Sunsets

Sometimes the sunsets here are phenomenal. This one was amazing. Just a fiery red ball. Unfortunately, I couldn't find my regular camera, so I had to use my cell phone instead. The picture just doesn't do it justice.

Cats and Bats

Our cat, Eowyn, may look mild mannered, but she isn't. Ever since we moved to Washington State she has whiled away the hours hunting rats, mice, birds, and even rabbits. Except for the rabbits, which are too skittish to be stalked, Eowyn has had great success as a huntress. Once in a while, she leaves us a "present" of one of her kills on the doorstep.


Imagine our amazement when we found a bat on the door mat with Eowyn's telltale teeth marks on the poor creature. Yes, she actually caught a bat! We didn't think anything could catch a bat. But here is proof.



We are thinking of renaming her Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

The Salisburys come to Washington

We were so pleased that Karen, Larry and Heather could come for a visit. What fun!

We have had so many beautiful days this summer it seems odd that every time someone dropped in the weather turned cloudy, hazey or rainy.

We had hoped to do a boat tour of Deception Pass but it was socked in with fog, so we took a stroll down to the beach and snapped some glamour shots. Later, we went to the top of Mt. Erie.

Here we are posing at the top of the hill.


Cute, Heather!

Cute, Karen!

Way cool hat, Larry!

Of course we had to see the beautiful Buchart Gardens on Vancouer Island.


Larry, Heather and Karen doing their imitation of a totem pole.


Cathy and Karen rubbing the pig's nose for good luck.


We also visited the big guns at Fort Casey. Funny, Karen!!!


Heather cleaning the gun with her head.



Thanks for the visit. Come any time.

Other Visits

Mom and Dad Beal came for a visit too. It was wonderful seeing them.

Here's Mom at the house.

Check out that view in the background. Beautiful!

Dad looking cool at the harbor.

Visit

Alana and Kristina came for a visit for a couple of weeks. It was great.

Here we are at the Japanese garden in Seattle.



We also made a trip to the top of Mt. Erie to see the view of the Islands.







Here are Amara and Ethan at the Children's museum in Mt. Vernon.




Then there was the birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese.



And the art festival in Anacortes. Great fun!



Thanks to Alan, we also honed some of our culinary skills. These are mussels we picked up at the cove by our house. Alan and Cathy cleaned them and we cooked them on the BBQ with butter, garlic and broth. Mmmm!


We also caught three large Dungeness crabs. When combined with the seven our friends gave us, we had more than we could eat. Cathy made some crab cakes for the first time that were wonderful!

Graduation

We all got together this spring to see Joe's graduation from UCD with his masters in applied math.



Check out that smile below.



Way to go Joe!

Istanbul

This summer Alan and Cathy went to Istanbul. Here are some photos from the trip.