Christmas 2019

The highlight, or lowlight, of our trip to Ashland was a blowout in the fast lane next to a semi truck.  We managed to get the car off the road and had to figure out where the spare was, which involved taking out, on a windy day with temps in the 30s, all the luggage we had packed.  We made it to a Les Schwab, and because my Sorrento is AWD, ended up with a whole new set of tires.  Other than that we had a good trip.

Aaron and Dad on Lake Washington

Aaron and Dad did a few of the Sound Rowers (http://www.soundrowers.org) distance races this year including the Mercer Island Sausage Fest (they serve sausages at the end of the race).  Aaron did the 13.1 mile distance race, which went all the way around Mercer Island, and was 2nd in the HPK (surfski) category behind 2 time Olympic gold medalist Greg Barton.  Dad did the short course against not as much competion and was first in the HPK division.

New Water Heater

Our water heater at Breezy Point finally died and we had to get a new one.  The only interesting thing about that is that our plumber, who has been in the business for a while, is pretty sure it's the oldest water heater he's ever replaced.  It has a date from the 1950s on it and a Sears Roebuck placard.

Yet Another Breezy Point Project

At our Breezy Point house we have a little (~8'x8') cinderblock shed down by the water that was probably built in the 1950s and over the last 70 years has acquired a lean toward the Sound, and has a shake roof that is falling apart.  Rebuilding the whole thing would have been a huge project involving lots of digging.   The back wall appears to have extra concrete and is anchored into the hill.  So, I decided to get creative and basically just made a giant shim.  I poured some concrete to make the front wall perpendicular again, and created a new level roofline.  I skim coated the walls with concrete so the slanting lines of the cinder blocks wouldn't be visible. There was a last step of of putting siding on the open sections that isn't shown.

Dad and Noah Catch Lots of Fish!

Dad and Noah went to Westport again to do a charter with Captain Nick on our favorite boat--the High Life.  After an early 5 AM start, we had to go close to 30 miles north to get to the salmon, but once there we hit our limit pretty quickly of 2 good size silver (coho) salmon each, and then also each hit our limit of rockfish (also called sea bass).  On the last cast of the day Dad also managed to bring up a 12 pound lingcod which was a nice bonus!   We put it all on ice and when we get home Cynthia vacuum packs and freezes it all, and we have a fish supply that lasts for a while.

Gem Lake Backpacking Trip

Noah and Dad did a quick backpack trip up to Gem Lake in the Alpine Lakes wilderness area off of Snoqualmie Pass.  It's a bit farther than Snow Lake, which is one of the most popular destinations in the Northwest.  Fortunately we left fairly early on Friday morning, found a good campsite, and had the place mostly to ourselves.  The number of people we passed on our way down though on Saturday that were headed up to Snow Lake was astonishing.

Aaron's Track Meet

This is one of Aaron's track meets (at Ranier Beach High School).   Aaron ended up being the captain of the Roosevelt track team for his senior year.   This the the 4x400 team that ended up qualifying for the state championship.  Aaron is running the anchor leg here for Roosevelt.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ES9M2SGK5xo&t=19s

Snow in Seattle!

We got some decent snow in the winter of 2018-2019.

 Aaron built an igloo!

Deck in Seattle is snowed in

 We got even more snow at our Breezy Point house.  Somewhere 

there's a driveway in this picture.