Can a ferry hold the weight of the family truckster?!

Two of the Braun kids had swim practice on Sunday morning, so we took the opportunity to head southwest to a small town called Steilacoom (where do they get these names in Washington?!).  Sherri’s dad was in the military, and they spent some time in Germany. They had neighbors there who were also in the military - The Johns. Sherri’s family has kept in contact with the Johns ever since. The Johns retired in Steilacoom in 1993, and since we were so close (it’s about an hour drive from Sammamish), we headed down there to spend a couple of hours with them.

The visit was a lot of fun. Not only was it good to catch up, it was a fun place for the kids to visit. They have gorgeous flowers all over their yard, and a wonderful garden where they grow cucumbers, squash, lettuce, snap peas, carrots, herbs, and even garlic! Mr. Merlin, as Sherri still calls him, does absolutely beautiful woodworking. He has been doing it for about 30 years. In fact, we still highly treasure the gift he gave us for our wedding; a hand-carved wooden serving tray.  We looked at his bowls, furniture (he made a poster bed and a dresser for his daughter!), and other beautiful works of art while Ms. Sue took the kids around the yard to look at the flowers and garden.

Flowers in Sun Devil colors!

SQUIRREL!!

Ms. Sue served up a yummy blueberry coffee cake and some fresh fruit. It was a great visit, and we really appreciated their hospitality.

Ms Sue, Sherri, Emily, Haley, Ashley, and Mr. Merlin

Afterwards, we headed back up to the Seattle area, where we met the Brauns for a ferry ride to Bainbridge. We were initially going to park the cars and take the ferry over, but parking was extremely limited so we decided to take our cars on the ferry. As I drove up to pay the fare, the woman at the booth eyed me and the family truckster suspiciously. Had she seen a vehicle this large before? Had anyone ever attempted to take something as massive and as ridiculously overpacked as this? She looked it over and assessed a surcharge of $1,073.23 for an excessive vacation packing and we went on our ferry, er merry way.

The trip across was a lot of fun for the kids, and it made traveling in Bainbridge easy for us. We scouted out a few places for lunch and settled on Doc’s Marina Grill.

After a yummy lunch we got back on the ferry and headed back to Sammamish. There is a beautiful park on Pine Lake just a stone’s throw from the Brauns’ house, so we stopped there to let the kids swim and play. We hung out there for a couple of hours.

At the park, we were also able to meet up with another family from Arizona who were passing through while visiting relatives. The weather was beautiful yet again (does it really rain here?).  One of my favorite things was seeing a motorized floating dock. Basically, these people go out on their dock in their backyard, drink in hand, and set sail around the lake. I told Sherri I want one for my birthday.

My future dock boat. Now all I need is a lake and a lake house. 

We left the park at about 9:30pm (still light out!). We got to the Braun house and put all 8 kids down to bed and then hit the sack. Another great day with friends and family.