School has started for the boys and life resumes as usual as if summer never happened. We did have some great time, did some fun stuff as a family. Not to mention we went through Ramadan without a hitch, especially for the boys. I was glad that they were home throughout the whole fasting month. It just made things a little bit easier. We had a nice quiet Eid at home and then we took Emir later that day to his first soccer practice. Still the greatest summer so far was when we spent some time with Poppy and Grammy in Montana. I love the road trip we took and the view was amazing. And I haven't shared any of those experiences with you guys, especially my family. I will, eventually. That's the whole reason for this blog existence anyway. Being a platform for me to share our life here, with family and friends since we're far far away from each other.
We went to Kitsap Memorial State Park on the 4th morning Poppy was here. As with most beaches around Puget Sound, the beach is a mix of sand and pebbles. Shellfish harvesting used to be the highlight of the park until recent surveys by Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife show declination of clams and oysters, and the fishing season is temporarily closed since May 2011 until further notice. Crabbing is still allowed though but one can catch only up to 6 crabs if I am not mistaken. We found a couple of crabs under some rocks and they were pretty big! We stopped to chat with a guy who happened to fish for the crustacean creatures and he was short of one crab and we pointed out to him to one of the crabs we found.
Moon snail. Interesting creature. When we first saw its shell, we thought that was all to it. Who would have thought that underneath the sand, after some considerable digging, poking and prodding, there was a lot more to be discovered.
Photo: http://www.eyefetch.com
We were intrigued by this thing that looks like a piece of rubber. There were many of them scattered around the beach. Poppy later informed me that this is actually a moon snail egg case! "Moon snails use sand and mucus to make pliable cases. The eggs hang out in the case for a couple of months, then break free and become free-swimming larvae for a while before they settle down and become fully-realized moon snails."(http://hamahamaoysters.com/blog)
The beach
Giant star fish!
Oyster heaven! Despite the fact that there are insufficient oysters for harvest, we saw tons of oysters on the beach during the low tide.
The beach
Poppy with the goofy kids
On the way back, we stopped to pick some wild blackberries although they were not quite ripe yet. But it was all fun!
Later in the afternoon we all went to Point Defiance, Tacoma to meet Poppy's sisters, Aunt Dottie and Aunt Susan, Daniel's cousin, Sam and his girlfriend, Robin. Sam is Aunt Susan's son.
Aunt Dottie
Aunt Susan
The kids
The food
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