quinn's place

now that its the beginning of august, lemme tell you what i did for the 4th of july.

it seems extra hard to keep up with all my photo-takings and blog postings and whatnot during these gorgeous summer months. i just want to frolic in the sunshine every single day when i get home from work. and summer weekends are like gooold- not for sitting on the computer. but i'm currently writing this while sitting on the back porch in the sunshine and pete and i are bout to grill some corn and chicken - so, win-win!

for 4th of july weekend, we took off in the cheddar bus to lopez island where we stayed for 4 fabulous days. my bff katie and her bf chad came for the first time, too!

i just love riding on the ferry. it feels like you're going somewhere without actually going somewhere. ya feel meh?

qp & kt: a love story.

first stop was the lopez island farmer's market to visit pete's aunt & uncle who blow this amazing glassware! among many other beautiful things! check them out here!

special bonus sighting of pete's cousin peri, eldest offspring of the glassblowers. that family is seriously sooo talented and artistic and awesome...every last one of them. peri hand makes these cool tote bags out of old sails from sailboats. she also makes hats, ladies' swim wear, kimonos...the list goes on. check peri out here!

^^^ there's cousin peri and her sail bags and other goodies for sale! pete and i got the orange and also the mac & cheese tote for the cheddar bus, 'acourse :) those things are durable as hell. carry 4 bottles o wine in the medium one! big loads of laundry in the large ones! just sayin.

we made lots of cute dog friends.

^^^ we went to the lopez island thrift shoppe where pete and i scored these fab island duds. me, a $4 dress (with pockets!!), pete, a $3 seagull pullover jacket. instant vacation mode achieved.

biker gang off to laze about by the water. // this gal loves her ritz (& pete taught her the ways of cheez-whiz).

MY BOO.

all the ducks in a row. or geese.

chad built a driftwood sculpture by the sea. we named her "seahag." she fell over. but check out that walking stick at the bottom! just like yoda's stick. we meant to sell it on ebay but forgot it.

fun little day hike and picnic up at watmough head. followed by some chillin and paddleboarding in watmough bay. just crazy pete went, though. dat water was absolutely freezing.

ooo birks & socks and a wonkily buttoned shirt. #donthasslemeimonvacation

a quick sail with the zerkel men! peter and brother tim's beer coozies each match their outfits hehe.

more dog friends.

4TH OF JULY EEEEEEEATS! hot dogs & spam sliders for everyone!

awesome fireworks show viewing party right on their property. soo great. we usually watch them from the sailboat which is also sOoOooOoo great, but the water was super choppy that day.

last relaxing day on lovely lopez.

and we were welcomed back to seattle with this stellar sunset.

love you long time, lopez. see you again soon.

pete and i stopped at the skagit tulip fields this sunday on our way home from lopez! it was my first time to the festival in all my almost ten years of living up in these parts! i couldn't believe it! because...i love flowers, i love to take pictures, and i love to take pictures of flowers.

it was beautiful!

also, easiest blog post ever! these photos require essentially zero editing. the colors are amazing.

it was busy there, but what i expected it to be on the business scale. i envisioned that getting in and getting out of the festival via vehicle was going to take a super duper long time, but our experience was pretty easy breezy. maybe saturday it would have been crazier. only $5 tho! and the guy gave us a $1 discount.. [??]

just note all the people hanging out/clinging to the end of every single row. you're not really allowed to walk in the rows, and there are some tulip nazis monitoring to make sure nobody is even slightly infiltrating the rows. like there's some harsh yelling going on in them tulip fields.

but occasionally you'll see some lucky someone make it out into the row for a quick sneaky pic without getting yelled at. see mickey mouse kid below.

here's pete ever-so-patiently for me to be done taking photos of every flower. i told him he never had to go to this ever again since now i finally know what its all about! (...i think he secretly enjoyed it though.)