#109 - herron island 2008

i don't quite remember what i did for memorial day last year. i may have been working. usually when i am at home i visit punchbowl cemetary and give thanks. my dad's parents are inurned there. it's cool because the boy scouts put out flags and leis on each of the regular grassy graves. it's neat. this year a friend from dodgeball asked if i wanted to come up to his property on herron island. it's one of many islands in the puget sound (washington) but is privately owned so you need an invite. the island i believe is about 1.5 by .5 miles and is home to 150 year-round residents. how could i pass this opportunity up?

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in order to get to the island you need to hop on the ferry or a private boat. when we got there we just missed the ferry so i called my friend and he came and picked us up. it was one of the best weekends, filled with friends, fun, and food. we got to his trailer property late on saturday. we took the opportunity to drive up the coast and see a little bit of oregon and washington's coastline. it took a few hours extra but was a nice side trip. we were in time for dinner, which was grilled elk, cedar grilled salmon and sturgeon! it was all amazing! we then had tastings of a dozen red wines. someday i will have a better idea about wine but for now, let's just say i enjoyed them all. we were of course stuffed but found lots of room for other tasty libations. we were invited out to the dock for a bonfire and met quite a few locals there. it was a great first night. we got back, crawled in the tent and slept.
when i woke up it was raining. i looked out and saw my backpack, which i had left outside like an idiot! of course when i went to bed it wasn't raining, but this was the pacific northwest afterall. so dumb. so then i had to deal with a bunch of wet stuff. oh well. we headed down to the little community center for a little cinnamon roll and coffee action. i couldn't eat it cause it was too sweet but when we got back to camp, there were a few different breakfast casseroles and biscuits & gravy, delicious. i was craving the salty i guess. after stuffing ourselves silly it was just hanging out until kickball. we invited some locals, adults and kids, to join us in a friendly game o' kickball. i haven't played since october but i dusted off the cleats, and it felt great! we just headed out to the field by the community center with our cooler of bevvies and were ready. it was good times of course. at one point one of the kids kicked a ball and headed for first base but didn't see this other kid casually walking across the first base line. heads collided and kids started crying. boo. he recovered eventually after some tlc from mommy. after kickball we went back and decided on some croquet, but not just any croquet.
(our gracious host, scotty)
drinking croquet. in this version, the first person through a wicket gets to make a rule. then when you break a rule you need to take a drink. we had 8 wickets and some pretty silly rules by the end. and the end was ONLY four hours later. it was certainly the longest game i've ever played. rules included jumping and saying "woo" before you hit, spinning around on your mallet, scott can't talk (that was the best!), running to your ball, high fives, chest bumps, etc. it was a riot! let's just say a lot of people broke rules. four hours + rule breaking = lots of drinks. it was a pretty fun game and the "peanut gallery" of four people tried to speed it up by getting dinner ready. it pretty much worked. the hot lasagna with lots of goodies in it (zucchini, spinach, cheese, olives, peppers, etc) and garlic bread was almost enough for us to call it quits but we got through it and finished. after dinner we all sat around the campfire and hung out. it was a chill night and i was exhausted!

woke up at 5:45am to the sound of crows. they were loud, obnoxious and very awake. i laid there in my tent for awhile and tried to sleep. i eventually did and woke up for real about 9. everyone else had the same experience. some were trying to throw rocks but were not successful. we didn't do much but eat some leftovers and break camp. i did get to get another ride on the boat though, seeing a few of the other islands and driving too. whoohoo! there's nothing like boating and going over huge wakes! when we got back we went to sit in line for the ferry. it only holds 11-12 cars and goes every hour or so. since it was the long weekend there were a ton of people waiting. not to worry, we were on island time, and didn't really want to leave. it may have been a fun-filled and packed weekend but it was very relaxing. now since i've been there, i know the rules and can go anytime i want. it's a dangerous open invitation because i definitely want to take advantage of it. i love sleeping in a tent (but also having the trailer for bathroom/shower), relaxing, sitting around a campfire and next time hopefully fishing or clamming. i will be back herron island.