This 'n That: Fall

Here are some random pictures of things we've been up to this fall in Washington.

We did some hiking with the Koupals. We took this pic up on Mt Baker, where the fall colors were in full effect. We also found some good hiking in the Chuckanut mountains.

Josh turned 30 on October 6th! We had a small party for him with a few friends and Nate & Jessica and the kids. He left a few days later for El Centro, California and spent the rest of October flying in the dessert.

This was taken on one of our whale watching visits to San Juan Island, during which we saw zero whales. We did get to see this seal though. A little boy scared him off this rock a few minutes after we took this and he was forced to find another, less comfortable rock.

Jackson-boy hasn't made an appearance on our blog recently, so I have to put him in for good measure.

Jim & Rebecca and the Mariners

Jim and Rebecca came to visit in September without their kids. We missed Amanda, Austin, Allison, and Anna, but it was fun to spend the weekend with them. We went to a Mariners game in Seattle and took them to San Juan Island.

It was Coast Guard day at Safeco Field and Nate was holding the flag as part of the pre-game Coast Guard presentation. We all made the trek Seattle to take in the game, but mainly to enjoy the Coast Guard festivities. For some reason, we thought we had time to eat before the game, and then even when we were running late, we thought they wouldn't be exactly on time. Imagine our surprise when we missed the entire thing and showed up when the game had already started. We felt quite guilty about robbing Kleigh of the experience of watching his dad on the field! Luckily Jessica was able to make up for it with a Mariners shirt as a bribe.


Jim and Rebecca on San Juan Island


We struck out once again whale watching at Lime Kiln State Park, but got some good pics


All of us at the game. Kleigh was so excited to get a new Mariners shirt and even moreso when he saw some cute girls with the same shirt on


Here's a good shot of Seattle from Safeco Field


Hanging out at the Mariner's game

Steve and Babs Visit

My parents came to visit us in August and we had a great time! They spent about five days with us and then went on to Victoria for two more days when we went back to work. We took them all over, to Seattle, Vancouver, San Juan Island, and up to Bellingham. I think they would move up here for good if they could! We are hoping they come back to visit our bed and breakfast before we leave here.


In an effort to provide a real maritime experience, and because I know my dad enjoys things like this, I took my parents to the Ballard Locks, which is a link for boats between the saltwater of the Puget Sound and the fresh water of the Ship Canal connecting to Lake Union and Lake Washington.


This sign at the Ballard Locks made us laugh. What exactly is a "car prowler"?


My dad under the Peace Arch, which is at the Canadian border.


The top of Mt Erie, which is the highest point in Anacortes and on Fidalgo Island. You can see the San Juans, the Cascade Mountains, as well as Mt Baker and Seattle. It was a clear day, so we lucked out on the views.


We took them up to Vancouver to check out the city and Stanley Park, which is a huge park in the heart of the city.

Jones Family Comes to Visit

There can't be a better place in the world than Anacortes and Bellingham in the summer, which is why we had visitors all summer. It was great! In July, Jer, Erika and Riley came to stay with us and Barb came to stay with Nate and Jessica and kids in Bellingham. It was the first time we have all been together in quite awhile and we took advantage of our time together seeing the sites in Western Washington. The whether was beautiful and they were able to escape from the hot Utah summer a bit.

Everyone who comes to visit gets a little taste of the San Juans with a visit to Friday Harbor. The kids loved the ferry ride over and we did lots of shopping and walking around in the village.

Jer, Riley, Jessica and Kloe on the ferry ride over. It was a typical morning, started out grey and cloudy, but turned into a beautiful day.

Kleigh, Barb, Erika, me, Jessica and Kloe in Friday Harbor.

Jessica, Erika, Kloe and Riley in downtown Bellingham.

This was on Mt Baker at a place called Nooksack Falls.

Kloe and Riley near Nooksack Falls. They had fun playing together.

This is what the top of Mt Baker looks like in July! There was a German family sledding up there. We were all wearing flip flops.

The Koupal family with Nooksack Falls in the background.

The Koupals Move to Bellingham

Jessica, Nate, Kleigh and Kloe FINALLY moved up here after we waited for four months for them to get here. They are stationed up in Bellingham, which is about 45 minutes away. Nate is in the Coast Guard; like us, they've been moving around for the past several years and we were all pretty surprised to end up in the same place at the same time.

They stayed with us for a little more than a week while looking for a house up in Bellingham. We loved having them with us and are so excited to have family in the area! We took them around and showed them some sites and celebrated the 4th of July in our yard.


Josh and Nate hanging out on our porch. This was after we went searching for some good sea shells wth the kids.


Josh and I overlooking Deception Pass





Josh, Nate, Kleigh, Kloe and Me at Deception Pass


The Koupals with the great view in the background

Is there anything better than 4-day weekends?

This past weekend was the 4th of July, which meant a LONG four-day weekend. We didn't have plans to go out of town, so we decided to have a Jones Family Fun Week. We had Wathen Family Fun Week when I was a kid--an activity-packed week (or long weekend) full of fun! What could be better?

We started out the weekend with a round of golf and a bike ride around Guemes Island. Guemes is part of the San Juan Islands and just a five-minute ferry ride from Anacortes. You can see it from one side of town and we've always wondered what was over there so we decided to check it out. We took our bikes over on the ferry and took off for a ride around the island. Unfortunately, we didn't bring our cameras, but there were some pretty amazing views. We rode along the edge of the island all the way around and caught some glimpses of other islands, Mt. Baker, and Anacortes. The island is very rural and they only have one General Store with one gas pump. After our ride, we sat in the store and had lunch and hopped back on the ferry to go back home.

Monday and Tuesday we made plans to go camping on Orcas Island with some friends the Davis's and the Cromwells. Orcas is one of the biggest islands and home of Mt. Constitution. We stayed Monday night and hiked up the mountain on Tuesday for some pretty incredible views.


We sat around Monday night playing poker and making tinfoil dinners. You can see our tootsie rolls and Crystal Light packs that we used for money.

No shortage of food here...

Tired dog. He played all night with the Cromwells boxer Tobia all night before passing out in the tent with us.

The top of Mt. Constitution. Apparently Josh doesn't think flying jets is dangerous enough.

You can see some of the views here. That's another island back there in the distance. Unfortunately there were a few clouds, so we couldn't see Seattle and Vancouver, which you can see on a clear day.

After hiking up to the top, we raced down the mountain in order to make the 1:15 fairy and then raced the 15 miles back to the ferry station. Luckily we made it. Otherwise we would have sat around waiting for three more hours.

We got to come home to Nate, Jessica, Kleigh and Kloe at our house! They are staying with us until they find somewhere to live in Bellingham. We sat out on our front lawn Tuesday night and watched the Anacortes fireworks, which was pretty incredible. Not to brag or anything, but we think we might have had the best view in town. While sitting around, one of us remarked how watching fireworks was one of those things you have to do, but not really something you talk about the next day. We were so wrong! We were so impressed with the show that we were eating our words the next day.

We also took them for a walk along the water on the trail we walk and run on. Kleigh and Kloe had some fun adding to our collection of random creatures and seashells that we keep on our front porch. The best ones are the shells that are still closed. Kleigh scored two of those and then watched as they slowly 'hatched,' resulting in the slow, tortuous death of the creature inside.

More pictures to come soon...

Barb comes to Anacortes! Hippies everywhere!

Mandy and I have been super lazy about blogging! Sorry! I don't know if anyone actually ever checks this blog because no one ever leaves comments (you lazy bastards!) but I thought it was time to buckle down.

My mom came to visit us in Anacortes two weeks ago, over Memorial Day. It was great to have her here. We were able to check out a lot of the area that we hadn't seen yet. We went into Seattle and visited Pike Place Market. That place was crazy. The first ever Starbucks is located there. It was really crowded and there were a lot of very interesting people about. Back in my free minded hippie days I might have fit in, but not so much now!

We also went over to Friday Harbor, which is located on San Juan Island. It is about an hour ferry ride from Anacortes. We saw a pod of Killer Whales (Orca) on the trip over. Friday Harbor is very quaint with a lot of shopping and really good restaurants. On the ferry trip home we met up with two of the foulest smelling hippies I have ever seen in my life. I think Jessica was on the fast road to this kind of hippidum before I saved her! The guy was wearing red and white Pippy Longstocking socks and looked like he hadn't showered in over a year. The girl wasn't much cleaner and hadn't shaved her legs in a while. We had to stand behind them going through customs and I though for sure the drug dog was going to attack them but low and behold they made it through with no problems. They must have smoked all the pot before they got on the boat! No kidding I started dry heaving standing behind these two! Funny side note, Mandy and I saw these two on Friday Harbor the following weekend when we went back to run the half marathon. We both looked at each other with a funny expression, he probably thought I was a prick. Oh well, won't be the last guy to think that!

We also took my Mom to Vancouver, Canada. Of course we ended up in the, you guessed it, hippie part of Vancouver. Freaks everywhere. But it was definitely a good time. We went to Stanley Park, which is Canada's version of Central Park. Saw some blokes playing Crickett. I had never seen that before. Interesting game, don't know what the point is though!

Barb also got to visit NAS Whidbey Island. That is where I am stationed. She was able to see the Prowler from a far and took quite a few pictures.

All in all it was a great weekend and we can't wait to have her, and anyone else who wants to come visit, back!

This was taken in Langley which is on Whidbey Island, all the way to the South. A lot of very rich people keep vacation homes here.

At Pikes Place Market. I have to admit I got a little uncomfortable with all the people. But it was definitely worth visiting.

These are the famous fish throwers. If you remember the kid from the Seattle season of Real World worked here. They throw huge fish back and forth to each other and put on a little show. For some reason Mandy included this picture which is actually them throwing towels. Not as impressive, but still cool. Funny story: After they had tossed a large fish back and forth to each other the guy in the distance threw a big fake fish right at Mandy's head. She screamed in horror and threw up her arms. Everyone laughed. It was great!

What do you know, Mom is taking pictures. Of what, only Buddha knows.

Mom and I on the ferry ride over to Friday Harbor. You can see the little town in the background. The day was kind of rainy but what do you expect, we live in the Pacific Northwest.

Mandy and me on the same ferry ride.

This was taken down at a local beach. The scenery is really cool but the water is about 40 degrees, so not much swimming takes place.

We threw this one in cause it is so cute. This is our good friend's, the Skarosi's, daughter Kali. This was here first popsicle ever. Of course it was one of Mandys all natural organic fruit bars which you can tell was pretty tart for a little girl. Very cute!

This picture speaks for itself. This is my squadron building. All of the Prowler pilots in the Navy and Marine Corps are trained here.

The beautiful Prowler. My squadron logo is on the tail.

Prowlers behind the fence. You have to have clearance to get back there so this is as close as Barb and Mandy could get. Bummer for them!

Mother's Day Weekend in San Francisco

Last week work brought me to San Francisco. I've been there many times, but it had been quite some time since I was able to be a tourist in San Francisco, so this time my mom and sister came out for a long weekend to celebrate Mother's Day. We were quite the tourists, visiting the Golden Gate Bridge, Sausalito, Chinatown, Haight Ashbury, Fisherman's Wharf, Golden Gate Park, Union Square. We also rode the cable cars, had Mother's Day brunch by the water, and did a lot of shopping.

Here it is...the most famous SF landmark, the Golden Gate Bridge. Here we learned that the color is actually what they call "International Orange." We also learned that 11 men died when they built the bridge back in the 1930s.

We rode the ferry over to Sausalito, which was one of my favorite parts of the trip. Sausalito is a beautiful little town right on the water with lots of hills and beautiful homes.

Another shot in Sausalito. This is Fisherman's Wharf shortly after the Bushman scared us to death. If you haven't been to SF, the Bushman is a guy who uses a set of branches to disguise himself as a bush and then jumps out and scares poor clueless tourists. We must have looked pretty gullible because there were actually a bunch of other tourists poised with their cameras ready to go when he scared us. We didn't disappoint them ... I think I jumped about five feet and all of us screamed.

More of the Golden Gate bridge. Across the bridge there is Sausalito.

This is what they call "Postcard Row." Apparently a lot of pictures are taken of those houses there, so we had to take some too! They call them the Painted Ladies. Nice view of the city there in the background.

This is the Japanese Tea Gardens inside the Golden Gate Park.