July, in a nutshell, was awesome

Alright - I'm clearly to damn busy having fun to keep up with this blog. I'm two months behind in working on my photographs and getting them into online albums and way behind on the blog. But I do this to have fun too, so finally I'm in the mood to write up a blog about July. This will be short on text though - Jay and I spent the day beating up our crappy old countertops to get ready for new counters that will be installed on the 8th. Yes! It was great to show the tile who is boss yo.

Alright - here is all of July in one massive post of photos and terse descriptions... It started with a visit from Jay's sister, Allison (Lee). It was a short but very sweet visit with enough time to play outside, eat well, and discuss a bright future for Lee as she just finished her N.P. degree and is ready to begin to practice!

 Lee in the Anacortes Community Forest Lands

Once Lee left, we headed to Canada - our tradition over July 4th holds strong - get the heck outta America! Except it was going to be hot (over 100 degrees!) in BC and coastal Anacortes would have been nicer. Oh well, at least we escaped the firework insanity. We were thinking of hiking along a ridgeline in Manning Provincial Park, but we opted for a cooler, lower elevation hike in the forest and along lakes beckoning us for a dip. Here is Jay along the Lightening Lakes trail heading out to a backcountry camp.

 Lakeside peace

 

Flash Lake, Manning Provincial Park

The next weekend we went for a paddle along the north coast of the Olympic Peninsula. It was a dead calm rainy day - perfect for a gorgeous paddle along a stretch of coast that could have big scary waves. I love this photograph of Jay in all the kelp.

What a great spot for lunch! And all the bushes behind us were loaded with ripe thimbleberries! Bliss!

Jay floating over his anemone study subjects. Look at how clear the water is! 

Julie and Alaria - lovin' my gorgeous boat.

We played the rest of the weekend with our old friend Ralph and his girlfriend, Alana. The boyz went freediving for some Dungeness crab while Alana and I went for a lovely walk.

We managed to get in some cider tasting at Finn River before rushing to Port Townsend to catch the ferry.

Anacortes is gorgeous in the summer. Here is a plant sale during Shipwreck Day - the giant yard sale that occupies the entire downtown one day in July. We love Shipwreck Day!

Jay and I met up with Nickie at Chateau St. Michelle for an outdoor Harry Connick Jr. concert. The best part was that he played a lot of songs from "Oh My Nola" - my favorite album of his with lots of New Orleans jazz.

Chateau St. Michelle 

Trying out my synchronized swimming moves with Karl watching on

I spent the following week running a big geoduck dive survey based out of Port Townsend for the week. To get the job done we worked with divers/biologists from four different tribes as well as the 2015 Our World-Underwater Scholarship Society North American Scholar. It was the first time Swinomish (and I) took the lead on a geoduck surveys and after a few hiccups, we got our groove on and finished the entire survey in the week. Yes!

Rocky, Cathy, Max, Karl, Julie, Michele, Courtney

Weighing and measuring the geoducks is always entertaining

Even though Michele and I were beat after a long week of diving and logistics, we ramped it up to celebrate the 21st birthday of the Anacortes Brewery with friends from Shannon Point Marine Center!

My favorite part of the birthday celebration - Bartender Olympics! Yes! In this photo three of our favorite bartenders in town go for it during the tricycle race (ride around a block without spilling your tray of water), while the head brewer for Anacortes Brewery looks on in the background.

July photos are here: https://picasaweb.google.com/111221596171793333099/July2015?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCPf_3qWXtKSWxgE&feat=directlink