— पांच हजार आठ सौ चौबीस —
What more can I tell you about my weekend on Fox Island? Not a whole lot; the basic hits were covered in
the travelogue I sent out last night via email, and then converted to a blog post, mostly in the interest of time. I didn't want to have to re-hash all of that in a separate post for this blog. I can't think of much that did not get covered there that I feel any need to include here.
I did skip the specificity of at least one of the three places we went out to eat at, though: after checking out, and leaving the house literally two minutes before check-out time of 11:00 a.m., Gabriel, Garret and I all drove back into Gig Harbor and had brunch at at place called
Netshed No. 9.
There was supposedly a 40-minute wait, so we got on the list and walked around Gig Harbor a bit. We went into a coffee shop and Garret bought us all a drink; I just had a 12oz hot chocolate. They were ready for us after only about twenty minutes, so that worked out fine. The food was really good, or at least my "Mushroom Free-Ta-Tas" was. The fried potatoes weren't warm at all, but you can't have everything. I'd still go back.
We hung out for a while after brunch, particularly Gabriel and me after Garret headed out. In the end, the overnight stays were only Gabriel, Garret and me—a far cry from the 5-person weekend we had managed with this group for Lopez Island last year. I already noted this in the travelogue, but did not dwell much on the fact that Andy did not make it at all. But, Brian did, if only for late afternoon and early evening on Saturday. He brought his nine-year-old daughter Nora, who was absolutely welcome; they went out on a canoe right after arriving, at maybe a quarter after 1:00, while Gabriel was still out on his canoe.
After that, we all spent some time on the beach at low tide, and then Gabriel made us all pesto and mozzarella sandwiches for lunch. Brian and Nora also accompanies us to the Fox Island Museum, where I'm not sure we spent more than about half an hour but I was still really glad we went. We came back to the house and hung out for a while, and not long after that went out to dinner, at a locla joint called
Zog's, and was the surprisingly huge bar and restaurant accessible through the back door at the one local grocery store and deli, like a Narnia-type portal in the back.
Brian and Nora still had some stuff back at the house, so we all returned after dinner, but they headed home soon after 8:00. I'd say they came and hung out with us for about seven hours. But, the rest of the time, it was just Gabriel, Garret, and me.
I haven't told Gabriel this yet, but I have actually started a budget item for any possible annual trip with him. This will just make paying for my portion of an AirBnB easier, if and when we go on another weekend outing next year. I actually hope we do. (I now have several travel-related budget line items for things I'm planning to do with multiple people over the next couple of years, for the record.)
— पांच हजार आठ सौ चौबीस —
— पांच हजार आठ सौ चौबीस —
I never did link to the photo sets in yesterday's post either, so I'll do that here:
I have all photos from the weekend in one single "
Fox Island 2025" album, containing the 130 photos total that I kept from over the weekend; a few of these were taken by Gabriel, especially the ones while we were kayaking. I actually took a cue from Garret and left my phone onshore for that. Gabriel had a clear plastic case for his phone, which he kept hanging around his neck. Smart.
Anyway, just like I did with Lopez Island last year, I have the photos both in one album, and
separated by days (Friday: 43 shots; Saturday: 57 shots; Sunday: 30 shots).
This way I can put both collections of three-day albums under
one heading, of "Washington State Islands," visits where I broke up the photos this way. Lopez Island was, as you might expect, a bit more photogenic than Fox Island, both by virtue of being larger and with more points of interest, and simply being part of the San Juan Islands, which Fox Island is not. (With Lopez, Friday was 56 shots; Saturday 77 shots; Sunday 56 shots.)
Also having the photos all in one album, though, made it easier for organizing in
other collections: including "
All Washington Islands"; "
All Albums by Year >
2025"; "
Travels, 2025"; "
Trips with Gabriel"; and "
Weekend Getaways in the Northwest."
I like to stay organized.
Anyway, Lopez Island was a prettier, higher-profile location, but Fox Island was far closer, more accessible, an island actually accessible by bridge (only Whidbey Island and Bainbridge Island, so far as I could ascertain, are larger islands in Washington State connected to the mainland by bridge). I had no ferry fee to pay, although I did have to pay the $5.50 toll to cross the Tacoma Narros Bridge eastbound on my way home. I had budgeted $100 for weekend expenses, and, largely thanks to eating out three times over the weekend, I spent about $109. That's not too bad in terms of being over budget, though.
We also shared preparing certain meals at the house. I made pasta Friday night. Garret made pancakes for breakfast Saturday morning, and Gabriel made lunch Saturday afternoon. On Saturday in particular to say I ate too much would be an understatement, starting with Garret's pancakes—I accepted one last one, as the remaining batter would have otherwise been wasted. I should have let it go to waste! It was a much thicker pancake than anticipated and wound up being probably about the twice amount of pancakes I should have eaten. Oh well.
I had pasta left over, and Shobhit tried to say we should have had that for dinner Saturday. All I told him was that most people don't approach leftovers the same way we do, especially in a group on a weekend getaway. I should have also noted, though, that not only was the amount of pasta leftover not likely to satiate three people for dinner, but it sure as hell wasn't going to feed
five, and we also had Brian and Nora for dinner on Saturday. So that never would have worked, and eating out was the only sensible solution.
It's all good. We leave for D.C. on the red eye late tomorrow night, and I've saved $600 for expenses alone. That doesn't include the amount I'll be paying for the six nights at our hotel, which I'll be paying once we get there, but is also already budgeted for. I think we're pretty well prepared for this trip, especially bringing meal packets to use in a hotel room that has a full kitchen. This will be our June / anniversary trip this year (even though our actual anniversary isn't until the 14th), this year's equivalent to our trip to Toronto last year. I'm not sure what we'll do next year, as World Pride that time will be in Amsterdam in August. We'll probably do something more comparatively modest in June. We'll cross that bridge when we get to it.
— पांच हजार आठ सौ चौबीस —
[posted 12:18pm]
