Memorial Day Redneck Casual Cruise

What a wonderful weekend! The EYC cruise for Memorial Day was over to Port Orchard which made for a nice 3-1/2 hour cruise to get there. Unfortunately, we were moored in POYC members' slips so while it was very generous of them to provide the space, we were spread throughout the marina making it difficult to connect with other members. We did, however, have full access to the POYC clubhouse so it gave us a great location for meals and for visiting with other members. This first picture shows the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and some of the mothballed aircraft carriers. Bremerton is directly across the bay from Port Orchard so it was a nice view of the carriers. The second picture shows the view we had from our moorage space. Not as nice as some had but one advantage was that we were protected from the wind and some rough water that others had to deal with.

The theme for the weekend was "redneck" so one of the fun things they did was cook a pig on a spit. The club had never done one before but Ralph Olsen did some internet research, got the supplies, and then proceeded to cook us a fantastic dinner of pulled pork. They did a great job, learned some things to do different the next time, and already have plans to build our own spit to make this an annual affair.

During the day we walked around the street fair in Port Orchard and then took the foot ferry over to Bremerton for their Kitsap Harbor Days. There were lots of craft and food booths as well as a fun car show covering 3 blocks of downtown. I have always liked old cars from the fifties but was never sure which one was my favorite.  I found it! I loved the 1957 Belairs and there were several beautiful ones. My favorite was this turquoise one and have now added it to my "bucket list".  Maybe someday... 

Barkley made lots of friends and enjoyed the attention from this little girl on the ferry. The second picture is of our friends from Bob's model boat club who are the ones that encouraged us to join the Edmonds Yacht Club. They are, from left, Leif & Audree Bentzen and Barbara & Ron Brey. Leif is the one we took with us when we were looking to buy Stargazer and he did the survey on it.  He is an excellent mechanic and we continue to use his expertise. We recently bought some hours of service from him at the annual auction since there are always things that needs to be done on a boat.

On Sunday we took it very easy and just relaxed on the boat with our books. The evening was "redneck" night that included a wonderful steak dinner, costumes and music. The highlight for the weekend was when we commemorated Memorial Day by sharing memories of loved ones who had served in the military.  There were some amazing stories from World War I, the Korean War and Viet Nam. Bob shared Mark's experience of picking up a VIP in Afghanistan who turned out to be a very young female soldier who had just learned her husband had been killed in Iraq. Following the sharing time, the committee provided a bouquet of flowers for those who wanted to remember a veteran who had passed away. I dropped a flower in the Sound in remembrance of my dad who served in the Coast Guard and passed away last year. It was a very moving ceremony for all who were there.

I had to include the following picture of this cute espresso stand across the street from the clubhouse. There's just something about tugboats!