It was Keli's 24th birthday so she organized a birthday event at Port Townsend on Saturday. Port Townsend is 2 hours away and required us to catch a ferry for part of the journey. We decided to car pool with the two Daves and Le. We picked up the two Daves from Kirkland and then went to pick Le up from Capitol Hill. While we were waiting for Le, we got word that there was a 2 hour wait at the ferry because of some Lavender Festival going on. So we changed plans and decided to head out to a beach at Golden Gardens Park.

It was a nice sunny day with a cool breeze. The weather was good for outdoor activities but the water was definitely too cold to swim in. So we spent most of the time just playing frisbee and soaking up the sun.

In the afternoon, we dropped by a cinema in University District and watched the new Batman movie - The Dark Knight. I enjoyed the movie overall but they almost ruined it with the technique they used to get the Joker's fingerprints. It was like they took CSI...and put it on steroids. The other part I disliked was Batman's voice. Someone give the guy a butter menthol. Heath Ledger's performance was definitely the outstanding part of the movie. It's definitely be the role he'll be remembered for.

Last Friday our company, Intava, had the annual company picnic. It was held at Lake Sammamish State Park, a park situated on the south end of Lake Sammamish. Cori organized the picnic, the catering and a little game inspired by the TV show 'Junkyard Wars'. The idea was to have everyone divided into 4 separate teams. Each team would construct a boat from some scrap material that would then participate in a boat race. There was a prize for the boat that finished first and a prize for the best looking boat.

We had about 20 minutes to plan and build the boat and 3 of the teams managed to finish the boat in time. Cristina's team took about 40 minutes to finish theirs :) But to be fair, they did only have 3 members and theirs was the only thing that resembled a real boat. It wasn't surprising that they won best looking boat.

For the other boats that did participate in the race, it didn't really work out as planned. The wind kept changing directions every few minutes so we had difficulty trying to work out where the start and end should be. In the end, we decided the boat that drifted farthest from the starting point in any direction was the winner. My team didn't win, but we all had fun making the boat anyway. Sounds cheesy but it's true :)

For Cristina's efforts, she won a Starbucks card.

A group of us discussed things to do for the 4th of July long weekend. I wanted to go fishing/camping but we were told that all the good fishing spots are always busy during this weekend. Instead, we decided to go hiking at Twin Falls. The hike was fairly short and easy so it was busy with families, children and pets. The highlight was a river with two waterfalls, hence the name.

On the way back, we decided to stop by the larger Snoqualmie Falls. It was pretty much a touristy spot with a good view of the waterfall and no hiking.

A colleague from work, Cori, invited us to a 4th of July lunch at her and her husband Duane's house. We were asked to bring a plate of food and a dessert. Not really knowing what food was appropriate for a 4th of July lunch, we settled for combination chow mein and chocolate mousse cake. We got to meet their friends and several overseas students from Germany and Russia.

After lunch, we headed back to our place since we were expecting some friends over for some games and BBQ. No better way to celebrate Independence Day than with a game of Settlers.

We watched the Seattle Gasworks fireworks on TV and then headed out to the back to let off some of our own fireworks.

Another thing I did while Cristina was away was to write a photo album viewer for the blog. Here are some more photos of the things we did while Cristina's parents were in town.

I went on the Seattle Underground Tour with Cristina's dad. Apparently, the modern street level of downtown Seattle was once the second level of all the buildings. The original street level and shop fronts are now the basement level for those buildings.

More information on Wikipedia

Photos from the visit to the Seattle Museum of Flight.

Photos from the visit to the Capilano Suspension Bridge.

While Cristina was away on her Australia-Indonesia trip, I decided to squeeze in a camping trip to keep myself occupied. I only had a few days to organize it so only four of us were able to make it. I originally picked a location recommended by one of my work colleagues for its good fishing but it was a car camping spot. The guys wanted something a little more interesting than car camping so at the last minute we changed the location to Boulder River - the location a group of us went to last year.

With Denis designated driver, I found myself in the passenger seat. Most people who know me know I don’t enjoy being a passenger - particularly with someone who only had a few months experience with a manual SUV. We did make it to the parking area at the head of the hiking trail, but not before we had a close encounter with a black bear. Maybe close encounter is a little bit of an exaggeration. The bear ran across the front of the car, about 20 metres ahead of us. Seeing a bear so free was such a bizarre sight that for a moment it didn't register. It took at least 2 seconds for my brain to analyze its database of known animals to find a match. I think it hovered at werewolf and sasquatch for at least one of the seconds. Denis was the driver but failed to even notice the bear...a little worrying now that I think about it. Dave was asleep so that left Keli and myself as the only witnesses to this event.

Needless to say, bear was on our minds for the rest of the camping trip.

Click on the image below to view the images from the camp trip: