After leaving Hope Island we headed for Boston Harbor just a couple miles away.  We anchored out in front of the bay then made some lunch.  Boston Harbor marina has a cool, once a week, dinner on the docks.  They only have one thing on the menu and its sponsored by a local brewery who sets up a beer cart.  Enchiladas were on the menu tonight so we headed up to check it out.  People came from everywhere!  All these little boats swarmed the area trying to find a place to tie up and get some food.  We had a great time and it was fun to watch what seemed like the whole little community getting together for dinner on the docks.

The next day some friends of ours invited us to dinner at their house in Gig Harbor.  They have a buoy out front that we can tie up to so we jumped at the chance.  But first we needed to bring some food so we hopped in the Edgewater and headed back to Olympia for the farmer’s market.  We had a great time having dinner with friends then the next day we motored back to the Yacht Club.  The kids revolted over being out for the 4^th of July.  They thought their life was going to end if they didn’t have fireworks so we gave in and went home.

It was a successful shakedown cruise.  Everything was slow and relaxing as we learned a lot about using our new boat.

The next few days we spent at Jerrell Cove and Hope Island.  We all went on a really long kayak/paddle board ride in Jerrell Cove and explored all the little inlets.  After anchoring on the north side of Hope island we kayaked over to the island for a hike.  We were a little nervous about leaving our boat because the current was running like a river where we anchored.  We had a fun hike around the whole island then fed the deer some apples in the orchard.  After seeing our boat was exactly where we left it we felt much more relaxed.  However, as night fell that relaxation turned stressful when Julie and I woke up to weird noises coming from the anchor chain.  Its always hard to know if your anchor is dragging or its just the chain pulling across the ground as your boat changes direction with the current.  I was up at 3am on anchor watch, seeing the sun come up and and watching the seals play in the calm water, it was an eerie feeling.

The next day we pulled anchor and made our way to Pirates Cove just a couple miles north.  Pirates Cove is a long time favorite.  Julie’s aunt Toodie and uncle John have a cabin in the bay.  We come here every year on the boat for a family reunion but this time it was just to play.  We took the boys waterskiing and tubing, trying to whip them around and dump them off.  We were successful and they had a blast.

Just by chance Julie’s aunt happened to be at the cabin for a girls weekend but all the girls had left except one who also happened to be a long time friend of my mom and dads.  We picked them up in our dinghy and had a nice ride to Allyn where we all had dinner at the Boathouse restaurant.  It was very nice to see them both!

The next day we had to take Dylan back to Tacoma so his mom could pick him up at Point Defiance.  Instead of taking the big boat all the way back (30mi each way) we decided to take the Edgewater on a fast cruise back to Tacoma.  It was a little cold but sunny and calm.  We made a pit stop at Boathouse 19 for some lunch then on to Pt Defiance where Dylan’s mom was waiting on the dock.  We said our goodbyes then fired up the engine for a 1 hour 30 knot cruise back to Pirates Cove where the big boat was waiting at anchor.