Dad & Elizabeth Day 2011

Saturday morning started pretty early for us with a 5:00 am phone call from the produce driver that he was on his way.  Once Dode finished helping me with the produce, he made breakfast and helped get Elizabeth out the door by 8:00 am for their special day together.  When Elizabeth is asked what her favorite things are, she always says, "nature" so Dode wanted to give her a good dose of it.  Elizabeth takes after her grandmas in that she has a "nervous stomach".  It doesn't have to be a bad experience to give her stomach troubles, anything exciting can set her off.  Since dad and her days are a big deal, she had to deal with the tummy aches that go with fun things.  Dode re-assured her that she'd be fine and she really enjoyed her day.

They started off at the Anacortes ferry to head out to San Juan Island.  Dode thought he'd planned enough time into the schedule but when he got there and found they'd need to park in the upper lot, and that he'd need to stand in a line behind 30 other people to pay for parking, he started getting nervous.  He saw a sign letting him know he could pay to park with his cell phone and they set off at a run for the ferry.  They just made the boat!

The ferry ride is about an hour to Friday Harbor.  Elizabeth and Dode spent a lot of time on the outside deck of the ferry, watching seagulls and other boats. 

on the ferry

At one time they went through a bank of fog and Elizabeth got very excited that she was touching a cloud.  She was a bit disappointed when Dode told her the plan was just to get on the island and have a picnic.  It didn't sound very exciting.  Once the ferry landed she figured they would eat their picnic and go home.  That changed when she learned they were not on the right island yet and would be renting a kayak at Friday Harbor and setting off to Turn Island to have the picnic.  Dode had looked at kayak tours but for a lot less, he could rent a kayak and they could explore on their own. 

The kind of kayak they rented.  You pedal with your feet to make the fins underneath do the paddling.

in the kayak at Friday Harbor

Dode had planned to eat lunch at Turn Island but they weren't making any speed records and ended up eating on the way there.  Elizabeth enjoyed throwing her crusts into the water for the seagulls to snatch up.  They saw several seals on their trip.

Elizabeth at Turn Island State Park

She spent her time looking for crabs under the rocks

They got back to Friday Harbor in time to pick up some ice cream cones before it was time to get back on the boat.  Once on the boat, they both took a snooze on the way back to Anacortes.

Since they were already in the area, they stopped off at an indoor go-cart track in Burlington that's going out of business and picked up a commercial snow cone machine.  Now we have a new thing to make our house even more fun for parties!  Dode said that he could feel his wallet getting lighter as the day went on.

snow cones anyone?