Fish Park

Every morning on my way to work, I pass what looks like a small, run-down view point and parking lot. The place is called Fish Park - its right between Viking Way Poulsbo and Front Street Poulsbo at the point of Liberty Bay. It really doesn't look like much - but, what's that phrase... never judge a book by its cover... totally applies here.

Sometimes, Chad will take me to work on Saturday morning,s and on the days he does, we usually bring Milli with us. I've always known they go on walks after the drive, usually visiting Fish Park, but what I didn't know was anything about it.

Well, last night, I got my chance to see it for myself. I wanted to go pick blackberries. I had our usual spots in mind, Clear Creek, my friend Ashley's house, Island Lake - but Chad said we just HAD to go to Fish Park. I wasn't exactly excited to hear this... I wasn't even sure why we were going to go to the weird little parking lot for berries... I knew he had picked about 8 single blackberries, there the week before - but that wasn't exactly what I was looking for....

Well... again... I can admit it - I was wrong. Fish Park is SO MUCH MORE than a parking lot!! It is a beautiful, well-built, trail system. According to an interpretive sign (one of many) the park spans 20 acres and the trails were built mostly by volunteers and donations. 2/3 of the trail snakes through pretty dense non-pine forest, while the other third goes through a grassland and around a thick part of a creek/stream. I can't find any information about the water way....

While we were there we found TONS of blackberries, snowberries (poisonous), rose hips, apples and pears. We also saw a huge splash in the stream while standing on a lookout, we think it was a river otter or beaver - apparently both live there.

 Snowberries

And, did I mention the crazy wood salmon! It looks like its made of small pieces of drift wood. It's perched at the top of a hill - perfect photo opt.

Really - if you have a dog or are just looking for a nice stroll one evening - try out Fish Park in Poulsbo - its totally worth the trip.

Collins Campground

Let me just start this off with - Holy goodness Collins Campground is by far the coolest place in the world.

So, last weekend, Chad and I finally got the opportunity to go camping in Washington. The whole trip was a little haphazardly planned - so we hadn't made a reservation anywhere or had a specific plan in mind. Luckily, Chad had randomly been given that Friday off and with a little help from a friend, I had found a couple first-come-first-serve campsites.

We hit the jackpot. The first place Chad went, he got a spot (the last spot, the best spot). It was in the Collins Campground and it was at the joining of Collin's Creek and the Duckabush River. Literally, creek to the left and river at the front. A.M.A.Z.I.N.G.

Duckabush River

Collins Creek 

Easy to get to, take the 101 south on the Olympic Peninsula to Duckabush River Road, drive about 5 miles and you're there. Once you get there, pick one of the 14 spots (just drive up to an empty one) and its $14 a night ($5 extra for each car over 2). Bring cash (small bills so you have exact change) or a check. There are two vault toilets - very well maintained - and a picnic table and fire pit with grill at each spot. Dogs are ok. The place totally clears out on Sunday morning, so if you can, do a mid-week trip and you'd have the whole place to yourself.

The river was COLD! Which didn't stop Chad and our friend from going in and submerging themselves! Didn't keep our friend's dogs out either (Milli however kept her sweet distance). I got in to about my thighs at one point... the current wasn't too strong along the shore, but it was too cold for me.

Another great feature was the waterfall. It wasn't at our camp, but about 2 miles drive farther up Duckabush River Road, then a mile hike. It was wonderful! The hike was nice, a bit of hill, but well maintained, huckleberries EVERYWHERE (Little Man K and I munched on those the whole way up)! The trail ends at Marhut Falls. A beautiful waterfall with a pool of calm-ish water at its base. The lookout point is high, about halfway down the falls, but you can walk down to the falls... or climb down.

I couldn't have begged for a better first camping spot in Washington. I would literally fly across the country to camp here each year! Enjoy!!

Olympic Game Farm

Last week Chad and I spent the most beautiful 5th of July together. We decided to fulfill a Washington-Long-Dream and go to the Olympic Game Farm.

Short story, it will be jumbled and partially wrong, but the Olympic Game Farm is a place where, back in the day, Disney stored, trained and filmed many of its animals and their scenes. Their most famous filming was the Grizzly Adams show. At some point they asked Disney to let them open to the public. There is a driving tour of the grounds, a walking tour and a barn tour. The driving tour is awesome cause they sell you loaves of bread and you can feed the animals who walk right up to your car!

It was great! We had so much fun. Feeding creatures wheat bread. Petting sheeps. Looking at four foot long fish.

 The bears were really smart. They would wave when you waved! Then when you threw the bread at them the were too lazy to bend down... so they would pick it up with their claw and bring it to their mouth.

This chicken came careening out of nowhere! to get a piece of bread!

It was all great fun until a llama tried to crawl into my window. Chad thought that was great, I thought otherwise.

It was a glorious, mellow day. I highly recommend it for people who are already planning on being in Sequim for the day. We had planned to spend a half a day there, but even after we looped part of the drive tour twice and took the barn tour (and petted the sheeps), we only used up 1.5 hours of our day.

So go! Have fun! Feed creatures! And watch out for the buffalo!

Celebrating with Local Flavor

Happy 4th of July!!

Chad and I are celebrating more than just our country's independence - we are celebrating summer's first day of wonderful weather and our newest porch-garden harvest: lavender.

Chad has been tending to our two lavender plants for over a year now. Last year, our first plant was just to small to produce and the other one wasn't given to us until after it bloomed. This year though, his patience was rewarded - the plants are blooming like crazy!

I tried to take an artsy photo... but the front flower WOULDN'T FOCUS!

 

To celebrate our 4th of July in typical American mid-twenties (bordering on late....) fashion, Chad and I decided to make ourselves a lavender cocktail. To do this we made a lavender simple syrup.

Lavender Simple Syrup

• 1 1/2 tbls fresh lavender flower buds
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 3/4 cup water

Put everything into a small pot. Heat to a boil, stirring till sugar dissolves, then remove from heat. Cover and let sit for one hour. Pour through a strainer, perfectly fits into a 1/2 pint mason jar, cover and keep in the refrigerator.

Wash the flower buds with water, if necessary before adding to the pot. It ends up being a delicious, very lavender-y but not soapy, sweet syrup. Now for the alcohol part:

Lavender Buzz

• 2 tbls lavender simple syrup
• 1 shot glass of vodka
• 1/2 cup club soda
• quick squeeze of lemon

Mix everything and serve with ice.

Yup, Chad bought me those flowers this week. He loves me!

 

This is not the first drink we've made up, but its definitely the most unique. It tastes like lavender smells, but not in an overpowering way. So, if you don't like the smell of lavender, then don't make this. We loved it on this warm 4th of July day!

Hope you enjoy!

Smile! Family

My Aunt Leanne and Ken came to visit me today!

And this was the point at which I laughed the hardest :)

Smile! A Sunny Day

Its finally almost summer feeling!

I took Milli for a walk - and a quick stick throw in the park today! I think this made her smile too.

Recipe: NW Summer Cobbler

I know its summer when the salmonberries are ripe, peaches and cherries are in the supermarkets and I'm just about out of blackberries in my freezer (from last year's picking)!

So, tonight, I made up a recipe to celebrate the start of summer! I used salmonberries Chad and I picked last weekend :)

 Chad picking away at our favorite spot on Clear Creek Trail. You can see two orange berries just above his hand.

 

 These were the prettiest ones we picked!!

NW Summer Cobbler

• 2 peaches, pitted and cut into 1/2-inch chunks
• 1 cup cherries (any kind), pitted and cut in half
• 1 cup blackberries
• 1 cup salmonberries
• 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce, divided
• a nice squirt of fresh lemon or lime juice
• 2 tbls granulated sugar or splenda (more if you like sweeter deserts)
• 1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup old-fashioned rolled oats (I used old fashion)
• dash of salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• 2 tbls cold butter, cut up

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9x9 glass pan. Mix together fruit, 1/3 the applesauce, lemon/lime juice, sugar and corn starch. (Don't transfer to pan yet)

Mix together flour, brown sugar, oats, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. With fingers squish the butter into the dry mixture until its just part of the mixture maybe like corn meal). Then start scooping in the apple sauce into the dry mixture. After each scoop, mix the dry stuff, and repeat until its moist, sticky, but still crumbly. (At this point, pour the leftover apple sauce into the fruit and stir)

Pour fruit mixture into the prepared pan. Sprinkle the oat mixture over the top.

Bake for 40-45 minutes, or until the top is happy brown and the fruit is bubbling.

Serve with whip cream or ice cream (OR BOTH!!)

Delicious! Really, you could use just about any fruit in this crisp/cobbler. I almost threw in some rhubarb :)