Purdy in 1948

I dropped my car off early this morning for new brakes and decided to walk home via the Cushman Trail. At the beginning of the trail are some pictures and information about the trail as to where it starts and where it ends. I guess it probably ends in Purdy, because as you can see, the power lines go across water and it's tough for anyone other than Jesus to get across without getting very very wet.

I loved this picture because it brought back so many memories of how things were when I was 8 years old. The old sawmill is the huge building to the right of the bridge, the grocery store that dad ran in the late 50's just to the left of the bridge....and best of all.....just above the car is the old dining car where we used to enjoy a meal from time to time.

It is barely visible, but it's there, with a section of it hanging over the edge above the water.

I heard that it went to it's grave on that spot.

I am sure glad Frank Shaw took so many wonderful pictures of the harbor and surrounding areas and it behooves us all to do the same.

Jacob Michael

It's a boy....born at 5:43 am, May 22, 2009.

He is beautiful, precious, and don't ya know, he was born on my grandmothers' birthday. I have a feeling she's looking down and saying, this so soooo fine.

Fleet

June 6th is the Maritime Festival in Gig Harbor and the following day, June 7th, is the annual Blessing of the Fleet.
For family and friends of the commercial fishermen, the blessing is a special day.
The priest from St. Nicks church walks down the hill from the church, accompanied by the color guard of the Knights of Columbus, they rhendezvous with the Mayor of Gig Harbor at Jerisich Dock, then board a small boat for the blessing ceremony and the laying of the wreath in memory of past fishermen. It's a very touching ceremony as father blesses each boat as he passes.
The captains try to get their boats into position by noon, which ends up around 1:00, with boatloads of food, drink, music and just plain fun for all.
If you don't see what you like on your craft's menu, all you need to do is explore the others and there's a pretty good chance you'll find it.
Last year for the first time, Tom Drohan ran one of the tour boats from his new business, Destiny Harbor Tours, and ferried folks back to the dock when they were ready to call it a day. He has started a tour business using surplus US Navy boats.
I sure hope he is out there again this year...cause I am usually one of the first to run out of steam :)

Happy Birthday Son

Today is my middle son's 43rd birthday. Here he is with his oldest daughter who is now 5 years old. My how time flies.

He arrived home from his long trip up the coast from California just in time to celebrate, as you can see from the video that I took off my deck early this morning.

Because of bad weather, he and his brothers who were bringing another boat up, spent a bit of time in Eureka, Cal. and Newport, Oregon.

It is nervewracking, to say the least, when all my sons are out at sea in their not so big boats and ever so nice to have them safely home.

Snow

Would you believe it's snowing on Snoqualmie Pass. It's May 12th and I can't say that I have ever seen snow this time of year.

Many believe the colder weather we are having is due to the lack of sunspots.

If I were a betting person, I'd bet on the global cooling folks and not so much on Al Gore and his bunch of thugs.

Happy Mother's Day

Mother's Day when I was forty was a busy one as I had a one year old in the house, plus a fourteen year old and a seventeen year old.

He is soon to be thirty and soon to be the new father of a son. How nice is that :o)

Bike Tube Belt

Who'd a thunk you could make a belt out of an old bike inner tube. Check this site and see what else can be done with used tubes. If you have any and want to get rid of them, they're worth $5.00 dollars on May 16th and 17th at Performance Bicycle.

The tire on my wheelborrow has an innertube and it is constantly flat. I wonder why they didn't just use a solid tire. Don't they realize we are constantly running over stickers and things sharp???? Well of course they do, and of course that means they will be able to sell lots and lots of new tubes...aarrgghhhh...the whole thing is a plot.

Women Leaders

Flat Roofs

I always wondered why homes were built with flat roofs in Valdez. Winter must have involved lots of time shoveling snow so that it didn't end in yer living room.

This picture was taken in the early 50's.

Today's the day

Liberty Belle

What a fun day it was for my daughter-in-law's dad yesterday.

The Liberty Belle made a stop this weekend at Boeing Field, on it's tour of the country. Bob robbed his piggy bank of $400.00 and treated himself to a ride over Puget Sound on the restored B-17, dubbed the "flying fortress".

There were a total of 12,732 B-17’s produced between 1935 and May 1945. Of these 4,735 were lost in combat. Following WWII, the B-17 saw service in three more wars. B-17’s were used in Korea, Israel used them in the war of 1948 and they were even used during Vietnam.Today, fewer than 100 B-17 airframes exist and fewer still are in airworthy condition. At one time, more than 1000 B-17’s could be assembled for mass combat missions, now less than 15 of Boeings famous bombers can still take to the sky.

The picture above shows one of the guns aimed directly at downtown Seattle, with the Space Needle and Coliseum just above the barrel.

It was a beautiful day for flying and while he was in the air, the kids, mama and gramma stayed behind and enjoyed all that the Museum of Flight has to offer.

Talk about a really fun day.

Hanging in there

We haven't seen her for the second day straight now. Is she awake? Is she wondering where we have gone? One more day to go, and it is really getting hard on us all. Tough to be away from home, work, school and friends. And worst of all, to not be with her, to comfort our little girl. Leaving her on Thursday, at the end-was terrible. She had a runny nose, was a bit grumpy and hot, and felt poorly. And she wanted us so bad, even me. She kept reaching out to us, it was so hard to leave here there. What are we doing here, with so much time?We keep sneaking out the pictures, Kaia and I, at different times through the day. I found this one-and it tells a little story. There was some confusion with our driver being late at the end of our visit, so we got to go into the general area for 30 'extra' minutes, and be with her for snack time, potty, and put her down for nap. All the kids knew the routine, by heart. They were so excited for The Cracker! Sylvi wouldn't take hers until Kaia was next to her, and then immediately wanted to go back to her, to be held AND eat. Kaia knelt down with her, to stay her in the seat, but Sylvi would not let go of her hand. She loved the feeling, something no one has ever done I'm sure. In this picture, Sylvi is smiling at the other little lost souls around the table, just feeling great about herself. The others are just staring at this beautiful woman, who is staring at their friend and holding her hand, wiping her little face, smiling at her.To the workers at the orphanage, I'm sure they think Sylvi is totally spoiled, on the road to becoming our American baby. Heck, from what we've seen, we are all spoiled. Sylvi was dressed in the outfit we brought her, clean white shirt, sweet capri pants, her hair combed, face washed, new shoes. Kaia had even timmed her hair a bit, to fix the 'mullet' they had left her. And think; just being held for a few seconds is a special time for the kids there. She LOVES Kaia. She doesn't know Mommy, what that is. But Kaia makes her feel so good, and is so comforting, always gentle, knows what she needs. Kaia can't wait to 'spoil' her with attention, maybe stroke her face when she goes to sleep, pick her up when she cries, wipe her nose, or even hold her hand while she eats. Wow.I know that it won't be easy. I know there will be hard times ahead. But every day we can walk upstairs in our house, to Sylvi's room, and see her in her bed, sit and stroke her hair, tell her a story when she can't sleep, or just hold her hand; that is something we all will feel lucky to do. Just to have her, to be able to work out some problem she is having, any hour of the day, or night. That will be ok, she will be home, and know that we love her. That's what we talk about now, wake up in the night thinking about when the wind blows.We are getting there, slowly. Tomorrow is Sunday-another no visit day that will be hard to take. But then Monday we see her. Tuesday is the day she is ours by Russian Law. Tuesday night in this hotel, 5 of us together-waiting to spoil this little girl, just a bit. That I can take.