Our square dancing class wants to learn the Plus Level this summer, so we are having lessons in my living room, which is just big enough for a square.
And here’s where things are stashed. There are also chairs hidden in the pantry, out of site.
It’s times like these that I have the greatest affection for my little house.
“Do we want my grandmother’s silverware?” Matt asked me via email query.
“Sure” was my reply.
The silverware has arrived. Using only this picture, guess the year in which it was bought. (Don’t read further until you have guessed.)
Look at this nice label in the box, announcing its Solid Stainless status.
And on the back of the informational card, Matt’s grandmother had written the date of purchase.
Did you guess 1965? You are correct!
I’m pretty excited about this silverware.
Here is the “before” shot:
And here is the “after” shot:
Ahhh! So much nicer!
Today was a day to get things done. And I did!
I hung the first of two bike hangers on the back porch. This gets my bike out of our laundry/pantry area. We have plans to also hang Matt’s bike from above. But the ladder in combination with my height was not tall enough to do that project, so that will have to wait until Matt is home.
This picture shows off what part of the paint job didn’t get done. This summer, when they repainted our house, they did not paint the surrounds around the doors, or the doors. I’ve got it on the project list, but I don’t know if it will ever get done because I hate painting. Also because anything with doors means leaving the doors open until the paint dries. Which is more complicated with the cats.
The new bike changes the view from my desk. 
Now I just have to put the pantry in order.
I took this octopus hanger out of the closet and put it closer to the washer. I will hang my washcloths from it.
Our kitchen light wasn’t working. We were down to one working light in the fixture. Time for a new kitchen light.
This is not the best picture, but here is the new fixture I installed. I love that it has LED lights, so we don’t have to change them. We also gained a light with the new fixture. (Four instead of three.)
In the fashion of all projects, there was a trip to the hardware store. I enjoyed coming across this truck, with an improvised–yet decorated–tailgate.
The same truck also had this improvised locking system.
It was a good day of projects.
Here we are at the parking lot at Rowena Crest, with the Columbia River in the background. I love this picture because it looks like I’ve got a white stripe in my hair, which has always been a dream of mine. (I don’t actually have a white stripe in my hair.)
Informational sign about the Missoula Floods, a topic which always inspires feelings of panicked boredom. Even while typing the letters I need to remind myself to breathe deeply. Geology. Not for me.
See that peak up there? That’s where we are headed. We’ve done this hike before, in 2013. (Thanks blog, for keeping a record of this stuff. Comparing the two posts is also fun.)
Pretty landscape.
That white car on the right is our car.
Mountains peeking through. We’re at the apex of our hike.
Acorn survivors.
This time, we added the second half of the hike, which took us closer to the river.
These birds were HUGE! I took a picture, wondering if they were ravens. Googling in the interim has told me that there’s not really an official line between crows and ravens. People have also told me ravens are bigger than crows.
Columbia River.
Self portrait.
Nicely tiered landscape.
We drove to Snohomish for what is advertised on the web site as the Seattle Spartan Race. Matt was doing the Beast, which was a step up from his race in April. The sign informs us that the race is 11+ miles and 30+ obstacles. If I may interject, the lack of detail on the sign is maddening. Maybe they don’t know exactly how long the course is, but surely they know the exact number of obstacles, seeing as how they have to set them up.
Bag check.
Matt, his wristband, the map, and the plan.
Based on Matt’s performance in April, we estimated when I would have photo ops.
Plan established, Matt gears up, and poses at the official sign. Here, he is following my prompt to “be a Beast”
Shirts of a team of participants. While it’s impossible for the person on the right to fulfill both parts of her team name, she’s got the first one down. 
Athletic supporter! Above and beyond!
Matt gets ready. Why walk to the starting line when you can climb over a wall?
This was the race were I discovered my camera could take continuous photos if I held the shutter down. I have a lot of continuous photo shots which were supposed to be complied into short videos, but were not. Here’s Matt at the start of the race. I enjoy this photo because he’s barely in the frame and that other guy has lost his shoe in the first 50 feet of the race. It’s going to be a long race for him.
Race started, I wandered to my next photo op, catching this picture of headstand guy.
Matt climbing up the rope, which was an obstacle he had a hard time with in April.
This time he easily rang the bell.
The rings, also a trouble spot last time. Apparently, they are very slippery, so a lot of grip strength is involved.
Plus, you have to transition from rings to the bar, which kills your momentum.
Then there is a third transition from bar to rope, and that’s where Matt fell
He did great on this obstacle, though.
Having fulfilled the first part of my athletic supporter picture duties, I retreated to the car to nap and read. According to our calculations, I would next see him at mile 8, at approximately 4:05. I set an alarm for 3:45 and proceeded to lounge. I could see the runners along the tree line and at 3:00 I happened to look up from my book. Was that just Matt? I jumped out of the car and indeed it was him, more than an hour ahead of schedule. Having missed the mile-8 photo, I packed my bag, closed up the car and headed for the photo-op spot, the A-Frame.
On the way I saw this sad story. Also: ballsy criminals. Due to the staggered start times of the races, people are wandering around all the time.
The downside of continuous shooting is that it eats through your battery quickly. I was already on my backup battery, and concerned about running out, so this part of the race I shot one picture at a time. 
I liked how interested these boys were into tying grass around the caution tape.
Matt walking over the wall.
Matt at the top of the wall.
Headed toward the finish. Plus: that girl’s expression.
Trying to turn off the headlamp he was required to wear.
Socks, duct tape and shoes, post race.
Matt indicating he has completed a Trifecta: Sprint, Super and Beast. (The official Spartan Race requires you to complete all three races in one calendar year, but I think that’s a dumb rule, designed only to boost their sales.) When you have completed a Trifecta, you get to buy a special medal to hold all three pieces. The Spartan Race never misses an opportunity to make money.
Matt and the Edge Shirt, post-race.
Self-portrait by smiling males. (rare)
Matt’s beefcake shot.
A happy finisher.
The athletic supporter had to use the port-a-potties, so the athlete ended up holding the sign with his head on it. He seemed a bit embarrassed.
Rather than wait in the clump of the front side of the sign, we opted for the post race photo to be on the other side.
The good: my many squash plants produced! I enjoyed having a trombone zucchini and I even got a beet!
The bad: two of My Oregon Sweet Meat squash split, which meant they wouldn’t keep. I cut out the rotted part of one squash and the rest was fine. The other I gave to someone at work. He and his housemates ate it for a long time.
I had saved seed of delicata squash and it didn’t grow true. Perhaps it was a hybrid. A goodly number of my delicata squash look like delicata-shaped acorn squash. Also, of my two trombone zucchini plants, one of them seemed to be more yellow squash than zucchini squash.
One last picture of our cabin. I liked our cabin and the resort. I did find it weird our cabin had no access to a water spigot. It wasn’t a big deal for us, because we used a spigot from a nearby unoccupied campground, but were the resort full, it would have been weird to walk to the bathroom for water every time we needed it. Also, the showers were pay showers, which was annoying. And there was no place to do dishes. Usually there is a water dump station. When I asked at the lodge, they said to do them in the bathroom. As the women’s bathroom did not have a faucet that worked properly, Matt was in charge of the dishes. So there were some problems. But overall, it was a nice, affordable place to stay.
This was on the way home. We stopped in Hoquiam, where we just missed some sort of parade. Not only was it a huge burger, but the fries were top-notch too.
Here’s what I learned about Olympic National Park on this trip. It’s BIG. We were already staying in the park and the drive to the Ozette area was very long. More than an hour. Thank goodness we had Game of Thrones for Matt to read while I drove.
This blurry photo is to remind me we were at Point of Arches. Anchoring photos are my favorite thing about digital photography. Since I’m not worried about wasting film, I can always take pictures of signs. In the future I will never have to wonder where the heck that pretty vista is from.
Learning about the area.
We were hiking the triangle. Three miles of boardwalk trail to the beach, three miles of beach, three miles of boardwalk trail back. Matt poses at the beginning. I love how the sign has two different graphics saying that dogs are not allowed. Dogs facing to the right? Nope. Dogs facing to the left? Nuh-uh.
We did not spend any time at Ozette Lake, but that is it in the distance.
We went right, toward Cape Alava.
Our boardwalk. It wasn’t particularly slippery, due to it being early September, before the rains really start again.
Some tantalizing beach.
Matt on the beach. You can see how rocky and remote it is. Looking at Google Maps, it seems that Cape Alava, where our first section of trail ends, is in the southern part of the Ozette Indian Reservation. Interestingly, google maps shows the trail to Sand Point, but not the trail to Cape Alava. It also marks Wedding Rocks, which were the petroglyphs that we missed. This person saw them, though.
Here’s the thing about this hike. In our hiking book, it was a level 1 hike. I chose it, because the hike from the day before was really exhausting. (It was a level 3 hike). This was not a level 1 hike! Three miles of walking on sand, picking your way across rocks and over driftwood is not easy. And three miles of not easy does not equal a level 1 hike.
As you can see, the tide is pretty far out as we began the beach walk portion. By the time we made it to Sand Point you could see how much it had come in.
The driftwood was impressive. You can barely see Matt standing at the other end of this tree. So very tall!
Me on some rocks.
I was glad the tide was out for this part, because we would have had to climb a very steep incline to get over this point if the tide had been in. Looking at the post from that person who did see the petroglyphs, I think this is the location.
Matt finds some seaglass.
Self-portrait. 
Sand Point is along the horizon line. We did not hike all the way out to the end of it. Instead we started on the third leg of the triangle. You can see the tide has come in. No rocks are visible.
Only three miles back to the ranger station.
There were some very pretty lavender mushrooms.
The color didn’t quite come through in these photos.
