Jack & Woody

Earlier this week Jack was in San Francisco for a training session at the SF Adobe office and was able to hook up with his second cousin – Steve ‘Woody’ LaBounty. Due to the wonders of the internet Woody was able to connect with Jack a couple years ago. Then we were really fortunate last year when Woody and his wife Nancy and daughter Miranda stopped in for a short visit to our house where we met face to face.

Woody runs a really intriguing non-profit in San Francisco called the Western Neighborhoods Project. This is a group dedicated to preserving, yup; you guessed it…the history of the western neighborhoods of San Francisco. This included earning the prestigious Governor’s Award for preserving a number of 1906 Earthquake Refugee shacks. Jack even had the privilege of attending the group’s Monday night Meet-up at the famous Cliff House restaurant. Woody is providing a great service to that community - it is exciting to see history and culture preserved so that anyone in the world can access it.

Goodbeach October 2008

Recently the Brenchley Family spent five days on Whidbey Island at Goodbeach (see also April 07 & July 08 blogs). Here are some links to our adventures captured on pictures and video...
At Goodbeach : Colin in the bay; Caleb and a log.
At Fort Ebey: Playing at Pt. Partridge beach and Battery 248 (aka Used).
At Ebey's Landing: Playing at the beach.
At Fort Casey: Exploring Battery Trevor; Hiking down the bluff to play at the beach.
Video wrap-ups: Rilla & Cian; Colin; Emma; Caleb. See these and more at our Photobucket site.

Fort Casey (with Admiralty Head lighthouse in background) 10.5.08

Meeting Dino Rossi

Last night Gail and I went to see Dino Rossi, who is running for Governor (again) here in Washington State. We voted for him in the 2004 election (…we have to assume that our votes were counted correctly) and after the disappointing election proceedings (or I should say ballot mishandling...how do you find trays of ballots just sitting around?), we bought his book, Lessons in Leadership which gives a unique glimpse into his life. So it was an honor to meet him and his wife Terry last night.

Ashland Lakes Hike

Labor Day this year included a hike to the Ashland Lakes in the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest accessible from the Mountain Loop highway. The trip included Gail's family: the Ostlings up the street; Beverly; as well as Ray (who is visiting from Pensacola); and Amy our neighbor who is friends with Kyna. The hike was a good, challenging, 3+ mile hike one way. The littlest hikers, Rilla & Cian, did pretty well. Good thing we had the baby carrier - both needed assistance - though it just added to the challenge for Mom & Dad! The wet summer we had didn't make this the family friendly trail that all the reviews insisted on. Overall it was a good hike and everyone had a good time even if in the picture below Jack doesn't look so happy while lunching at a pristine alpine lake ("Hey, we still have 3 miles to hike out ahead of us!").

Ashland Lakes Hike 9.1.08

GC Camp 2008

This year Caleb and his cousin Kara went to the Church's GC camp at Warm Beach. Here is a (very brief) clip of Caleb playing dodge ball.


GC Camp 2008 (Junior High) - Day Two Recap from Generation Church on Vimeo.

Soccer Camp

Caleb, Emma, and Colin, attended the NW Soccer Academy camp this week. Here is Emma's artwork titled, "Go Team!"

"Go Team" by Emma (9)

Goodbeach July 2008

We spent three days and two nights up at Goodbeach; Gail’s family’s beach front house on Whidbey Island (See April 07 for more Goodbeach blogging). Gail’s Grandparents, Allan and Arlie Ostling, built the house in the early 70’s and Gail has fond memories of Summers spent on the island (don’t ask her about berry picking though).

Some of the things we did included, hiking to the point, and two extended hikes:

1. Hiked from Ebey’s Landing up along Perego’s bluff. It was pretty foggy out and we couldn’t see Port Townsend let alone any shipping traffic when we started out. Had a small lunch at a ‘Whale Bone’ looking fallen tree. Gail was able to find where the trail that they used to take across the island from Goodbeach came out – now it is fairly overgrown.

Continuing the hike we dropped down to the beach and came back that way. The sun had come out by then and was actually getting warm! The kids were excellent hikers and the two littles only needed a relatively small amount of carrying.

On the way back we stopped at Prairie Center and then in town at Kapaw’s ice cream for essentials. They do great ice cream and are definitely worth the stop! Interestingly, the building Kapaw’s is in had once been owned by Luther Weedin, Gail’s Great Uncle (Arlie’s Uncle) who was the Island County Sheriff and later U.S. Immigration Commissioner in Seattle in the Twenties. We slurped our ice cream as we walked the wharf to the red barn to look at real whale bones.

2. The second hike was the next day where we stopped off Highway 20 and hiked in Kettles Park across to Fort Ebey State Park. Kettles is named appropriately due to the many glacial indentations in the area (check out the topo). Without a map and numerous enticing trails scattered through the area we took a round about way finally ending up in the park. Jack trek’d back to fetch the van; needing Gail’s guidance over the talk-a-bout to sort out the marked and unmarked trails. Everyone was worn out and the vote was to return to Goodbeach. There folks swam, laid out on the beach, and even had s’mores after dinner!

Overall it was a jam-packed three days! Here are images for Cian, Rilla, Colin, Emma, Caleb, Gail, & Jack. See more at our Photobucket site.

Perego's Bluff 7.1.08