From Thursday to Saturday I headed up to Edmonds to stay with my friend Peter and attend our book group meeting. So, not a lot of August here:
Thursday:
I left a little 6:30 this morning and drove 4 hours north to Lake Roesinger to meet at Peter B.’s cabin for our book club meeting. I took all blue highways and only stopped once, at Cedar River, to hike along a trail for about an hour.
I arrived at the cabin a little after 11:30. That all went well, and we left around 5. I had picked up Peter and his two kids and Chris. They had ridden up with Stacey but she had to leave earlier.
We made it back to the house and relaxed for awhile, then drove up to a Mexican restaurant for dinner.
From there we drove down to Edmonds and walked to the water, getting frozen yogurt along the way. Well, they all did. I was way too full.
Back at the house I talked to Carly. Sadly, August was already asleep. But she told me that she and Cherie had taken August and Vivian to a couple parks to play, and that Cherie had bought a rocking cow (or pig or something – but not a horse) that was August’s size. He was a bit afraid of it at first, but after seeing Vivian and Carly on it, he warmed up and had fun getting on and off it.
To end the day Peter and I watched the movie Whiplash, which was nominated for best film last year.
August before I left:
Cedar River:
View from the cabin:
Sunset at Edmonds thanks to the smoke from Canada:
Friday:
Peter and I walked to QFC for breakfast items before the kids were up. In the morning I skyped with Carly and August. We then decided to go on a bike ride with the kids along the Burke Gilman Trail. Thus ensued about two hours of preparing bikes, which included driving up to Harvy’s Bike Shop for a new tube and figuring out how to get four people and four bikes in/on his hatchback.
But by 12:30 we were off. We drove to Matthews Beach on Lake Washington and started from there. We rode to Gasworks Park and hung out there for awhile. We then rode back and stopped at U Village and locked up the bikes. We looked for a place to eat and ended up at a teriyaki place right outside the village.
We then rode back to Matthews Beach, finishing about 4:30.
Peter and I put on some of his old jazz cassettes (mainly Red Rodney and Cannonball Adderley) as we’d been talking about jazz after the movie the night before. As we listened to that we started a game of Killer Bunnies with Micah. The game was paused for dinner and resumed afterwards. Took about two hours thanks to the four expansion decks Micah has.
In the late evening Peter and I watched the Hal Hartley film Simple Men from 1992. I particularly liked the Sonic Youth and Yo La Tengo on the soundtrack. But also a very funny movie and holds up pretty well 20+ years later.
August and Carly had gone to Borst Park during the day. He slept 12 hours the night before and then took a two hour nap during the day. Vivian must be wearing him out. But then he stayed up until at least midnight.
Riding the Burke Gilman:
Hanging out at Gas Works Park:
