We indulged in the ultimate treat this morning (Saturday) – we woke up without an alarm. In fact, we unplugged the clock all together! Bonus.
The morning was thick with fog, but gradually the peaks of the Olympics were cutting through the horizon. We leisurely showered, dressed and packed up for the day: first stop, breakfast!
We headed toward Belfair in hopes of discovering a hometown diner of some sort. According to our handy-dandy friend Yelp, we were in for pizza, pizza, Chinese buffet or Subway. However, just before we had reached the McDonalds marking the edge of this one-road town, we saw it: Jimmy D’s. This place looked like JUST the spot we’d hoped for, and after breezing through the entrance, past the rotating pie case, floral print wallpaper and “claw” vending machine, we were pretty sure we’d struck diner-gold.
We were seated at a booth near the back, where three tall carnations, mis-matched mugs and full-size color menus (complete with 100% unappetizing xerox photo of a steak dish) awaited. “Jimmy D’s Steak and Waffle House” “Oh look,” Amy said with childish delight “there’s another Jimmy D’s in Gorst!”
[For all of you who are not so up-to-speed on the geography of Kitsap and Mason counties, Gorst is a tiny little elbow of a town where Highway 16 and Highway 3 meet, at the tail end of Bremerton. Very exciting business.]
As is customary with Amy and I, we were both in the mood for the same thing: Hot cocoa with whip, bacon and eggs (scrambled), hash browns and toast. This is my traditional “out for breakfast” selection and at Jimmy D’s – it’s a winning choice.
We started our intense business planning efforts at the restaurant – but were quickly ready to walk around and burn off our carb-load meal- so we piled back into the Element, and headed back towards Alderbrook, to the Tawnoh State Park.
This park reminds me a bit of my beloved Lincoln Park in West Seattle – it’s rugged edges hug the shore of Hood Canal. This time of year, the grass is tall and littered with daisies and dandelions – making for a splattering of white and gold dots on a scratchy canvas of crayola green. The sun was shining strong, but the breeze breathing off the canal was enough to keep us quite comfortable for hours at our picnic table near the water.
This is where we got down to business. We had a LOT on the agenda, which included: finalizing our Mission + Vision, choosing strategic initiatives and goals, setting our budgets, re-crafting our pet portrait prices and wedding collections, settling on new products AND also trying to talk about some upcoming assignments- we had our work cut out for us.
However, I am happy to report that we accomplished nearly all of our goals in our hours by the beach – and then finalized our last few list items back at Alderbrook over a split-lunch of Dungeness mac + cheese and fish + chips (and two more hefeweizens of course.) We consumed our lunch/dinner with a quickness and headed back to our room to indulge in a change of clothes, a few moments of editing and for me, some serious attention to my newly acquired sunburn.
We did have to check what time the sun would be setting [luckily, there's an app for that! Thanks Iphone 
] On our way to Alderbrook we had spotted that the “Rodeo Drive-In” was featuring Monsters vs. Aliens, which of couse meant, that we’d have to make time for a movie. Appropriately, the double-feature was “Hotel for Dogs,” but even despite our canine-friendly businesses and our “all-dogs, all-the time” filter, we were pretty sure we’d have to skip out on the second flick.
We determined we needed to head out around 8ish so we secured our uber-comfy clothes, our wine (which luckily was a screw-top because we very conveniently forgot the corkscrew – oops!) and piled into Luna (the element, AKA moon unit) and hit the road!
We arrived at the drive-in just in time to get a great spot, head over to the snack shack for some candy (red vines and sour patch kids and some very strange conversation with some very odd people) and get back in the car as Monsters vs. Aliens began. Yay!! Here’s us before the movie started:
We enjoyed MvA and didn’t bother with Hotel for Dogs. This is us, back at Alderbrook (you can see the entrance behind our mis-matched glasses) with our wine and happy, somewhat sun-crispy faces (notice my super loud, overly comfy socks- yess!)
Nighty night- tomorrow’s our last day!
Oh ok – just kidding, one more stop… Our only addiction had to be indulged before we waited in line at the boat: Grande Non-fat Yerba Mate Latte please – to go! I don’t know what I am going to do for my long weeks in California without my Tulleys. *sigh* Shhhh don’t tell my Starbucks buddies.
no comments