Day Tripping 3

This is a short entry consisting of mostly photos taken over the past few days.  

Our daughter has had a plan to decorate her little dog for Halloween in the style of the dog's namesake, Frida Kahlo.  Well, she found an infant peasant dress, some pieces of tape and yarn from a fabric store and some plastic flowers to create the costume.  It has worked out pretty well. 

Frida with most of the costume.

Frida complete with unibrow

As my brother gets ready to head back to Rodeo for the winter we've been taking advantage of the weather to visit the island.  This past weekend it was 65 degrees and SUNNY with little breeze.  A few weekends ago when we were there it was so windy we couldn't sit in the sun.  We had to move around to the shady side of the deck.  This time we sat on the south facing part, in the sunshine, enjoying the day.  There may not be many, if any, more like this till next year.  

Sicilian and Corleone flags in the sunshine. Add red wine and it's almost Sicily.  

Only almost Sicily.  It'd be hard to find this degree of green with water on that island.  

Mt. Rainier and the moon just before sunset.

This place is overrun by deer. 

In the photos I've included a shot of one of the many deer that hang around his house on the island.  This one is typical of the size of the deer on the island.  They've overpopulated to the extent that they appear to be experiencing stunted growth.  20 years ago the does were larger, almost the same size of the blacktails I'd see while elk hunting.  Eventually this could lead to a population crash for the species.  Too many of the locals refuse to allow hunting and are aghast at the thought that someone could kill and eat one.  A reasonable policy would permit culling of the population to keep it healthy.  There are no predators on this rock.  A cougar was sighted several times on the island in the recent past but it went after sheep and goats and basically signed it's death warrant.  Sheep and goats are a lot easier to catch than deer so it stands to reason that the big cat would go for easy eats.  

The weekend prior to Halloween the local coffee roaster has had a jack-o-lantern carving affair for decades.  This year the Vashon Island Coffee Roasterie supplied the pumpkins for carvers to use.  You could even pick one up, take it home and carve it, as long as you got it back to the store by this past weekend.  The results are often really artistic and it attracts a large viewing population.  The past couple years we have been unable to make the trip at the right time.  Not so this year.  Since my brother would be held on the island past Halloween due to some car repairs he needed to have done we headed out to see him, enjoy the sunshine and eat dinner at May's, recognized as one of the best Thai restaurants in the country.  May's used to be located in Seattle in the Wallingford neighborhood but moved to Vashon a few years ago.  Believe me, it's reputation is well earned.  During the summer months you need to get reservations 2-3 weeks in advance.  This time of the year we were able to get a table for 3 only a week ahead of when we wanted.   We stopped on the way to Island Center from the south end of the island to catch the pumpkin display.  

The roasterie has live music on Saturday nights.  Local musicians.

This was the largest pumpkin carving and is really intricate.  

Happy Halloween.  

Ciao for now.