Twisp of Fate

Last week we took off for a road trip to Port Townsend and Lake Quinault on the Olympic Pensinsula.  We were celebrating our 40th anniversary, and visiting family & friends.  We stayed the first night at my Dad’s house in Anacortes, and my brother and sister-in-law came up from Camano Island and we all cooked a meal together.  Nice relaxing evening and a good start to the trip.

We stayed 2 nights in Port Townsend in a little cottage down on Discovery Bay.  No TV, beach right below for walking.  Very quiet and I read an entire Martha Grimes mystery (found on the shelf in the cottage) in 2 days.  We had some wonderful meals in Port Townsend.  Being somewhat Asian-food deprived over here in the valley, we really enjoyed Hanazono Asian Noodle, one of my favorite finds from being out there at knitting retreat in the fall.  For our actual anniversary on March 17th, we went to The Fountain Cafe (they don’t have their own website).  Since they don’t really “do” St. Patrick’s Day, it was a quiet and intimate setting for our dinner together.

40 years! think of that

…and we still like each other!

On Monday we headed out to Lake Quinault, where our longtime friends own and operate a small cabin resort on the north shore of the lake – actually inside the national park boundaries:  Lochaerie Resort.  They moved out there a couple of years ago and tore down and completely rebuilt the main house for their new home.  Rick had built bathroom vanities for their 2 upstairs bathrooms, so we had a full truck and he had work to do installing once we got there.  I’ll wait for photos until the countertops and sinks are installed (we will be back out there in June), but the cabinets are clear fir and looked great.

A major storm system moved through Washington this week, and by the second day there were strong winds and lashing sheets of rain coming down – this is the rainforest, after all.  Not a good day for walking but a good day for knitting (me), conversation, reading, after dinner card games and movies.  And hanging a bear skin rug in the Lochaerie office:

When we left Wednesday morning, it was actually snowing (a wet snow) at the lake and there was plenty of snow up in the mountains all around.  Beautiful!

Dropped off my new tool, an older Wolf Clipper round-knife cutter, at C.H. Holderby’s in Seattle on the way over, and picked it up all tuned up on the way home.

I bought it on eBay about a month ago, for a fraction of what a new one costs, and it ran fine – but, as pictured above, it had no safety guard.  Rick was sure, probably with good reason, that I was in danger of cutting off one or more fingers!  So we called Wolf Machine Co. and ordered the safety guard and Rick installed it.  But it still needed some adjustments to both the guard and the honing stones.  When we picked it up on Thursday, one of the tech guys told me it would outlive me, and since it is probably already at least 30-40 years old, I think that sounds like one fine machine.

I will use it to cut through multiple layers of fabric to produce strips for weaving rugs and other things.