Sincerely, Denise

PENDRELL SOUND ON ANCHOR, GORGE HARBOUR, SQUIRREL COVE (Again), AND BACK TO PENDRELL SOUND

LAST POST OF THIS BLOG (Unless something really exciting happens)

Tuesday, August 4^th through Wednesday, August 12^th

I’ve been told that it is disappointing when my blog just abruptly stops, so I am writing this last post to close out the season. We've concluded our "adventure boating" trip to Alaska and have wound down to family time and a lazy return to home. We’ve had a WONDERFUL week starting August 1st with the Kids, Grandkids, and the Alvords and their clan. The kids were in the water every morning until dinner time, paddleboarding, swimming, playing “King of the Hill” on the Alvord's giant floating mat, eating up a storm, falling into bed every night exhausted (parents exhausted too!) only to get up and do it again. We went clam digging and oyster collecting one morning, and took them with us to our next stop at Gorge Harbour for 2 nights. We spent 4 glorious nights in Pendrell all rafted together, sharing meals, swapping stories, and floating behind the boats in our pool toys too – the warm water wasn’t just for the kids! We pulled up anchor on Friday, August 7^th, and took the whole flotilla over to Gorge Harbour where they have a nice pool and hot tub, grocery store, laundry, and garbage drop. We had two nice gatherings on shore at the Gorge’s picnic tables so as not to have the mess on any of our boats! Friday night we cooked up the clams two ways, one a traditional wine, butter, garlic broth, and the other a thai red curry/coconut milk preparation. Rounding out the meal was clam linguine, Caesar salad, and olive bread from Trader Joes. It was a feast! Then we enjoyed live music on shore hosted by the marina into the evening, it was a lovely day. Saturday night we had Happy Hour on shore at the picnic tables and cooked up all the oysters, again the kids delightfully playing in the water at the beach below. Endless entertainment for the littles when there is water to play in!

This week we have Ashley and her boyfriend Alex on the boat and plan to do some fishing, prawning, oystering and clamming, and of course more sunning at Pendrell Sound and surrounds, and then they fly out Saturday, August 15^th. From there we will start to make our way back to the states, attending our club’s rendezvous at Roche Harbor on the weekend of August 21-23, and eventually making our way back to Bellevue by September 1^st. UPDATE: Fish caught! Ashley has her limit!

It’s been a great summer of adventure boating, so many memories, but I am ready to be home. We have been way too sedentary and my jeans show it! Too much good living and not enough exercise. When we were with the Alvord family, their daughter Angie who is a crossfit instructor, led Lori and I through the senior citizen workout one day, and I was sore after that! I should have been doing that workout all summer and maybe wouldn’t be fluffy! Oh well! Anyway, thanks for following along this summer for those of you who stayed connected. Until the next adventure…..Happy Travels to all.