We wandered out onto the rock spit at the entrance to the marina to see if we could find the geochache that was hidden there. We know it is there because we found it last year but this time we didn't have any luck.
Last time we were here we did some crabbing and had tremendous success. Unfortunately, crab season doesn't start until tomorrow so we are hoping for lots of crab then. After a relaxing day, we had a nice steak dinner on the boat and ended the evening watching the movie Zootopia.
The next morning Bob took me out to teach me how to run the dinghy. Our plan, when we know we need to off load it, is for me to run the dinghy while he docks the boat. Then we can tie the dinghy to the stern where it will be ready for us to use. Bob said I did well but I still soaked us a couple of times when I hit a wake wrong.
Next, we headed over to Roche Harbor - our very favorite place to be. We had a very nice ride and arrived in time for lunch. We launched the dinghy and Holly and I ran it over to our slip as Bob and Jerry docked Synnova. We knew we wanted to do some crabbing since it is opening day today so as soon as we were settled, Bob and Jerry took the dinghy out and dropped the crab pot.
After lunch we went out for a walk and showed Holly and Jerry the mausoleum. It is so cool and so rich in history.
"It's safe to say that John S McMillin wanted to be remembered as a family man. A late 19th and early 20th century industrialist, McMillin founded the Roche Harbor Lime and Cement Company on land that later became the site of today's Roche Harbor Resort. He and his wife, Louelle, had five children, and in the woods north of Roche Harbor, there stands a mausoleum that McMillin had built to honor his family.
Afterglow Vista, as it's called, is not your run-of-the-mill mausoleum. As you approach the forested monument, you'll think you stumbled on a misplaced bit of Rome. A circle of pillars rises high over a limestone table around which sit seven stone chairs. Everything at Afterglow is symbolic from the winding stairs leading to the table - that represents the winding path of one's life--to the broken column on the memorial's west side. That's an ode to the "unfinished state of man's work when the string of life is broken." A proud Methodist, Republican and Mason, McMillin turned to the Masonic Order when he designed the mausoleum. One chair is conspicuously missing -- the one in front of the broken pillar -- and local rumor has it that that's symbolic of one of McMillin's sons who married out of the Methodist religion.
Getting to Afterglow Vista requires a half-mile walk through forest, which is interesting in its own right. The trail snakes through a wooded graveyard in which several graves are surrounded by wrought iron or picket fences. It's an easy trail to follow pointing the way to the mausoleum."
After returning to the boat we took the dinghy out to check our crab pot. Unfortunately, we only had one crab so we left it over night but we realized the next day (as I'm writing this) that it was actually a rock crab.
Tonight seemed like a great night to go out to dinner so we visited the deck cafe at McMillan's. Our food was terrific and our waitress had a cute Romanian accent.
I never get tired of the sunsets when we are out boating. This was the view we had tonight.
We began our morning with a lot of chaos as we tried to do too many things at once. I was ready to start cooking breakfast when we decided to go out and bring in the crab pot we dropped yesterday. When we got out there we discovered we had four legal crabs so we put them in our bucket and then dropped the pot back in the water to try for a few more. Jerry and I both had licenses so our hope was to get 10 today. When we got back to the boat I began cooking breakfast while Bob and Jerry tried to figure out how to put our new crab cooker together. In the middle of that, Holly kept pouring sea water over the crabs and changing out the water to keep them aerated. She said every time she poured more water in they got more active. She even demonstrated for us what the crabs looked like! We finally got the cooker assembled, filled with water and put out on the dock so Jerry could clean the crab and drop them in the pot.
We can't remember what this picture of Holly attacking Bob was about but we figure it probably had something to do with Bob saying Holly was crazy!
They finally got cooked, we had a good blueberry pancake breakfast in the middle of it all, and then sat down to crack and clean the crab. We ended up with 2-1/2 pounds of crab to eat and freeze. We were very happy with our catch and had wonderful crab cocktails for dinner.
We went for another walk today and took Holly and Jerry down to the old lime quarry. We had hoped to take them out to the woods by the airport on those trails, too, but we ran out of time. There is just so much to do at Roche Harbor. That is why we like it here so much. You can do as much, or as little, as you want to and still have a wonderful time.
As you approach Roche Harbor you can see a huge house with turrets being built on the hillside. It has a spectacular view of the marina and the islands. We walked up to look at it while we were there. It is part of a housing development going in there and I'm sure the other homes will be just as amazing.
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Holly and Jerry got in a little kayaking before dinner.
In the evening, we did something that we had not planned on. There is a community theater called Island Stage Left that specializes in Shakespearean plays. They perform on a stage out in the woods and the cost is free but the suggested donation is $20 payable on-line or at any time. The actors did a great job and we were able to learn the whole story of Romeo and Juliet. I knew the basic story but not the details of the play so it was fun to see the production. The costumes were modern day which took me by surprise but the script was as Shakespeare wrote it. This photo shows a different set than we had at Roche Harbor but was taken from this season at their show on another island.
Our last day of our get-away is Day 1 of the Commodore's Cruise. We dropped Holly and Jerry in Anacortes as we joined up with the Edmonds Yacht Club for two more weeks of fun. We had so much fun with Holly and Jerry. We are so blessed to have such good friends. Thanks for going with us!
