Yesterday I took a road trip and a ferry boat ride to Herron Island. Every year for the school auction, each team of teachers must come up with an auction prize. In the past, some of the auction prizes included a day on the beach with your teachers, baking cookies with your teachers, a baseball game with your teachers, or a soccer clinic with your teachers. This year Donna, Mason and I thought it would be fun idea for our prize to be a day on Herron Island with the Team 2 teachers. The student that won the auction was allowed to invite 2 of his friends from the team, so in all we invited 3 children and their families. Knowing the students who were coming and their families, Donna, Mason and I were really excited to spend the day on the island.
Herron Island is a small private island in the Puget Sound. It's about 3 miles around, and the houses there are owned by retirees or by people who want to own a getaway home. Donna bought a place there about 6 or 7 years ago, and just this year she and her husband Mark have been renovating it. They finished this spring, just in time to host our auction prize.
I had an early morning because I had to catch the 9am ferry, and it would take about an hour and a half to get there. So, I got up at 6, got myself ready, and was out of the house by 7. I needed to actually get to the dock earlier than 9 in order to get on the ferry because the ferry is so small. It only fits up to 9 compact cars, so I needed to make sure I was at the front of the line. I arrived there at about 8:45 with about 12 cars in front of me. Luckily Mason had a super early start and was 2nd in the line of cars, so I parked my car, hopped in his and we made the 9am ferry. We were welcomed by Mark at the other dock, and he led he way from the dock to their house.
All the other families arrived in the ferry ride behind Mason and me, which gave us just enough time to help Donna put breakfast on the table. So our students Jackson, Lucas, and Marlee all arrived with their families and we had breakfast together. We all chatted over coffee, popovers, croissants, and fruit. After breakfast, we headed to the beach. Right off the beach is also a boat dock, where Mark put down a couple of crab traps. Jackson's parents brought over some kayaks, Marlee's parents brought down a cooler of beer and snacks, and Lucas' parents brought over some good wine, as did Jackson's parents, so there was a lot to do for all the adults and the children. None of us communicated with each other about bringing anything, but everyone just brought something different on their own, and it was great. While the children ran around the beach and up and down the dock checking the crab trap, the adults sat and talked, laughing and drinking. After a while, the ladies stayed behind while the men and the children took Mark's motor boat over to another part of the coast and dug for clams. They were gone for probably an hour, and they came back with a large bucketful of clams! Stewart, Jackson's dad, has a clam digging license, so don't worry. . . it' was totally legal.
By the time we left the beach and headed back to the Donna's place, it was already time to start preparing for dinner. As Donna and Mark prepared dinner, the children and Dana (Jackson's mom) started tie-dying some t-shirts, while the rest of us sat around some more and told more stories. Dinner was absolutely delicious. We had bugers, hotdogs, Mark's tasty potato salad and even tastier baked beans. The most delicious of all were the clams. They were so good and fresh. And for dessert we had s'mores. By 6pm it seemed the eventful day began to wind down. We helped Donna and Mark start to put things away and the families began packing up their cars. We headed to the dock by about 6:20 and got onto the 6:30 ferry back.
I had a lot of fun on the island with everyone. I got to know some great families I wouldn't have really gotten to know otherwise. I know Marlee's family, but I have only chit chatted with Jackson and Lucas' parents in passing, but we hadn't sat down and talked to each other before. To spend a day with them was really enriching. I'm sad I won't have them on the team next year again, since they're children are moving on to 2nd grade. Neverthless, I'm so glad I got to know them.
On my way home, I visited Stephanie at home since I passed it by on my way home to Seattle. She and Carson were chillin' at home. He had just gotten his bath and was ready for dinner. Steph and I just hung out and watched Carson and laughed at anything he did. That kid is so funny.
I had a good day just shootin' the breeze with great company wherever I went.
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