Visiting the Fam

Our Seattle weekend continued as we started Saturday with a visit to Pike Place for breakfast at The Crumpet Shop and to pick up some flowers to bring to Matt's mom.
We then hit the road for a 5-hour road trip to Coeur d’ Alene to visit the family and celebrate Ken’s birthday.
Before heading out for Ken’s birthday dinner, he and Matt reviewed the test companionway doors and talked through their final design. We’ll leave the materials and plans in his good hands to be built. He even offered to build us an overlay for the bathroom countertop from some scrap granite he’s collected. It means a lot to us to have his craftsmanship aboard.
The boys taking a break while dad takes Jeff’s new bike out for a spin.

Productive Seattle Weekend

We took full advantage of a long weekend in Seattle with a date night staying at The Edgewater and seafood dinner at Elliot’s, a refitting gear quest across some premier and cost-effective suppliers, and a visit with the family in Coeur d’ Alene.

• We started our sailing supplies’ gathering with a visit to Fisheries Supply (think Toys-R-Us for boaters). There we picked up epoxy (marine glue) for the companion way doors that Matt and his dad are building, our new electric Lavac Marine Toilet and some electrical wiring for the toilet pump. Through Matt’s exhaustive research, we chose a Lavac for its unparalleled reputation for simplicity and longevity among blue water cruisers. Earlier in the week, we ordered the necessary hoses from Defender Marine Outfitter.

• We then marveled at all the other treasures there and even picked out new LED lighting fixtures (but that’s in our October budget & refit plan so we jotted down the part #s and headed to our next stop).

• From there we headed to Crosscut Hardwoods to pick out some teak planks to build the companionway doors and a shower bench.

• We wrapped up a productive day with a romantic dinner at Elliot’s on the Bay and a nice night at The Edgewater.