Thursday May 17, 2012

Every month I attend a WIC, (Woman's Interclub Council) meeting at a different Yacht Club. This month the WIC luncheon was held at Olympia Yacht Club and the 'theme' was Alice through the looking glass, a Mad Hatter Tea Party. All the guests were encouraged to make a hat for the occasion. My hat won a prize (a pretty little cup & saucer) for Best Hat! I am a creative genius! Now why can't I make any money doing what I love!..... HUH!... WHY!... I guess that would just be to easy.  ** sigh**

I drove to Olympia ALL BY MYSELF, my first trip on I-5 alone and driving through Tacoma... I was very brave and only took the wrong off ramp once and was able to get back on the freeway with out freaking out TOO bad! LOL. When I got home Ben was slaving away on the boat. We are in the process of completely re-doing the boat. Not only is Ben going to repair that FREAKING leaking Diesel tank but we are stripping ALL the wood trim (and DAMN there is alot of wood) so we can put a new coat of varnish on the trim. Once the trim is all scraped and sanded we will put around5 or 6 coats of varnish on all the outside wooden trim. THEN Ben will pull the diesel tank and repair or replace it. After that it's time to touch up the exterior white paint.... and it's a BIG boat, then we will put down the light blue non-skid coating on all the horizontal decks. Once THAT is done... holy crap I'm tired already.... We are putting new material in the interior cabin ceiling, and the final step is new carpet throughout. THEN..... wait for it........

We are gonna put the boat on the market and SELL IT! Then????? Well, I guess we will have to see. We have been working our asses off and every time I get tired and my arms ache... I just thing of how nice it will be to get outta this boat!

Saturday May 12, 2012 Weekend at Nicole's

Spent the weekend at Nicole's working on the Jeep. Ben spent ALL day Saturday and Sunday under the hood. At one point he tried to align the steering wheel so it was 'straight' and I don't know what he did... but every time we turned left the horn went off. I laughed so hard... it was hilarious! I spent the weekend playing with Chloe in the yard, it was such an awesome day. We BBQ'ed some chicken and Nikki and I just hung out with Kale. Ben finally got the horn to stop going off... although the steering wheel is still crooked! BaHaHa... Monday it's back to the boat and more scraping and getting her ready to replace the diesel tanks. YUCK! What a job. Of all the things my hubby has brought home for us to fix-up.... The old motor home, the camper trailer, the pick-up camper... This is defiantly the WORST! The next time he finds a 'fixer-upper' I'm outta here! Next time I want something that is READY to move into!

Friday May 11, 2012 Bug Museum

Bremerton Bug Museum.  Today the Explores club.... yes all 2 of us. Headed to the Bug Museum. I think it is designed mostly for kids... So of course Yoli and I had a GREAT time! We got to see some of the weirdest and coolest bugs. We explored bizarre bugs under the microscope, looked through glasses that let us see like a bug, and even watched busy ants in the giant 8 foot long Ant Farm! They have the weirdest and most interesting bugs on display.

We spent several hours exploring the bugs and having fun in the gift shop. I found some great gifts that I want to get for family and friends. They have really cool butterfly feeders and butterfly houses. The also have every kind of critter container you can imagine. Ant farms for the kids, kits to raise your OWN butterfly, frog houses and other very cool gifts and learning toys for the kids. We really had a fun time! After the bugs we headed to the Port of Bremerton and the Navy Yard to tour the Turner Joy.

This is the first war ship tour I have ever been on and it was very cool! The tour is un-guided so you get to climb all over the thing, you can walk through the whole ship, go down in the crew quarters, the engine room, the boiler room, up to the bridge, into the gun towers, etc. Amazing how they built those ships back then (the USS Turner Joy is from 1957 and decommissioned in 1982), long before CAD systems and all the tools we have today. USS TURNER JOY was the last ship in the FORREST SHERMAN - class of destroyers and the first ship in the Navy to bear the name. Her keel was laid down on September 30, 1957 in Seattle, Washington and she was launched on May 5, 1958.

Turner Joy's distinctive service included a double-duty role as flagship for Destroyer Squadron 13 and Destroyer Division 131 with several tours in the Pacific. She also stood air-sea rescue duty near the Marianas Islands for President Dwight D. Eisenhower's visit to several Asian nations. In terms of history, this vessel is most remembered for her participation in the Gulf of Tonkin. It was incredible to walk through. To visit the buck where the crew slept.... (Man they musta been skinny, those bunks were stacked 3 high with about 2 ft clearance between the bunks. I, of course, had to climb into a bunk... RACK, excuse me... to see if a human could actually FIT... and I did, but just barley. LOL.)  We toured the galley and imagined how it must have been when men lived and worked in these cramped spaces. It was so very interesting. I would love to go back!