Down the Road with Jumbo: September 2014

I slept incredibly well Wednesday night, in spite of the jets flying overhead. Ear plugs are a wonderful invention! When I finally woke Thursday morning, Larry had been up for awhile, walked down and took some beautiful photos of the morning mist on Cranberry Lake, got a fire going and the coffee made.

We walked to the restrooms, grabbed our coffee mugs and drove down to the beach.

There was no one else around except the seagulls.

Duchess did a bit of exploring...

We realized that we had left the pretty shell that Larry had found the day before sitting on a log, so he went back and it was still there! Unfortunately, a crow must have made off with it later that afternoon when it was drying out next to the campfire. At least I have this photo of it.

We had worked up an appetite, so headed back to camp to make breakfast -

Larry had found this recipe on line and we were anxious to try it...

Eggs on Potato Chips

Ingredients

a mixture of 1/2 tbsp. vegetable oil and 1/2 tbsp. butter
1 small onion, finely chopped

one hungry dog!

1 small garlic clove, minced and then mashed into a paste with 1/4 tsp. kosher salt

2 or 3 fresh green arbol, Thai, or serrano chiles, finely chopped (I used a sweet pepper from our garden)

1/2 teaspoon finely shredded fresh ginger

Heat butter in a sturdy, well-seasoned medium frying pan, preferably cast iron, over medium heat. Add onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened and just beginning to brown.

Stir in garlic paste, ginger, and chiles.

Stir for a moment or two...

Crumble in 4 large handfuls of plain potato chips from a just-opened bag.

tossing or stirring the contents of the pan to combine them thoroughly.

Make 4 hollows in the surface of the potato-chip mixture—they don't need to be perfect hollows—

and crack an egg into each.

Pour 1 tbsp. water down the inside edge of the pan to generate some steam.

Cover skillet tightly and reduce heat to low.

and wait patiently...

Let eggs steam just long enough to set whites (6 to 8 minutes;

gently touch one with a spoon to see if it's done the way you'd like).

Season to taste with salt and turn out onto waiting plates. Or into waiting plastic bowls!

You have to wait your turn, Duchess!

Finally!

We made sure all of the onions, peppers and garlic were gone, leaving some egg for her...

Getting every last bite...

After the dishes were done, we packed a lunch and drove into Oak Harbor to get some drinks to take along with us to North Beach.

There was a fruitstand alongside the highway with a giant Jumbo in the yard...had to stop for a photo of that!

North Beach is my favorite spot in Deception Pass State Park.

It reminds me of the visits when I was a child - climbing over the big driftwood logs and exploring the beach, and of course, the beautiful view of the bridge.

There were a lot of nice boats on the water.

I was quite content sitting on this log, working on my cross-stitching, the sun on my back, with just a slight salt-scented breeze swirling around me.

And Larry wanted nothing more than to sit in the sun and read his book...

and fly his kite, so we decided to go back to West Beach so he could take advantage of the breeze

and get the kite in the air.

But first we made a stop at the restroom, which hadn't changed a bit since I was a child! I wish I had brought my camera inside so I could have taken a picture of the rusty locks in the stalls - surely the same ones that were there 50-some years ago!

Getting ready...

This seagull was curious...

We ate our cheese and crackers while the kite soared overhead.

Larry managed to get it up there pretty high! And from the aroma drifting our way, some of our neighbors on the beach were getting high as well!

But a boy can only take so much fun, and after all of that kite-flying, Larry was ready for a nap, and I was ready for a shower, so I packed up my cross-stitching and we headed back to camp.

Later that afternoon, I took a stroll down the trail behind our campsite.