Boating with the Steves, Part 1

So this post is just all about some old friends having fun on the boat. Nothing technical, although maybe a bit informative about the South Sound area of Puget sound.  And some fun food pics.

Even before the trip with my Dad and brother was cancelled, with Deb planning on being out of town, I contacted "the Steves" to see if they were interested in coming up to go boating, like a long weekend. 

We have been friends for about 20 years, back where I used to live in NorCal. We boated together (ski boats), made wine together, we even all built custom homes at the same time. Steve S is a cabinet maker, and Steve T is a bridge engineer.  Although they have visited us, they had not been on the water besides the ferry.

As they arrived at SeaTac in the early afternoon, we couldn't go too far. We hit the West side of Blake Island, a popular anchorage, that I can basically see from my house. Steve T is still making wine and has gotten pretty good at it. He brought a bottle up so I could see how the craft has been progressing.

Deb and I don't eat much meat, but lately I have been making a chicken meatball dish. That gave me the idea to do a variation on chicken parmesan, using ground chicken. I did a trial run the night before and perfected it. Came out GREAT. As you'll see these guys enjoying eating!

Friday morning we awoke to some fog, including this interesting view of Blake Island. 

But hey, first things first. I have always wanted to make one of these breakfast casseroles. A layer of hash browns on the bottom, then country sausage and cheese, some torn pieces of bread, all soaked in an egg/milk mixture. You make it the day before and then bake it the next morning. As you can see I added some roasted onions. Not exactly a health food, but...

My plan was to make it as far as McMicken Island, then over the next few days work our way back, overnighting in Gig Harbor the last night, Sunday night.  But we had a lot of fog, and a lot of debris in the water. So progress was kinda slow.

By the time we got to Gig Harbor, Mr. Garmin said we wouldn't get to McMicken until 4:30. Too late. So we decided to pull into Gig. Steve S loves nice houses and boats, and just couldn't believe how beautiful GH is. We anchored at the end of the bay. 

We put the tender in the water to go exploring.

We decided to go out for dinner that night at Anthony's. They have an awesome dock. I left the mood lights on for our return. Mahalo looked great!

Steve T went to Iowa and Berkeley. There was an Iowa game on so they watched it and did yoga. Life's rough. 

The wind started coming up. The prediction was for up to 25 kts that night, although it was supposed to die completely by morning. Since we were set with our anchorage I decided we'd stay over another night. We went into town again exploring. 

The guys went to Tickled Pink to buy gifts for the wives. Then we found Heritage Distilling, right on the main drag. What a fun place! They have a bunch of craft spirits, with a large number of flavored vodkas. Coffee vodka? mmmmmmmmmmmm. Nicole has only been here in WA a month. We gave her a warm welcome, of course.

I had planned a pizza night. But I couldn't find my rolling pin. This works.

The first one is in the pizza oven on the BBQ. Meat lovers! 

The Steves were on salad duty as I handled the pizza.

Steve S is ready! That bottle of wine is one that he gave me the last time he was here. Incredible wine from a winery called Crankcase. Every one has a car or motorcycle theme. It's my fave. Glad I saved it for this special occasion. 

Close up so you can check out the veggie one too. Steve S bought the pizza cutter that day at an art co-op. A real machine! 

​In part 2, we will continue along in the South Sound.