We had a wonderful Labor Day weekend at Port Ludlow with the Edmonds Yacht Club. We arrived with Rylie on Thursday and had a quiet evening with just the three of us.
The forecast is for a beautiful weekend. Rylie is excited to see the other kids that are always at this cruise. Our friends, Jack and Moon, are bringing their daughter, Alecia, and her son Blake with them. It will be fun to see Rylie and Blake get acquainted. The photos show her having a fun time waiting for Blake to arrive. The crab "hat" she is wearing in the last photo is one that I bought and am going to donate to the yacht club for their crab contest.
Grandpa started teaching Rylie how to drive the dinghy and she did great! She ran it all weekend (except when we brought in the crab pot). Grandpa says she docks it better than Grandma does - and I have to admit he is probably right!
When Blake arrived he and Rylie became fast friends. They were together as much as possible leaving us grandparents trying to figure out how to have grandma and grandpa time with them. It was fun, though, and we were happy to see them hit it off so well.
On Saturday we walked up to the community book sale that we look forward to every year. Paperbacks are 50 cents and hardbacks are $1.00. Last year we didn't find much but this year Bob found some great books for himself as well as to sell on ebay. The treasure that we found, though, was a 1944 2nd Edition Dictionary. It is in almost perfect condition. It evens has the vellum sheets between the color plates. The note on it said to make an offer and Bob got it for $10. It is so cool that I would love to just display it on a stand but I think Bob has his eye on it as an ebay auction.
After the book sale we headed up to the tent to do the kids' crafts with Connie. Bob had wooden hydroplanes for them to build. Connie had water bottles with glow sticks inside that they decorated to look like bugs. Such a cute idea!
Face painting is always a hit with kiddos and Sayuri was there with her paints for those who wanted to become an animal. Rylie and Blake both chose a puppy so they had one more fun thing in common.
This afternoon Tom and Deb came by to see us and let us know they were headed over to the Meydenbauer Outstation. While the club did their annual dinghy tour over to that area and the bay beyond, we took Rylie over to the outstation and visited with Tom and Deb
There were three boat christenings today. We have many new club members and many longtime members who are buying new boats. Jim and Dave were both dressed in their summer whites and did a great job of christening the boats. They even added a bottle of champagne for the boat owners to keep as a memento. The christenings, in order, were the Reibmans (Gabbiano), the Zundels (Metacarcinus) and the Longs (Red Sky).
The theme was Redneck Cruise so people were encouraged to dress accordingly. Bob and I didn't anything beyond his camo Cabela's shirt and his cap on backwards. Some of the members went all out and had some great costumes.
Barkley got a lot of loving this weekend. It's no wonder he likes to come on the boat. This one is of Zoe who I caught cuddling with him before dinner.
The kids had fun playing cornhole while the adults enjoyed the social hour before dinner.
Today started out with golf for those who were interested and crafts for the kids. Rylie took some rocks she found to the craft table to decorate. Jack and Moon left with their daughter and Blake so they could do some sightseeing in Seattle. Rylie found plenty to do with the other kids and with grandma and grandpa.
We went out about 4:00pm to pull up our crab pots. I wanted Rylie to experience what it was like to go crabbing but I probably terrified her for life! One escaped from the cage and was skittering around on the floor. She thought it was funny afterward but it certainly startled her when he landed on the floor. I believe today is the last day of the season and they have really been picked over. We found lots of females or very small males. We did find one that we could keep and I brought it back (cooked!) for Rylie's family to enjoy. I did decide to use these photos for an educational purpose. The second photo shows a female and the second is male. It is very easy to tell the difference once you know what to look for.
Three more christenings took place today. The Madisons (Compadre), the Porterfields (Extra Tuff) and then the Starks (Sound Trek).
Tonight at sunset Jim Metcalfe conducted a flag retirement ceremony using proper protocol for disposing of a tattered or no longer used United States flag.
We headed back to Everett about 10:30 Monday morning. We had a wonderful weekend with the yacht club and with Rylie. This is why we got our bigger boat. We want to share these fun times with our kids and grandkids and Synnova is perfectly suited to our needs.
