Crumpet goes sledding

Baby Crumpets takes us snow sledding in Mount Baker.

Yes, I realize it's the middle of summer (we're in shorts). But Mount Baker is covered in glacier and there is snow & ice all year round.

Certainly was fun to see the amused looks from a Florida family visiting.

Crumpet visits Fremont Fair

Baby Crumpet took us to the Fremont Fair.

The annual street fair draws tens of thousands of participants, including the nude bike riders (see pictures of the body painted with their cloth still on), the local Seattle chapter of nudist (who is staging a nude-stock), and the Fremont chapter of the Freemasons.

Our favorite was the fabulous car show - a few pictures here really does not do justice to the wildly inventive tricked-up cars on display.

Crumpet visits Hurricane Ridge

Baby Crumpet took us to hike Hurricane Ridge in the Olympic National Park.

To get there we took the Kingston Ferry and coming back we took a different route, using the Winslow ferry through Poulsbo. While in Winslow we had some yummy & very fancy ice cream at a place called Mura - who specializes unique flavors such as French Chestnut & fresh, local blackberries.

At the Olympic National Park - where we last visited on our honeymoon 3 years ago - we stayed in a quint little town called Sequim. The town happens to be the lavender capital of America. Given none of us actually likes lavenders it really didn't matter.

Sequim is in the middle of Dungeness Valley and did interest us were terrific locally harvested shell fish - oysters, crab and clams especially. At a place called Three Crabs I had the best steamers, ever. At another dinner place (forgot the name) they had these fantastic pan friend oysters, lightly battered and very fresh. Then we had breakfast at this awesome joint called The Oak Table. Their house specialty is an oven baked dutch pancake filled with real apple slices and covered in carmelized cinnamon sugar. I swear some farmer invented the dish to fatten his animals for slaughter. At the restaurant we encountered a group of Canadian ''Smart Car'' driving group, very cool.

Hurricane Ridge itself was breathtakingly beautiful. The day was cloudy but it added to the mystique, as mountain peaks keeps appearing and disappering behind clouds. We took the Hurricane Hill trail, which is a simple 3.6 miles round-trip uphill trail that offered a panaromic view of the Olympic mountain range. Given all the fried, baked & buttered stuff we consumed over the weekend the hike provided ready relief.

On the way home we stopped by briefly a ''George's u-fish trout pond''. Farmer George had a trout farm, some bait & tackle and you're welcome to fish as long as you pay for the haul. We didn't do it 'cause we didn't want to go through the hassle of a bunch of deadfish in a hot car driving home, but we watched as a couple and some kids easily took in fish after fish. Maybe next time.