Olympia – Riveted

Visitors in Olympia

Laura Domela — Mon, 09 Feb 2015 14:54:45 +0000

Yesterday morning our friend Cari came into town to see the boat and hang out a bit. We all walked up to the fish market (Olympia Seafood Co.) to stock up before she left.

We picked up a dozen Blue Pool oysters (which we ate for lunch), some crab cakes (which we ate for dinner), some smoked salmon spread, some frozen razor clams, and a pound each of fresh Alaskan halibut and king salmon. This market is great! The people are super helpful and friendly and we'll definitely come back here!

After our morning visit with Kari, my mom came up from Kelso with her two white shepherds, Pirate and Journey, for an afternoon visit and to see the boat. (Olympia's about as close as we'll get to her for a while…about an hour's drive.) We cleated the dogs' leashes and got them set up on the aft deck and went for a little cruise in the bay here. Here's Pirate at the aft door, looking very at home:

It was such a fun visit!

After my mom left we headed back over to Swantown Marina for the night, and this morning after we finish up the first round of work, we'll head up to Hartstine Island. Happy Monday!

Airship at Night

Laura Domela — Sun, 08 Feb 2015 01:18:40 +0000

A fun night shot of Airship on the way to dinner tonight. (We went up to the Dockside Bistro and it was very good!)

Quirky Olympia

Laura Domela — Sat, 07 Feb 2015 21:23:28 +0000

This morning we left Swantown Marina and headed around the peninsula to the city dock at Percival Landing. Percival Landing is pretty much IN town. There's no water or electricity for $12/night with a view of the capital building, and a short walk to shops and restaurants.

We walked up to the Olympia Farmer's Market (open on Saturdays now from 10am-3pm, January through March…pretty quiet in the winter season compared to how packed it can be in the summer). We picked up some salad greens, apples, local farm eggs, milk, a small chunk of brie, and some locally made chipotle lime salsa.

Our friend Kathy stopped to hang out and have lunch with us on her way back from a meeting in Shelton, and we decided to try Old School Pizzeria (on recommendation from a reader) and it was just like he said it would be…delicious! (Thanks Kevin!) The decor was also as he'd described it: frenetic 70s dorm room. We ate our pizza under the watchful gaze (and, um, crotch, not shown in this photo) of Hulk Hogan:

Across the little harbor from us there's an old tugboat called Sand Man. We saw it yesterday when we walked here from Swantown, but today there was an "Open" sign on it….sweet! Let's go see it!

Yeah, it's super gray and rainy today, so all the photos will look like this. (See us over there across the way on the right?)

The view from Sand Man's pilot house:

Sand Man was built in 1910 for Arthur J. Weston, owner of Olympia Sand & Gravel Co., and used mainly to tow barges of sand and gravel. The tug was restored between 1999 and 2005, and competes each year in the tugboat races that are part of Harbor Days (Labor Day weekend). I think we might need to come see that!

Here's an older photo of Sand Man, parked right where she was parked today when we were touring her! (from Sand Man's website).

In the engine room:

After the tug tour, we went by Olympia Seafood Co. to see what their selection is seafood was like, and it's good! We'll stop there for some supplies before we leave here.

Here's our route from today (a whopping 2.3 nautical miles):

But check out our overall track map since we started this South Sound expedition. Neat!

Hope Island to Olympia

Laura Domela — Fri, 06 Feb 2015 20:12:00 +0000

Today's office view (starboard side):

Port side:

It was pretty choppy last night on our mooring buoy over at Hope Island (felt like we were under way all night!) It's remarkable how loud even teeny tiny waves can be slapping against the hull right next to your head. I dreamt of giant floating logs (and the night before, anchored in the very protected Oro Bay, I dreamt of bunnies, just FYI). This morning I was positive we were banging against the mooring buoy, but when I went out and looked, we weren't even close. It was just little waves, and shockingly quiet as I stood there on the bow in the middle of it all. It rained all night and was pretty blustery this morning when we got up. We cruised down to Olympia and then got back to work.

It's been stormy all day, and then about 20 minutes ago the sky opened and the sun is shining and it's gorgeous out. I don't think it's gonna last though…supposed to rain all the way 'til Tuesday. Oh well…we're enjoying being out in the boat anyway!

Last night's dinner came out great. I cooked up a bit of Italian sausage, then added garlic, shallots, oregano, and red pepper flakes, then added white wine, butter, a bit of milk, and the clams we picked up at the market at Boston Harbor yesterday and covered until the clams all opened. In another pot, I cooked a package of truffle pasta that I picked up at the market in Seattle, drained the noodles and returned 'em to the pot and then added a bit of olive oil and shaved parmesan, gave 'em a good stir and then served, topped with clams and broth, with a spinach salad and a glass of Ott & Murphy Viognier (a bottle we picked up in Langley on Whidbey Island a couple weeks ago). Yummy!

For dessert we opened the little package of Sugar Hill Cayenne Pumpkin Seed Brittle and OMG that stuff is incredibly good! A one pound tin?? Noooooo.

Our (short) route this morning (about 10 nautical miles):

Mignonette Sauces for Oysters

Laura Domela — Sun, 27 Jul 2014 15:02:06 +0000

For raw oysters eaten on the half shell, I normally make some variation on a classic mignoette sauce: champagne vinegar, Prosecco or Champagne, shallots, fresh ground pepper. Since we picked up enough oysters yesterday for more than just one meal, I decided to make a few different sauces, so I googled "mignonette recipes" and found several that sounded interesting.

I ended up making five:

1. Classic mignontte (front, standard favorite)
2. Lemon/cucumber/jalapeno/vodka (right, bright light yellow, one of our favorites)
3. Shoyu/scallion/rice wine vinegar/ginger (dark one in the back, least favorite…we needed pickled ginger or seaweed for this one to work better)
4. Sriracha/grapefruit/tequila/scallions/vinegar (red one on the left, another favorite).
5. The fifth sauce (not shown) was more of a relish, with minced cucumber, ginger, rice wine vinegar, shallots, and pepper. It was good, but not as good as the two favorites and the classic.

We had three oysters courses last night. For the first course we smoked/grilled a few of the Shigokus on the Traeger with a bourbon chipotle butter sauce (delicious, we'll definitely be repeating this). The second course was a half dozen of the teeny tiny Olympia oysters, with the classic mignonette, and the third course was a dozen Shigokus with the variety of sauces, and a side of sauteed spinach. It was fun and delicious!