Kitsap and Olympic Peninsula Shop Hop and Geocaching

It's that time again...the Western Washington Shop Hop!  This year celebrated the 24th year of this event.  I've gone a few years with Mom or Grandma or Mom and Grandma.  This year Mom and Grandma did a couple days here and there with their quilt guild.  Mom talked me into going with them (Mom, Grandma and Janice) to Kitsap County and the Olympic Peninsula. We were going to take the Escape.  I made sure it had a full tank of gas the night before.

I got up at 8:15 and got ready.  I packed some snacks and drinks in my orange backpack just in case.  Mom, Grandma and Janice rumbled into the driveway around 9.  Everyone used the restroom one more time and then hopped into the Escape.  Most of the shops opened around 10 a.m. and closed around 5 p.m.  We had a lot of ground to cover,

Our first shop was Shabori Dragon, up in University Place.  We literally drove into the parking lot at 10 a.m. sharp.  Mom bought Grandma some fabric, they got their passports stamped and their free pattern.  I went to go use the restroom and saw they took advantage of the space inside the bathroom.  All of their stencils were in there.  I thought that was hilarious.  Mom paid for her fabric, and we hopped back into the Escape.

We drove over the Narrows Bridge and into Gig Harbor.  Mom said this quilt store had moved and used to be further down the road away from Hwy 16 near the Cougar store.  I followed Nuvi to Sew Hip, found a parking spot and we all went inside.  Their store was decorated in a cute beach theme.  We got our passports stamped and everyone got the free pattern.  We thanked them as we walked out the door.

Next, we drove up to Manchester, which is east of Port Orchard.  We got back onto Hwy 16 and followed Nuvi to A+.  I dropped them off and I went further into town to grab the virtual cache, Manchester Veteran's Memorial (GC9P5HA).  I had to answer questions from the plaque down below the sign.  I got a picture of the plaque, me at the sign and walked back to the Escape.  I drove the short distance back to the quilt store.  I parked and went inside.  Mom was in line to purchase some fabric she liked.   We got back into the Escape, I put the next address into the Nuvi and off we went. 

Our next shop was Sherry's Cozy in Poulsbo.  It was about a 40-minute drive through Bremerton and Silverdale.  We hit a couple patches of traffic but nothing too horrible.  Poulsbo was pretty busy, but the quilt store was really easy to get in and out of.  We went inside and they got their passport stamped and their free block.  We kept seeing this certain type of fabric at every single quilt store we've been to.  It was a paper bag colored fabric with various designs of neon colors all over it.  It literally looked like a paper bag with highlighters all over it.  For those of you who are old enough, we used to use old paper bags to wrap our school text books up in and used Sharpies and highlighters to decorate them.  This fabric looked exactly like that but without the Sharpies.  We got back into the Escape and drove down to Bainbridge Island.     

Mom and I have only been here once back in May 2016.  We took a day trip and drove up there to do some of the state parks and to go see Frog Rock.  I have never been to the actual town center and wow; we picked the wrong day to come down there.  There were tons of people walking around.  The farmer's market was going, and it made it really hard to find a parking spot.  We did eventually find a spot and we walked down into town.  They went to the quilt store while I wandered around for a few minutes.  There was an Adventure Lab in town, but I was only able to do two of the waypoints before meeting back up with them in Ester's Fabrics. 

We had to wait for our group to use the restroom, so I sat down and colored a fox picture with some crayons.  When I was done, the shop lady told me I could put it on the wall.  They liked that I put my name and the date on it and gave me a high five.  We left and walked back up the short hill to the Escape.  We drove back up through Poulsbo which was pretty much the only back tracking we had to do.

A little further up the peninsula, was a quaint town called Port Gamble.  Just before town, there was a recreational area off to the left and I wanted to stop to get at least one of the WSGA 20th Anniversary GeoTour. We stopped at Heritage Park in the parking lot, and I got out to look for WSGA20-OP-5 Port Gamble Heritage Park (GC9YJGD).  It was near the parking lot but because the tree cover and it kind of led me astray.  I did eventually figure it out and it was easier than I was making it.  I got our names on it, got a picture and put it back.  I walked back to the Escape and got back on the highway towards town.  Port Gamble was adorable, and I can't believe I haven't been there before.

I wasn't sure where we were supposed to go so, I parked over by the general store.  They walked to the quilt store, the Quilted Strait, while I went inside the store to browse.  Mom had given me a dollar so I could get her an Almond Joy while I found a postcard and a sticker to bring home with me.  I used the bathroom before I left. 

I went outside and opened up the Adventure Lab and had enough time for 8 of the 10 waypoints while I waited for them at the quilt store.  

I ended up making the circle and went inside the quilt store to see if they were still in there.  The lady asked if I could be helped, and I told her I was looking for my people.  She said she had a group of three ladies that came in and just left.  I told her they were probably my people, and I was their driver, lol.  I thanked her and walked back to the general store.  I saw them ahead of me and saw Mom trying to call me.  I answered the phone and told her I was right behind them.  I met up with them and got back in the Escape to head to our next location.  

We headed up Hwy 104 and had to cross the Hood Canal Floating Bridge to get to the Creative Union Fabrics quilt store just south of Port Townsend in Port Hadlock.  We came to a complete stop just before we got to the bridge.  I looked up why we were stopped.  The WSDOT app said that it would be closed for about an hour to let a ship pass through.  What?  Were we going to have to wait here for an hour?  Noooo!  As luck would have it, we only had to sit there for about 15 minutes before traffic started moving again.  So lucky!  We crossed the bridge and followed the GPS to the quilt store.  We had to wear masks inside because the owner is immune compromised.  We got our passport stamped and the free pattern.  I bought some fabric for a possible table runner for our wedding. 

I plugged in our last address into Nuvi, A Stitch in Time in Sequim.  It was about a half hour drive from Port Townsend.  Along the way, we listened to Janice tell us stories about her family. 

We arrived in town, and I was trying to remember the last time I was in Sequim, it had to have been during the tail end of Covid, when Mom and I drove up to do some water fall hikes, in August 2021.  We made our way down to the main road through Sequim, found the shop and parked in the large lot just outside the entrance.  We admired the large mural on the outside of the building.  I saw it was part of a multicache, but I didn't have time to do it unfortunately, maybe the next time I was here.  

We went inside, browsed a little bit, got our passports stamped and our free pattern.  I took a bunch of goofy pictures. 

I knew we were going to have to find some food before we left town, so I asked Mom what kind of food she was interested in having and of course she said fish and chips.  I found a fish and chips place a few blocks away called FnChips.  I loved the name so much that's where we were going to go.  We drove a few blocks, found a place along the street to park and went inside. Mom, Grandma and I ordered fish and chips, I paid for Grandma's food and drink and Janice got a chowder bread bowl and had to send it back because the bread was cooked a little bit too long.  She got a brand new one no questions asked.  Overall, the food was pretty good, but they gave us too many French fries.  We ate and headed back out to the Escape to head home.

But before we did, I grabbed The Great Sequim Bike Rice - Stage 3 (GC57G2N) just down the street from where we parked, before heading out of town.  It didn't take me long to find it, I got our names on it, a quick picture and walked back to the Escape.  We got back onto Hwy 101 and drove south towards Olympia. 

We stopped at Triton Cove State Park so Grandma could use the restroom.  I'm glad that I remembered there were places to stop along the way.  We got to my house around 7:30 and everyone went home.  Ben was on shift and didn't get home until 10:30. I logged caches, took a shower, talked to Trish for a bit, ate some popcorn, watched some TV and did a load of laundry.  I did get some of our beach stuff ready to go for the next day.   

Next Adventure:  Father's Day Trip to Ocean Shores

A Courthouse Wedding

On Wednesday March 15th at approximately 9 p.m., I got a random text message from Erika asking me guess what?  Honestly, it could have been anything...it's Erika. Minutes go by and I was wondering if she was actually going to answer me.  A message pops up, Zac just asked me to marry him.  I was like, seriously?  I asked because they like to be weird and tell us strange stuff sometimes.  She says, yes, really.  I added, oh, how did it go down?  She said, they were just hanging out and he just randomly asked her.  She told me she said yes.  I told her I would keep it to myself because it's not my news to tell everyone.  She said okay and told me that she would tell everyone else the next day.

The next few events escalated quickly.  

She told Mom the next day thought a text message because the news was so late in the evening that she was already in bed, so she received it when she got up to go to work.  Then Erika wrote the big news in a family text thread that Friday, so everyone was able to find out the big news. 

Throughout the next couple weeks, Mom and I, talked to Erika about a small family wedding possibly for the end of July.  She actually agreed to it but she and Zac drug their feet about making decisions and getting stuff done.  The first scenario was having it down at Zac's mom's house in Vancouver.  So that's what we planned for.

The end of May and into June, Erika talked about getting out of their rental house because they were tired of dealing with the neighbors, the neighbor's dogs and the landlord, and considered looking into getting their own place.  The main reason was that we couldn't have the wedding at his mom's house anymore because his dad wanted to come to the wedding.  That changed the first scenario and back to the drawing board.  For a while, there weren't any good housing possibilities but ended up getting a relator to do some of the work for them.   

They got immersed in some of the paperwork and because Erika had access to her GI Bill from being in the military, it would be easier for them to purchase a house if they were married.  So, they decided on a courthouse wedding on June 10th and paid the fees and had all the appropriate paperwork ready to go.  I thought that was hilarious because that was the only available day at the venue, we wanted our wedding to be at in Chehalis.  I thought it was too soon and it would probably rain.  Guess what?  I was right.  It did rain.

She called me the Monday before and asked if Ben and I wanted to be the witnesses.  I said sure, we can do that.  She said not to tell anyone because they didn't want to make it a big deal and they didn't want a lot of people there.  I told her we would keep it to ourselves.  She gave us a few more pieces of information like, where it was, what time, etc. We wrote it on the calendar and planned to be there with our nice clothes on.  

The day of, Ben and I got up, got ready and jumped into his Edge around 10:20 so we could be in Olympia by 10:45.  When we got there, we circled the parking lot a few times because I had no idea where building three was.  I've only been to the courthouse once and that was back in 2017 when we took Suzanne to court for being a deadbeat roommate and trying to kill my cat, Calvin.  We all got out and found building three.  

We stood there chatting and Erika showed us her homemade bouquet she made from Dollar Tree items.  As it got closer to 11, two more couples came and one of those couples were military and invited their entire family to bear witness.  That included about 30 people that flew in from various places of the US to be there. 

Around noon, I got cold and had Ben go get my sweatshirt and Zac got his hat since we had been standing outside of the building for over an hour without any updates on the situation.  I can't believe no one was there to let us in knowing they had several appointments that day. We tried calling all the phone numbers on their website, people tried coming up with "clever ideas" to get the cops to come to the courthouse, it was getting daunting and hopeless.  I really didn't want to spend my entire Sunday standing at the courthouse without any direction. 

Erika took initiative and called the non-emergency 911 number to find out if anyone could get a hold of someone who works at the courthouse or to find out why we were not being helped.  The one couple left because they were tired of waiting but the military couple and all of their guests stayed.  They talked to us a couple times throughout the wait.  Erika did get a hold of the sheriff's office and explained the situation.  They knew who to call and told Erika to wait for their phone call after they talked to a few people.  They called her back after about 15 minutes and told us they got a hold of a judge, who spoke to the other judges to find out who was supposed to be there.  He told us someone would be in at 12:30. She thanked them for helping us out.

It approached 12:30 and a guy in plain clothes let us all in through the front door. He apologized profusely for his tardiness.  He gathered all of us into the lobby, with the appropriate paperwork in his hands, and explained what was going to happen.  Erika and Zac were called up first.  We went into the room and the judge frantically got his stuff organized while explaining to us what had happened.   

His son recently had surgery and while his son was recovering something went wrong and he had to go up to Harborview in Seattle and got back really late.  He forgot his was supposed to fill in for another judge and it totally slipped his mind.  We told him it was okay.  He had Erika and Zac sit at the table while he explained the paperwork, he had them sign in the appropriate places and Ben and I were the witnesses and had to sign a couple places.

He got his robe on and had everyone stand up and started his ceremony.  He had Erika and Zac hold hands while he read through his script.  The rings were exchanged, promises were made and repeated and he then pronounced them man and wife and they sealed it with a smooch.  I got a few pictures of the newly wedded couple.  We left the room and the military couple's family cheered for Erika and Zac.  We left the building and decided we were going to follow Erika and Zac to go find some food to thank us for being witnesses to the wedding and waiting a long time. 

We agreed to go to the Outback Steakhouse.  We were actually seated right away, we ordered a bloomin' onion, Erika and I had drinks, I decided to try the lavender drink, we ate bread, ordered food and hung out a bit.  Erika got the shrimp and rice, I had the chicken, broccoli and fries, Ben had the steak and shrimp pasta, and Zac got the bloomin' burger.  We ate our food, sent weird text messages to Doug, paid and Erika and Zac thanked us again for helping out. 

Ben said since we were over on the westside, he wanted to take care of a few errands.   We went to the disc golf store, TJ Maxx, Bed, Bath and Beyond and World Market.  I found a few things at World Market for my cooking endeavors.  We got home, changed our clothes, did a few things around the house and then took a two-hour nap because all the sanding and waiting around made me tired.  Ben played his game and then I worked on putting together addresses for invites to our wedding.  

Next Adventure:  Kitsap and Olympic Peninsula Shop Hop and Geocaching

Bonney Lake Birthdays and Lawn Mowing's at Grandma's House

Friday, June 2nd

I asked Trish about a month ago to see what we were doing for Amy's birthday and if we were going to include Jean since her birthday was a week later.  She said she would get back to me after talking to Amy and Jean.  A few weeks went by, and she told me what the plan was.  I told her we would come up on Friday after work and stay through Saturday evening sometime.  She said that would work perfectly.

The night before, Ben and I did some laundry and packed up our duffle's just so we didn't waste any time getting ready to go after work on that Friday.  We both went to work, doing our normal routines, I got some stuff done during lunch and had a pretty chill afternoon.  I was really hoping Ben's work didn't keep him late since they seem to do that often when we are busy after work and need to drive somewhere.  Amy had chosen her birthday dinner at Hops and Drops so I told Trish we would just meet them at the restaurant.  She said that was fine and that she would see us there.

We left just after 5:30 and expected traffic to be awful since it was a Friday and all, but traffic wasn't all that bad this time around.  I was shocked. I texted Trish updates of when we left and when we got closer to Puyallup.  When she got the Puyallup update, they were on their way to Hop Jacks.  I updated that we had just gotten onto Hwy 410 and will be there shortly.  She said, she will see us in a few minutes.

We got up the hill, had to stop at every single light and we finally made the turn into the complex where Hop Jacks was located. I found a place to park (this place was busy) and got out.  Trish, Amy, David and Ed also got out the car (they had been chillin' for a couple of minutes) and we all walked in together.  We sat in the bar area since we are all over 21.  I looked at the menu and nothing sounded good to me.  I honestly would have rather had a home cooked meal instead. Our waitress got drink orders, I just got a strawberry lemonade and a standard water, and we watched the rest of the Mariner game that was being played on TV. 

We made some small talk; I tried asking Amy questions about her day and she said that she and David spent most of the day together which was nice.  They hardly spend any time together and they've been dating for like 6 years or so.  David had given her a necklace for her birthday earlier in the day and she said we could see it when we got home.  I told her that was nice of him.

Our waitress came back with our drinks and got our food order.  Ben got a burger, and I got the chicken strips and fries because nothing else sounded good.  We chatted a bit more, talked about our week, we all agreed that we were thankful for the weekend and other random things that came up.  I was disappointed in the food.  It just wasn't that good this time around.  Both Ben and Trish agreed with me. Again, we probably would have been better off having a home cooked meal instead.

We paid and continued the party at Trish's house.  Ben and I unloaded our overnight bags, pillows and blankets and got comfortable for the evening.  Amy had asked Trish to get her a cookies and cream ice cream cake, but Trish got the wrong thing and it just ended up being a cookies and cream cake.  Whoops!  Good thing she got some vanilla ice cream too.  Amy turned 35 but Trish didn't have any 3's so she improvised.  2+1=3!  After we sang to her, Amy opened her birthday presents while Trish dished up cake and ice cream.

Ben and I had treated her to a Friends Experience back in April, but I had already purchased a couple gifts months before.  We got her a Friend's picture frame that could be a picture frame or a door decoration...like the one on Rachel and Monica's purple door and a Friend's card game.  Trish got her some roses and David got her that necklace I learned about at dinner time.  She went and got it from her room to show us and Ed got her a Thunderbird's T-shirt.  She thanked us for the gifts.

I even brought up the extra Instant Pot we got from our neighbor Rhonda because I thought it would be a fun thing for Amy and Trish to learn how to use.  It yields some pretty good food; it is easy to use and requires less clean up.     

We played the Friend's card game and a round of Yahtzee while we snacked and drank beer.  

Of course, we stayed up way too late.  It was nice to go to bed when we did.  It was a long, short week. 

Saturday, June 3rd

The next day, I got up, got cleaned up, dressed and went up to the dining room to see if anyone else was up.  Trish was up getting breakfast ready, and Ed was sitting at the dining room table.  We had French toast, turkey bacon and eggs. I asked if she needed any help, and she said I could get the eggs and bacon ready and set up the table.  Ben emerged from downstairs and helped out a bit.  Once food was done, we yelled at Amy to get up because food was done, and we were going to eat it all.  She finally came out of her room looking disheveled.  We were not sure how late she stayed up watching TV.  Of course, everyone had to have their gallons of coffee. 

We ate our food, chatted about random things and asked Trish what kinds of stuff we could help her with while we were over for the day.   We fixed the sink in Amy's room and noticed that the shower was going to need some work someday.  Trish was aware but didn't want to think about it at that point.  I tried convincing Trish to get the truck packed up to go to the dump, but she didn't want to go that day.  I told her, we will next time we have an extra day to get it done.  She knew I would hold her to it too. 

We did a couple more odds and ends and then Jean arrived to spend time with us for the rest of the day.  We spent some time chatting, we played a couple games, we celebrated her birthday since hers was on the 13th.  She didn't want anything for her birthday except to spend time with family.  We had burgers and brats on the grill, beans, potato salad and chips.  We ate it out on her deck and enjoyed the nice day.  We had the rest of Amy's birthday cake as dessert and sang happy birthday to Jean. We played a few more games before it was time for her to go back before it got too late.

We noticed her windshield was really gross so we cleaned it up for her so she could see better. We wanted her to be safe on her way back up to Seattle. We gave out hugs and told her we would see her again sometime soon.  She thanked us for a good time.  After she left, Ben and I got our stuff packed out so we could get ready to head home before it got too late as well.  We thanked Trish for a good time and on our way home we decided to pick up a couple of geocaches and do one of the five waypoint Adventure Labs.

The first one we stopped at was near Sky Island.  I saw one that had a ton of favorite points.  I looked at when it, Itsy Bitsy (GC2644D), was placed, 2010...why haven't we gotten this one?!  There wasn't a great place to park, so we parked inside one of the neighborhoods and walked into the woods.  I wished we would have seen the trail from the sidewalk in, but it was obscured at the correct angle by sticker bushes.  We opted to walk along the pipeline like dorks.  We did get to ground zero but in the most difficult way.  

I was surprised to see how big the spider was hung up in the trees but what a cool geocache!  Ben and I signed the logbook which was inside part of the spider and got several pictures with it.  I asked Ben, aren't you glad we stopped for this one?  He said, YES!  We walked back but this time found the trail we needed.  It was easier walking back to the Escape from the cache.  

I looked to see if there were any more caches we needed and saw that there was one of the WSGA 20th Anniversary caches and told Ben we could grab that as we do the Adventure Lab.  The Adventure Lab took us to Victor Falls, the Sky Stone, a place that talked about the history of the area, we went to the town hall and the actual Bonney Lake, the town's name's sake.  We grabbed WSGA20 - PS - Mole Man (GC9XA63) while we were over in that area.  The cache was underwhelming but it's one more of the many to add to my passport that I probably won't finish but we will see how far I get.

We drove down the hill and got onto 167 to Hwy 512 to head to I-5.  There was no traffic and we got home just before 9 p.m.  We relaxed, ate some popcorn and watched a few episodes of the Big Bang Theory until it was bedtime.  It was nice to see Ben's family and hang out with them.

Sunday, June 4th

The next day was a chore kinda day.  We all went over to Grandma's house to mow the lawn.  I got everyone rallied because with a couple weed eaters, a few lawn mowers we would be able to get a lot done with a lot of people.  I do enjoy the phrase; "many hands make light work."  Grandma's lawn was very high...in some places it came up to my waist while the rest of it was about knee high.

It took us about two hours to mow down all the grass and go over the spots that were really high.  Now Grandma's yard won't look as creepy from the road when people drive by it or when her ladies come over on Tuesdays for their quilting get togethers.  

I asked Grandma if she would fix Doug's "Mom Dog" hat, and she said she would, which is a big win.  Doug had set it aside in the garage and I came across it one day and asked what happened to it.  He said it was broken and didn't bother to ask someone to fix it.  I took initiative and had Grandma fix it for ten bucks.  She said it would be easy to do.

We took the lawn mowers, weed eaters and gasoline containers back over to Mom and Dad's house.  I did some random chores at home, we brushed the kitties because they needed it, our house was getting super furry, made dinner, swept the floor, did some laundry, watched the Heat beat the Nuggets in the NBA playoffs and enjoyed the last day before we had to go back to work.

Next Adventure:  A Courthouse Wedding