Huckleberries anyone?

Hiking...did we say we went hiking? In search of the elusive huckleberry. Another trip, another time. But a good time was had by all!

Beans, sacrifice, green eggs and ham...

So Monday afternoon, the kamper girls and I visited a friend, Les, who has a fantastic garden. So we picked beans and listened to him philosophize for a bit. But really, we noticed that the horse and ponies were building an alter on which to sacrifice the neighbor cow at the height of the eclipse of the full moon. Across the way, we noticed that there were not a large number of chickens so we figured that the ponies had been practicing the sacrificial ritual on those chickens. However, we noticed later that the chickens had come back to life as zombie chickens - aha that's where green eggs come from! So we deduced that green ham must come from zombie pigs. Puts a whole new spin on Dr. Zeus' stories, doesn't it?

Les told us about the eclipse of the moon so Sophie and I hauled our butts out of bed to see it at 2:30am, but Claire...stayed up until 3am. No wonder why she's been tired! Claire has some nice photos of the eclipse, but she'll have to upload them later.

Gettin' Jiggy With the Fish Take Three

We went fishing for the THIRD time. We left earlier with different tackles, tried jigging and a lesser grumpy Dennis, and we ACTUALLY CAUGHT SOMETHING. Kim caught one salmon and a sculpin-thing (Dennis isn't sure what it is any more). Claire and I caught mountains of fish but didn't want to kill them so we released Nemo and Co. back into the big blue.

Prior to that, Dennis took us to the shooting range. It was extremely intense at first but pretty soon I was enjoying myself. It makes you kind of Zen out because you need focus not only to hit the target but to calm down enough to shoot. He showed us an assortment of guns: a .22 revolver, a .22 rifle, an AR, and, uh...crud, I can't remember. They were semi-auto's and jumped a little. I don't think Claire and I liked those much because of the jump and because they spat little shells at you. The rifle was much nicer. Heavy.

The Rubik's Cube still goes unsolved. I went online to solve it but I keep screwing it up. Dennis caught me and we had a disagreement about is it actually cheating if you do it wrong? I say yes but you never said I couldn't cheat; he said it wasn't cheating. Hmm.

Sleeping Beauty...& the rubics cube

Yes, bloggers, I think we have worn out the Kamper Claire-bear as she can't seem to pull herself out of bed before 10:30am for the last 2 mornings!

Both Kamper Claire-bear and Kamper Sophie are enthralled with the the rubics cube found in the donation box headed to Granny's Attic (local charitable organization). I scared Kamper Claire with the comment that she had to have all the colors aligned by the end of the day. Sophie has been entertaining herself for hours with it since.

Kamper Dennis showed up late for lunch yesterday before we headed off to Kayaking and then he repeated this for dinner. Why do we eat with him?

On the water, kayaking, Kamper Sophie was successful in the art of paddling without a rudder since her rudder peddle broke half way around the lake forcing her to circle to the left for some time until we figured out the problem! Sophie quickly figured out the sublties of paddling and finished the trip, I'm sure a bit more tired than the rest of us.

Kamper Claire on the other hand was a manic on the water earning the title of Kayak Maniac or Paddling Fool (or fool with a paddle???). Watch out for her on the water, she's a rammer.

Kamper Dennis on the other hand, rented a fabric kayak which is much slower. He said that his kayak was very stable and stately...

More later...I have lots of pictures!

Kim

Now We Know Why the Fish Hate Us

It's all Dennis' fault. EVERYTIME we have gone on the boat he has been a grumpy ole bugger about everything. We got some very close calls last night when we went out fishing for the second time, but NOTHING. NOT A THING. Then Kim figured it out: Dennis' bad majo is throwin' off the fish's groove. EVERYONE, BLAME HIM.

That was last we did last night, we went fishing. We weren't on the water long because it was dark and Claire lost two pink kesps to the ocean, but because Dennis left his truck on while we hooked the boat to the trailer he ran out of diesel while going up a hill. Kim, Claire and I rolled into town to get him gas. On the way I listened to "Kids of the Future" by the Jonas Brothers about thirty times and drove Claire crazy. When we finally got home, I was so hyper it was a little paranormal.

Today we went kayaking (though I had to prod Claire out of bed at first). We drove to West Seattle to kayak in the big old lake. It's extremely enjoyable, though it really is physical. Basically, you have two pedals to move your rudder, and a big ole pole with fins on the end. It requires some very specific strokes to get moving. I found that out pretty quickly because I broke one of my rudder pedals and got it stuck, so I wound up going in circles. Kim unstuck me and I had to learn to turn using ONLY the pole, which is hard work. Ultimately, everyone had a ball, even though some of us were sore and wet.

(We passed by the houseboat in Sleepless in Seattle. There was no sign that said, "TOM HANKS WAS HERE" so I lost interest.)

After that we ran some errands in Seattle. Claire and I amused ourselves with a Rubik's Cube. I managed to get one whole side orange before I screwed it up again. I was very annoyed and after that I was quite cranky.

Now we are home and everyone is fairly tired, though I think Claire and I are going to stay up a little longer. Love you and see you Friday.

-Sophie

Y'all are Chickens.

I AM KEEPING MY DAMN VOLCANO ROCK. PELE CAN GO EAT MY SHORTS FOR ALL i CARE.

Love,

Sophie

Yeah, we're all awazzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...(snore)

YAWN...yeah, I think everyone saw the eclipse. While we were watching Kyle XY Dennis told Claire he wasn't sure if she could stay awake until 0230. Claire was, of course, indignant, so she called up Katy and asked her to keep her awake until 0230. I'm not sure if it worked or not, I haven't really talked to her today except to ask, "Did you fall asleep with your glasses on?" to which the answer was basically, "No." Someone roused me at two-thirty (I fell asleep at midnight, so I was tiiiiired Burrito...) and I went out to look at the eclipse. Yeah, pretty cool. Some of the moon was shiny, the rest was black. Very mystical. Mmhmm. Yeah.

I was asleep again at 0233.

Love,

Sophie

Here's to You, Mrs. Robinson

Today was fairly non-exciting because the adults were at work (BLAH). There was much lazing about, watching TV (which is still green and only Disney has a clear signal) and playing Gameboy. It wasn't until later that things got more entertaining.

Firstly was the unnerving episode of the Missing Fly. It turns out if you let the dogs outside unsupervised Fly will go running. It was quite scary. Kim found her all the way at the ocean, all wet but happy and safe (I was up, towards the street).

Then, Kimmer called the Comcast Man, who could not solve our problem on the phone (though for about five minutes the picture had red in it again) and so he's coming tomorrow.

THEN, Kim's friend Les called, asking us to please come pick some of his beans because he's got tons. Les is a man who has a nice little house in an old barn. His dog is named Boots. It's a tiny little Corgi that acts all tough and barks at you, but if you ignore him long enough he'll scoot close to you and give you the poor-widdle-puppy eyes. Then he's nice. Les also has a big ole horse named Dover and a miniature named Blackjack, who was scared of a Jack Russell mix puppy (that dog was very roly-poly and very friendly).

Les is very pleasant. He's very polite and seems extremely smart. Kim told us that he has a pHD in philosophy (which seems odd for a hermit, but whatever). We picked a lot of beans, including some purple ones which taste very nice. He informed us that there would be a lunar eclipse at two in the morning. You KNOW we're going to get up and see that! I'll manage pictures in. Kim took us up to the point where we can see the eclipse AND Rainier. On the way we met a kid with bike trouble who refused our offer of help, and everytime Kim said, "And so you turn off Luana and onto Robinson" or something similar, I would sing, "And here's to you, Mrs. Robinson" because that's what the word reminds me of. Claire seems to think my ability to break into song is very humorous. Okay then.

Tonight, we are going to see the Simpsons movie in town. Tomorrow is the promise of more fishing and possibly something else that I totally forgot...hmm....

Hmm...

Fishapalooza

THE RETRIEVER IS BORN!!!!!

Dennis FINALLY got the boat fixed and finished, and today she sailed on her maiden voyage! It was a very proud moment for all of us. It might have been more so if Dennis wasn't cranky about the maiden voyage having a few hiccups, but he just lets little things like overheating engines get to him. I mean, a warm boat is a good thing, right?

Just kidding, Dad, Grandpa.

It was fairly cold out there, but everyone had extra layers so it was alright. We (meaning Kim, Claire and I) also brought warm warm brownies and coffee, among other things, most of which didn't get eaten (and my coffee tasted awful because I put too much sugar in). Warm food and clothes combined with the fact that there's a lot of movement involved in fly fishing (which is what I think the term is), we stayed toasty.

The voyage began well enough: Dennis hooked us up with rods and Kim watched the GPS, which tells you how many fish are in the water and how deep they are. When there were lots of little fishy icons, she'd yell, "FISHAPALOOZA! They're everywhere!!" and everyone else would be casting their litte pink minnows furiously in hope we'd land something. I killed my little metal minnow. I kept hitting it against the side of the boat and every time I did Dennis would tell me that I owed him a thousand dollars. Pretty soon I was in dept 11K and my fishy had silver spots where I'd chipped the paint off. Oops.

An hour later no salmon have been caught, though they SHOULD have been--they were everywhere. We saw some jump, but they turned their tails to our pink minnows...Aww...

THEN!!!!!

THEN!!!!!

THEN!!!!!!!

CLAIRE HAS A FISH!!!

ONLY, IT'S not a salmon...

I thought it was a catfish--same kind of head, some kind of body before Dennis says, "There are no catfish here! It's a sculpin!" Whatever it was, it was ugly. The poor guy had a hook in his lip and he was NOT happy about getting a piercing. Claire managed to get him back in the water without touching him too much (I still can't figure out how she did it ). And so our only fish swims away. Ten minutes later some other people (Kim's friends the Chins) have caught the poor sucker. I can imagine he was extremely unhappy about being hooked in twice.

Half an hour later a guy fishing on the beach has fallen in the water. It was funny.

The Chins now have two fish. They got two more later. It was embarrassing because they caught all these fish just off our bow. I couldn't really cast out that direction because they already were, so our lines would have been tangled. Grrrr....

Quite a bit later--it's sunset and everyone's a little fed up--the Chins motor over and give us a salmon. Claire and I are closest so we have the wrestle the thing into the cooler where it will face emminent death by oxygen intake. I grab its tail and the thing FREAKING GOES NUTS, so I scream and let go.

(Everyone who's handled a fish shut up. It was like holding an eel. I did not grow up in Alaska where three-year-olds handle fish or you gut them for a summer job, so Mom stop rolling your eyes.)

Kim finally grabbed the thing by its mouth and threw it in (getting fish blood everywhere) and fifteen minutes later we are going home. We caught no fish but a lot of seaweed. Dennis examined the Chins tackle and he plans to go get whatever they had (a pink squid). We might try again tomorrow, or we might go see the Simpsons movie. It's all up in the air.

Good night,

Sophie

(YAY! I can move the pictures around!!!)

You Bought a What?!?

So, yesterday Aunt Darlene was positively raving about a yard sale her neighbor was having where there were all these great clothes that might fit Claire, Kim and me, so this morning (after I hauled my sleepy butt out of bed for the third time) we aimed to get ourselves over there. Dennis was planning to work on the boat and get it water, in order to see if it would actually float. No one seemed very motivated, though. We watched Spongebob Squarepants with a color problem (the little sponge was green) and finally left to catch the 1130 ferry.

Unfortunately, there is no such thing as an 1130 ferry on Sunday. Thanks to Kim's frenzied driving we had half an hour to spare. We went to the grocery store, calling Dennis on various phones to tell him what a dork he is for getting the ferry schedules mixed up.

On the ferry (onto which we walked, because Aunty D. was going to pick us up at Fauntleroy), I talked to Alexander and Julie. They are fine. Please don't spam the site, Xander.

Yard sale was small but there were a lot of clothes, and some really excellent shoes 3 1/2 sizes too small. I picked out a black long sleeve sweater and a dress. It's very long and pale blue and I'm thinking on wearing it to Homecoming, if I can get a real date.

(If we hate it, Mum, it cost me only 50 cents.)

It took Claire some time to get over the mantra of "Holy-hell-my-sister-bought-a-dress-she-hates-dresses" we left for another sale, which was unremarkable. There was a ride home (with me driving and Claire navigating) and now we are back on the Island, looking for cables to get pictures onto this blog. So far we found the one for Kimmy's camera but not Bear's, because guess what she forgot it.

In further news I was attacked by a big old moth this morning at about five, when I woke up worrying and couldn't go back to sleep. I played my Gameboy in Kim's office, which is the only warm part of the house at night. Unfortunately a moth and some flies liked the temperature too. The moth freaked me out when I first saw it so I whacked it, and then it retaliated and made me scream. I left. I took my Pok'emon to the bathroom, which was a BAD decision because the bathroom is FREEZING.

Don't worry, I went back to bed. I woke up at 0700, and then again at 0830. I did get sleep, Mom.

Later, after we have determined if the boat floats, we are going to take the Retriever and go fishing. Finally. This is supposed to happen around 1630-1700. Again, that's only if she doesn't have any more problems. Wish Denny luck, everyone.

Until then, we are working to get photos on here. Love and such, Sophie

Mainland Mishaps

There was some bad juju afoot today as the Kampers tried to get their errands done in preperation for the fishing excursion. Dennis went shopping for boat batteries while the girls went to the DOL for fishing licenses. We waited in line there for a very very very long time. Or, as the guy in front of us phrased it, "It's a short line...but it's a long line."

Then we checked the fishing licenses. Claire's did not have a catch record for salmon. She got halibut instead. The DOL was closing in twenty minutes and the line was still rivaling those at Disneyland. We drove away in disgust.

Dennis had similar luck with the batteries. He needed new ones. There is no where on the island that had new batteries. So we drove off to the mainland, heading for Outdoor Emporium. There, our goal was to obtain:

1. Clay pigeons,
2. New fishing license for Bear,
3. Some fancy-pants fishing reel.

We got the reel but they were out of skeet. Their licensing shindig had closed half an hour before (I still don't know why it don't close at the same time as the rest of the store). We left in disgust. (Dennis paid $109 for his reel, BTW.)

At Costco, we bought 4 flats of Mexi-Coke and some prunes. Dennis got his batteries. While we bought gas, he yakked with Spencer constantly. Kim was forced to ground him from the phone. Needless to say there was much whining and pouting after that.

So, we started on the long drive to Federal Way, where Sportsman Warehouse sold all the things we didn't have. They charged us ten dollars to reprint a new license for Claire, after we listened to the snot at the counter tell us we'd purchased a license on July 11 (uh, NO). Now she has a catch-anything-that-comes-on-the-seafood-menu license. Crab, shellfish, halibut, salmon, probably beavers if she can get 'em. I left in disgust. Dennis happily went off to go get boxes of skeet. Kim followed. We left, and our trunk had

4 flats of Mexi-Coke
2 batteries
and 5 boxes of clay pigeons.

Then we got into the Tahoe again and went off for dinner, which Darlene was invited to. We went to a place called Cactus where the wait for a table of five was 30-45 minutes. We were going to leave in disgust when suddenly there was a free table and we could be seated very very shortly, ma'am. We were seated very very shortly.

Dinner was excellent. I don't remember what the food was all called, but it tasted very nice. My dish was the most popular. It was chunks of pork that you could dip in mango sauce or green chile sauce, with some vanilla coconut rice. It's very sweet and sort of tastes like candy.

We left satisfied and took the aunt home. Then we drove back. After that there was mostly a lot of Jesus-I-have-to-pee and some stories about going to the hospital. Tomorrow, Dennis is going to see if the new batteries work. If they don't, we won't get out tomorrow. Probably. He explained all this to me and I understood but nil. We have taken pictures, but everyone's too sleepy to figure out how to upload them. Good night.

Vinegar and Chicken Gizzards

Hello Mum and Dad. It's about two and pretty soon we'll be heading back to the mainland for clay pigeons and to have the boat batteries checked. Once that's done, we can go fishing. It will probably be fun but very very cold.

Our trip TO Vashon took its usual three hours. Once there, we met Kim at the island's Thriftway for a mountainload of groceries. Dennis let me drive his huge old Green Monster to their house (for the record, he said I did the best job he'd seen anyone do on their first time driving that 20+ foot thing). We watched Burn Notice and Eureka before retiring to bed.

Next morning: Kim made excellent scrambled eggs with a plethora of fixings (peppers, tomatoes, mushrooms, salt, pepper, garlic, ketchup and Tabasco souce) and Dennis let the bacon burn. Once. He did better the second go round. There has been much lazing about amidst one trip to the grocery store for forgotten supplies, but even then we forgot the gallon bottle of vinegar there (we're not sure how, though...). For lunch we had smoked pork shank and they introduced me and Bear to chicken gizzards. Claire hates 'em, I think they're fine.

Day One of Kamp Kim (8/25/07)

Hello, Mum and Dad!

This is the first post of our vacation blog! We're just getting used to it right now. In fact, I just set up the account...keep checking in to see what trouble we've caused lately. There'll be plenty!

Love Sophie

P.S. Once we find a battery for Claire's camera, we'll have plenty of pictures up.