Labor Day Weekend

So, you ask, what have we been up to out here in the great state of Washington?  Well, mostly, trying to enjoy this GORGEOUS weather.  Seriously. I can't seem to get over how beautiful the weather is here this time of year.  It's in the 50's when we get up in the morning, usually gets up to somewhere between 72 and 80 in the afternoon, and then cools down to the 60's in the evenings.  Oh, and did I mention there is NO humidity?!  Coming from Virginia...in the middle of the summer..this is a HUGE deal.  It's just perfect.

Anyways, we were able to fit quite a bit in to this three-day weekend.  Saturday we just kind of hung out.  I was really tired so Neal was sweet enough to let me take a two hour nap in the middle of the afternoon.  That evening we went and had our first home-cooked meal since we've been here. A friend of Neal's from work (and his lovely wife) invited us over to their house to have dinner with them and their adorable two-year-old daughter.  It. Was. So. Delicious. Yummm.  He grilled chicken legs and vegetables.  Let me say it again... It. Was. So. Delicious.  And we couldn't have beat the company.  I'd never met them but they were a lot of fun and seem to have a lot in common with Neal and I.  It's nice to know SOMEONE out here so hopefully we'll be able to get together with them again :)

On Sunday we decided to put Cooper in the truck and we drove up to Sequim.
 

"A" is the Silverdale Beach Hotel where we've been living and "B" is the Olympic Game Farm. 

 

It's a little more than an hour drive.  But it was TOTALLY worth it.  We visited the Olympic Game Farm.  You can read more about it on their site but they have TONS of animals there. Most of which we'd never seen in person.  Well, except for at a zoo, but this is NOT a zoo.  Trust me.  You know it's not a zoo when you have elk and yaks and various other odd animals sticking their face through your car window.  Here are a few of our favorite pictures :)

Neal feeding a buffalo.

European Fallow Deer.

Yakity Yak. Okay. Just a regular Yak. :)

This guy was VERY friendly. I liked this bear :)

I swear these zebras were trying to hide behind these trees.

Llama!

European Fallow Deer. I have NEVER seen so many deer in my life.

Elk. I love this shot.

Cooper and the baby elk were giving each other some love :)

After we left the Game Farm we were going to head back to Silverdale to find something to do for the evening.  But, instead, we decided to follow the signs to this adorable berry farm.  We ended up at Graymarsh Farm.  We each got a bucket and chose a different type of berry to pick.  I picked blueberries.  Neal picked Loganberries.  Which, in case you don't know (because we didn't and had to look it up while we were picking), Loganberries are a hybrid of raspberries and blackberries.  And let me tell you, that is EXACTLY what they look AND taste like.  They're delicious!  Here are some shots from our berry picking outing.

Pickin' away!

Loganberry bush.

Neal's loganberries he picked.

My blueberries.

This may be my new favorite picture of us :)

And oh yeah, our view while we were in Sequim.....

We didn't take any pictures on Monday, but Monday we went down to Bremerton for the Bremerton Blackberry Festival.  It was fun.  For our Gloucester friends, it was somewhere in between the Guinea Jubilee and the Daffodil Festival.  We ate some of THE best blackberry cobbler we've ever had.  They had any blackberry product you could imagine: Cobbler, pie, jam, jelly, soda, etc. Yum!  

I hope you all were able to have as enjoyable a weekend as we were!