King Oscar and the lighthouse

If you've lived around the Puget Sound for any length of time, you know about The Gray.

It has other names, of course. The Gloomy Season. The Big Dark. The Drizzle. Or, as they say in a particular movie, "It rains nine months of the year in Seattle." The constant overcast and light-to-heavy rainfall, combined with our location above the 45th Parallel, means that from November to March the Puget Sound skies are almost unrelentingly dark, foggy, or both. If you don't already have Seasonal Affective Disorder, you'll start to develop a touch of it in midwinter. You need to develop strategies to fight The Gray or it will overwhelm you and shut you down.

Now if this were a normal time, I'd fight The Gray by being with people. I'd visit family and friends. I'd go to Bremerton's nerd pubs and play pinball or cabinet video games. I'd strike up conversations with friendly strangers in the library. I'd gather with local geeks to play board games. I'd go to storytelling nights and hear about people's adventures from their own mouths. I'd meet people and I'd make friends.

But this is not a normal time.

I don't want to get sick. I don't want to make other people sick. I can't be successfully frugal AND spend much time with local friends, since it takes time and money to visit our old stomping grounds on the Eastside. And with a couple of rare exceptions, I haven't gotten out enough to meet any new people around here. I've been strongly isolated. And isolation is no way to fight The Gray.

What to do?

Well, if you're me, which I am, you knit and crochet while listening to back episodes of The Magnus Archives, putter around the house, cook, read library books, spend way too much time bingeing YouTube videos. And when you tire of that, you go troll hunting.

Today, since Captain Midnight was determined to DM some D&D deeds of derring-do, I was on my own for the afternoon. The Gray was lowering and unrelenting, but it was not a day to stay in. So I stole CM's jacket, gathered up the usual bundle of accoutrements (vitamins, water bottle, hot chocolatey goodness) and made for the ferry to Vashon Island.

You might not consider Vashon a prime spot to hunt for trolls, and ordinarily I'd agree with you. It's a fine place to find aging hippies, bike-eating trees, and (if rumor is correct) several ferocious local strains of cannabis, but until recently the only certain locale for Scandinavian cryptids was under the Aurora Avenue bridge in Seattle.

And then Thomas Dambo and crew came along and shook things up. But we'll get to that in a bit.

It usually takes a while to drive from our current digs to the Southworth ferry dock in Port Orchard. It usually takes even longer for the Southworth/Vashon/Fauntleroy ferry to show up -- so much so that on the rare occasions when I've used it to get back to Kitsap from Seattle, I end up waiting so long that I'd have made better time just driving around Tacoma and up the peninsula. CM and I usually refer to it as "the cursed ferry." So to my great delight, I didn't have to wait more than 10 minutes for the cursed ferry to arrive at Southworth Dock. And it didn't take another 10 minutes to make the crossing from there to Vashon.

Despite the gloominess of the day, I enjoyed my first look at Vashon Island. I couldn't live there, as there's no hospital or even a basic medical clinic, and everything has to reach the island by boat or helicopter. But it has a remarkable number of creative people per capita, and it's beautiful.

I drove merrily through the cute little downtown area, took a turn to the left and continued to follow driving directions for... far longer than I'd expected. How long should it take to reach any spot on an island of 37 square miles? As the roadway narrowed and twisted, I pulled over and sent a quick text to my siblings: "This place is in the middle of nowhere. IF I SHOULD FALL, TELL MY STORY"

Just then, though, the end hove in sight: the upper parking lot of the Point Robinson Lighthouse. 'Bout time.

(BTW, if you're new to troll hunting, look around for clusters of painted birdhouses like these. They're a sure sign that trolls are nearby.)

Since I'd never been to Point Robinson before, I was also curious about the lighthouse. And at the time it seemed like a lot of people were paying homage to King Oscar. So I thought I'd just pop down and see the lighthouse first.

This turned out to be a mistake. Not the seeing-the-lighthouse part, the taking-this-route part. I headed down a forest trail that quickly became slick with mud and crud and slippery fallen leaves, and there were no handrails to cling to. Frankly, it's a minor miracle that I didn't slip and fall on my butt, BUT(t) somehow I SLOWLY worked my way down, walking like a little granny, and made it to the end of the path relatively unscathed (though it's a good thing my shoes were designed to be laundered).

And here's what I found!

Let's take a closer look, shall we?

Ah yes indeed, very nice. 

No official tours until Mother's Day, more's the pity. But we're good at showing ourselves around the place.

After taking a few more attractive foties...

...I decided to head back. Though by this time I'd figured out there was another route up to the parking lot, so I didn't have to run the mud gauntlet again. Which is good, because I don't think my shoes could've taken it.

Lessee, what was I doing here again? Oh yeah.

In a circular clearing not too far away... there was King Oscar holding court, surrounded by birdhouse clusters on poles. And a lot of fans.

If you're curious to know more about him, there's a helpful plaque nearby that goes into more detail about Oscar and about Thomas Dambo, the Danish artist who created him (and other trolls) out of local scrap wood.

Like most wise rulers, Oscar's staying off his feet today.

He looks so much more handsome in person than he does on the sardine cans. Also I like his birdhouse crown. Very chic.

Someone had used a few local clams to give him a fabulous pedicure. As you do.

I handed my phone to an innocent bystander and proceeded to commune with the King.

Now we're officially BFFs. If you can't be a king, it's at least nice to know one.

I wasn't through exploring yet, though.

Not far from the King's court was this mysterious object.

Other than possibly being some kind of cryptic municipal art, I have no idea what it was.

If you know, do clue me in, won't you? I'm most curious.

And then I ran off and took goofy selfies in front of a mural because I could.

Anyway, that's one way to fight The Gray. And it worked pretty well if I do say so myself!

Bonus Day

For some time now, I've had this notion to write a story set in the Quadrennial Leapmarket Fair (to which I have referred obliquely on this blog a time or two), a shindig that takes place in an alternative magical (well, OK, more magical) version of Pike Place Market every February 29. It's been on the back burner because, while I have a solid location in the Leapmarket Fair, I haven't created much motivation to spur on my protagonist. But during some downtime over the course of the most recent trip with Miss V, I cobbled together a few more ideas... and while I didn't finish by Leap Day, I have moved the story out of the perpetual holding pattern it was in. So I'm pleased even if I don't have a finished tale to share, because THINGS ARE HAPPENING. Finally.

Also, CM and I went geocaching today, because nothing says "welcome to bonus day" like finding a cache or two. I finally found the cache CM placed back in 2013, signed the log, and then danced a little triumphant jig, because I'm a giant turbo-nerd.

That is all. At least for now. Gotta get back to writing.

Adventures in Pennsylvania: scrapple, caches and ice cream

Today was Miss V's first day visiting Penn State. After we breakfasted from the magic breakfast nook, I dropped her off on campus and began my daily quest for local adventure.

My duty was clear: this being my first time in Pennsylvania, I had a moral obligation to try the local delicacy known as scrapple. The Naked Egg Cafe, just off PA-26, was happy to oblige, with a plate of eggs, toast, home fries and scrapple with maple syrup served on the side. Paula, my awesome waitress, recommended trying maple syrup on the scrapple, and I am here to report that it took Mystery Pig Loaf to a whole new level. Scrappletastic! I was too busy wolfing down breakfast to take a pic, so you'll have to take my word for it that The Naked Egg serves some mighty good scrapple.

Seriously, if you've not tried scrapple and you don't have some dietary issue forbidding it, you should give it a shot. It's remarkably tasty. Crispy outside, creamy inside, very slightly smoky and sausagey with just a hint of pork liver. If you like sausage and/or fried mush, you will like this.

Thus fortified for the day's shenanigans, I did a bit of necessary shopping, then a bit of unnecessary shopping (ah, Five Below, how you tempt me with cheapie goodies! Why are you not in Washington yet?), then proceeded to look for a geocache. After a walk in the woods, during which time I got completely turned around (for future reference, maybe don't go caching alone in the woods on an overcast day in an unfamiliar area where you don't know your cardinal directions), I had success both in finding the cache and making it back to my rental car in one piece. Yay for another state souvenir! Yes, we've already established that I'm easily amused, thanks.

Back to the hotel to drop a few things off. Then I went to the one place where the camera actually came out: Berkey Creamery on the Penn State campus.

This little number is called Death by Chocolate. I can think of worse ways to go. Though it still doesn't hold a candle to German Chocolate Crunch from BYU Creamery. (Sorry, Penn State. You were a worthy adversary.)

Now I'm getting a few online-related things done and waiting for V to give me a call so I can pick her up from campus. As you do. If anyone asks, I DID ABSOLUTELY NOTHING today. heh.

Going APE 2017

Well, today was the annual Washington State Geocachers Association jamboree known as Going APE, held as always in and around Iron Horse State Park at Hyak, Washington. We've done this before, and the experience was much the same as it was back in 2011 (though if anything, my hip joints hurt more this time. owie.), so if you're curious, take a look here.

One thing was different, though. This time we actually logged a find on the APE cache, which is sort of a big deal as it's the last one left in North America, and until relatively recently it was thought to be destroyed. A contingent of rugged and determined geocachers hunted all around the area, found where the cache had been ditched by thieves, lugged it back to ground zero and managed to get Groundspeak to take the cache out of archived status, so woot woots all around!

PROOF.

Also, this time we brought lightsticks. We were hoping to find the Fen Dweller and have a little Tunnel Rave Party right there in the middle of the mountain, but alas, he had to go on break as he'd been busy all day getting passersby to sign his cache. So we had to be content with whirling our lightsticks around and making Homestar Runner techno noises as we walked. (It was far from the most annoying noise we heard today, believe me.)

Several times today we ran into Fen and Mitch. Not literally -- although if that were true, we should probably sign up for roller derby or something -- but figuratively, doing their thing for the WSGA. And we saw three hominid critters: the ubiquitous black-furred ape, the aforementioned Fen Dweller (not to be confused with the other Fen, who dwells elsewhere) and a Sasquatch hanging around the APE cache, posing for pictures. I did not opt to have my picture taken with Mr. Squatch this year.

As far as the walk through the tunnel is concerned: because the prevailing wind blows from west to east, it's a lot cooler walking through the tunnel to the caches on the other side than it is walking back toward Hyak. Every now and then I stopped and let the wind catch up with us. AH YEAH COOOOOOL.

So, while my legs are now burning and my hips are hurting and I'm walking around like an arthritic octogenarian this evening, I'm still proud. Even though I'm totally out of shape, I completed a walk that was over 5K long. Not too shabby for a fat lady!

And now to take way too much ibuprofen. mm sweet ibuprofen come to mama.

The mighty Geocaching Block Party of 2014

Well, having had a few days to recover, I have to say this was an eventful Block Party... though some of it not the kind of "eventful" I'd care to repeat.

First, the good stuff: we met some spiffy new people and completed the lab cache challenge for this year (I especially liked the one with the box that had multiple combination locks, all of which had to be successfully opened to reveal the passcode.)

Also good stuff: in addition to the merry party of Fen, Mitch and Mike, our friends Linda and son came to the Block Party this year, and by all accounts they had a blast!

Shown here: our doughty adventurer, undaunted by the ick factor, scrabbles about in slimy goop in order to find the next passcode.

Additional good stuff: I gots me some pretties.

The large Celtic-themed coin I purchased; the rest were given away as swag or as rewards for finishing challenges. (Yay, steampunk-related geotags for the win!)

You may notice a dearth of pictures of me or of Captain Midnight this year. There's a reason for that. I was preoccupied to the point that I took very few pictures, because...

Not-so-good stuff: I got sick.
Those of you who know me may already be aware that I am a Tough Swede and I can handle it! Well, Tough Swedes can take on the cold all day long; heat is a different story. It was hot and slightly humid in Seattle, I hadn't eaten breakfast or taken the time to put plenty of water into me beforehand, and I'm already at high risk to become easily overheated (yes, diabetes and family history of dehydration, I'm lookin' at you). About two hours into the day's festivities, I began to develop a pounding headache of Zeus-gives-birth-to-Athena proportions. Then I got flushed and dizzy, and suddenly stopped sweating -- and didn't start up again, even after I began belatedly guzzling water. After that came the nausea and, um, related emesis. Yup, heat stroke. At least it was a relatively mild case, but I haven't been quite right all this weekend.

It was the kind of fun that isn't. I don't think I'll choose to do that part again. (Next year, remind me to drink lots of water in advance so as to stave off further forays into dehydration-related ick.)

Oh, yeah, one more thing. Just because it seemed like a good idea at the time, I picked up another geocoin, gave it a name and a purpose and released it into the wild this weekend. The Marty Fromage Memorial Coin is my small, goofy tribute, a way of focusing on the positive nature of one man's life rather than on the particulars of his death. I hope it will go on to have many happy adventures around the world.

I'm just a cache machine... a loggin', cachin' fiend...

No, this is not a remake of a bad Wham! song. Captain Midnight and I are off to enjoy the wonder of nature that is a cache machine -- a massive convoy of geocachers following a pre-planned route, finding as many caches as possible along said route. This one's going to be in North Kitsap, and it will be my very first cache machine, so I'm pretty excited.

CM and I got up at Oh Dark Hundred (aka Oh You Gotta Be Kidding Me) and drove, only occasionally losing our way, to a Park & Ride where we met up with Fen and Mitch to carpool on the ferry over to Kitsap.

The Puyallup was our gallant ship for the day, complete with many groggy passengers...

...and a rather too-optimistically named Sun Deck.

My honey was pleased to be underway.

Soon enough the town of Kingston hove in sight, and we were ready to do some caching in earnest. Or at least in Kingston.

After hitting a few caches around the waterfront...

...and a few more in the 'burbs...

...we headed into the woods.

As you probably already know, "geocaching" comes from an old Latin phrase meaning "how geeks hike."

We wandered through the woods for some time and found a few caches (and DNFed a few as well).

What else was there to find?

Flora and fauna to photograph, that's what!

There was fungus among us.

Also a number of fluffy lichens...

...dew-speckled evergreens...

...and the occasional attractive mammal.

Ah, the trail back to civilization.

We stopped in Kingston to pick up lunch at the Main Street Ale House, which turned out to be delicious (so much so that I forgot to take any pictures). If you happen to be in the area, hungry, and not in a big hurry to be served, I can highly recommend it.

Then it was back into the fray!

We found a cache under this tree (never you mind where; go find it yourself) and then headed further along the trail in search of another.

You guessed it, more fungus. And bonus slugs.

D'aww, invertebrate love.

Anyway, after some tramping through the woods we found this big ol' burned out stump.

No, really, it was huge. The camera does not give a decent idea of its scale.

Had I taken a picture of myself nestled inside this thing, I would have looked teeny-tiny.

Anyway, eventually we found the cache we were seeking and started looking for caches in more populous areas.

...but wait, what's this in the distance?

We drove past for a closer look.

Huh. Must be a Walmart.

We stopped at the shore for a look at the (faraway) Point No Point Lighthouse.

The Puget Sound has some amusing place names. Deception Pass, Cape Disappointment, Point No Point, Useless Bay... I'm sort of surprised Lewis & Clark didn't just name something Mount Screw It, Let's Beat Feet Back To Civilization.

Moving on. In this case "moving on" means "back into the woods for another hike." Your gracious hostess, who is out of shape, did a lot of huffing and puffing around this point (but no blowing down pigs' houses; that's just rude).

Beautiful area, though.

Around about dinner time, we decided to visit the festive location where the other geocachers were gathered.

And there were quite a few of them, making merry and eating chips and salsa.

The ancient Aztec whatsits on the wall said, "TIME TO GO HOME, GEOCACHERS."

So we did.

Thanks for taking us with you today, Fen and Mitch! It was fun.