added the veggies and potatoes and we cooked it over the fire until the meat was cooked and the veggies were nice and soft. Everyone ate their fill, had plenty to drink, and decimated the brownies and marshmallows - it was fun and delicious!

The surfers weren't actually out on the water. They were there w/their families for a day trek so they could show the wives and kids where they surf. Nice guys and nice families.

And the swimmers? Just the nutjob husband of sister #3 and another gal there. They jumped in the water and swam over the massive kelp forests. Brrr and ick! The gal was definitely a different breed than my sisters and I. If one of us had jumped in, you'd have heard us screaming over in BC. She popped out of the water and not very loudly stated that it was cccccooold. No screaming at all. Wow!

About halfway through the day, we saw a whale off in the distance. The excitement grew as we realized it was coming up near the rocks where we were so everyone scrambled out to get a better view. How utterly awesome! It slowly swam back and forth next to the long shoal of rocks and kept surfacing and blowing water high into the air. A few times it went down with a tail flap and I was *finally* able to get a shot of that. Either it or another one came back later in the day and another rush for the rocks was made. I grew up out there but this was my first close encounter with one of these giants and it was just incredible. You could see others out in the strait and near the harbor entrance - water shooting into the air and their backs as they'd surface and slowly descend. It was amazing.

We called it a day around 6 when we realized that most of us were burnt to a crisp. I guess more sunscreen is needed next time. But the burns notwithstanding, this was one fun, beautiful, incredible day. I was just ecstatic to be able to share it with my son and husband, neither of them having been to this beach before.

Be sure to check out my smugmug gallery for all the photos from our day at Third Beach.



Ready to begin our trek down.


The trail down to the beach.


The chilly water and kelp forests.


Cruise ships heading back into Seattle from the mouth of the Strait.


Our "loose kabob" steak meal. Utterly delicious.


Joey's water bowl - because poodles need water too!


Driftwood sitters.


A warm tide pool on the beach. Unfortunately just swarming with little bugs that like to crawl up your legs and bite you. Ick!


Joe taking shots of the swimmers.


Crazy person, erm, I mean swimmer #1.


And swimmer #2.


One more jump from the exit side.


Swimming to the exit point.


BIL (brother in law) all done swimming.


"That was COLD!"


Rock walkers


BC in background, waiting for the whale to reappear.


Seal rock off in the distance.


Thar she blows!!


A bit of wave action - whale watching.


The whale surfaces.


Finally - the whale tail!


Whale watching with my son.


Walking back up the trail to leave.


The drive home...


continued...


And the result of not enough sunscreen and standing near reflective water on a sunny day...