It went off without a hitch. This story requires a tiny bit of set up. Jaina and I met a zillion years ago on Lopez. Many years she goes back up to Lopez at various times of year, and occasionally helps out with their Community Shakespeare productions. This year the little kids (1-8th grade) were doing The Tempest, and the older kids were doing The Merry Wives of Windsor. I thought the girls would like The Tempest and love an adventuresome visit to Jaina so I got everything in order and P made trip reservations. Somehow I managed to keep this secret until…

6am (otherwise known as dark o’clock on a Saturday morning). We woke them up with “Time to rise and shine, young ladies, if we’re going to make it to Jaina’s in time for lunch!” Marian’s response was, “reallyreallyreallyreallyreallyreally!?!?!?!?” Yes, reallyreallyreallyreallyreallyreally. We told them to bring puppy & kitty, and Phil (M2′s beloved, bedraggled stuffed groundhog). M2 wanted to know what time the ferry was going to pick us up. I told her we had to drive to the ferry, and then drive the car ON to the ferry. Her eyes got wide, then wider as she took in the implications of driving a car on to a ferry. I told her the ferry carried lots of cars and was a really really big boat. She said, “I guess so!”Then we dropped the bomb that we were also spending the night at an inn. Jaina had plenty going on, and the girls never get to spend the night in hotels, so it would be an extra treat. I packed their suitcase the previous weekend so as not to trigger suspicions.

And then at 6:30, we were off to the Anacortes ferry dock. Which was cold. P mocked me for retreating to the car, but it was really really cold. He marched the girls up and down the ferry line and took them to see if they could see the ferry coming in. M1 eventually spotted it & then they came back and steamed up my car. As promised, we drove the car on to the ferry. Once we pulled away from the dock, P took the girls to the front to look out the window. It doesn’t seem like 17 knots/h (about 20 mph) is all that fast… until you’re standing at the front of the boat. Once he was done, I took them up to the second passenger level & pointed out that there was another level for the steering cabins too, just for the benefit of seeing M2′s eyes widen again at the size of the boat. And then it was time to land.

From Lopez

We drove off the ferry and proceeded to Holly B’s Bakery for cinnamon rolls (the best cinnamon rolls in the world). It’s an island tradition. And that was the place that baked P’s and my wedding cake too. Jaina showed up, we ducked into the little cafe next door for chai, then went and checked into the inn. Jaina waited while we unloaded our stuff, then we followed her to her house for the promised lunch. On the way we stopped at the tiny church that we got married in (top picture there, the cemetery across the street owns the church). The little church only holds about 50 people total, so between family and friends, we had it pretty well filled. Later we came back and found the microcache at the site too.

From Lopez

Lunch was wonderful. Yoram made a “roadside” salmon (Jaina said it was the weirdest roadside stand she’d ever seen with salmon, shellfish, and some other non-fruit or produce goods), an excellent potato salad, and broccoli. I baked bread to bring with us, so we had that as well. It was cozy & lovely & we soon found it time for Jaina to head into town, and we followed, M2 fell asleep in the car. We dropped Yoram off in town, then took M2 back to the inn to sleep (dark o’clock and lots of excitement is very early for a little girl!). Paul and M1 ventured into the village for a bit, then it was time for The Tempest!

The kids all did really well, despite three of the cast being knocked out by chicken pox (can’t get either more community than that, or more classic story about community plays!). The subs did a fine job and it was a lot of fun to see. Jaina was the stage manager. The performance was done ‘in-the-round’, and every time M2 heard Jaina’s voice behind the curtains, she’d say, “MOM! I hear JAINA!” And every time the lights dimmed, and the set was changed, she’d point Jaina’s dark figure out as well. It was all very exciting.

After the performance, we went and fetched dinner from the Galley, then back to the inn. I think we were all pretty much asleep by 9:45.

M2 with Phil in his “bed”.

From Lopez

Both girls curled up and giggling way too hard to go to sleep.

From Lopez

Alas, they did not sleep in. They woke up at 6:30 in the morning. Dark o’clock, as far as I’m concerned. On the upside, there was a Muppet movie on the tv to distract them while we tried to snooze a little more, and then we were off to Jaina’s for breakfast. Tasty local farm eggs, scrambled, and fresh from the oven ginger scones for breakfast. NOM. Then we walked down to the beach. Or rather, we walked to where the beach would be, had it not been a winter high tide. There was approximately two feet of beach. Quilty, one of Jaina’s cats, walked all the way down there with us, and back. Apparently she’s followed Jaina all the way down to another further away beach as well. Quilty is a funny and most adorable cat.

Eventually all good things must come to an end. We left and picked up a few more cinnamon rolls for breakfast, and then hit the ferry landing. Found one of the ferry godmother caches while waiting, then boarded our ferry for home. Eventually the sun broke through briefly, allowing M1 to take this shot as a beautiful end to a beautiful weekend.

From Lopez

I got some spinning done. Discovered clothes moths in the big fleecy-fleece I’ve been working on. It got pulled out of the freezer today & it’s now a priority to finish carding & get it spun up. I didn’t finish P’s gloves yet. I made a dent in them & there’s still time to make a further dent. Without really thinking about it, I bought a hank of merino/alpaca blend for $9 — 50g of it. Um. I tend to spin at a weight of just under one yard per gram & ended up with 57.5 yards. For $9. Note to self — these are good things to remember! Ah well. It’s pretty & it turns out that it goes with a big ol’ hank of some green yarn I’ve got… maybe I’ll make a hat out of them. Now to find a hat pattern. Think I might want to full it. Wheee!

There’s some things I didn’t get done too. But… it is what it is. A Bit of Fry & Laurie is on — yay, netflix. I’m going to get to carding. Gawd, I hate carding! I want a drum carder! But… back to the carding anyway.

Last night my father said he had an announcement. He said my aunt has traced our family line back to a common ancestor with George W. Bush. My brother said, “OH! This is terrible! My sweet sister-in-law says, “Does that mean we get some of the oil money?” My brother says somewhat less dramatically, more straight-faced, but no more seriously, “No, you have to be related to Cheney to get that.” Heh. I love my [immediate] family.

We had a cake fight for M2′s birthday party. She had two little friends come over for cake and ice cream. The first cake I made had a typo on the box & the cake cooked 5-10 minutes too long. It was *awful*. Rubbery & brown. Seriously, frisbee-like. It seemed like a good idea to let them play cake frisbee. So I did. They threw it at each other. Both round pieces lasted alarmingly long being thrown around. 15-20 minutes before the little girls started going feral on it & tearing it to pieces with their hands & throwing pieces at each other. They pelted the mommy of one of the little girls when she came to pick her little girl up. Fortunately she kinda knew what was up. The other mommy didn’t so much & I think she was really perplexed by all the pieces of cake in the front yard… Oh well. My dad said we should call them in with, “Ok, time to pick the pieces up so we can frost it and have some ice cream now!” We did. It was met with unbelieving giggles & everyone came in and had good cake, tender cake, cake that wouldn’t have lasted the first throw, much less the next 20 minutes. Then they went out and threw cake around some more. It was awesome. Cake fight. More parties should have cake fights. All these other “party games?” Should just give up. Cake fight is where it’s at.

And that’s that. Kind of. Or at least the relevant parts.