Ferry Tale IV: A New Hope

Yesterday it was back to Port Orchard for one more Balkan women's choir recording session. Zachary slept through most of the ferry ride and even a drive over to a coffee shop with mommy once on the peninsula. We dropped Meh off at the session, and the two of us headed back up to the downtown area. What a difference a few months makes (to the town, not just the little man); this is clearly a summer town (even if the weather disagreed, in the lower 60s and overcast/rainy much of the morning) -- the streets were packed with cars and pedestrian traffic, the docks were full of moored boats, and there was a cute farmers market/fair thing going on to keep us entertained. We saw flowers, fresh fruits and veggies, someone was selling dried jerkies of various flavors, and cute arts and crafts.

Eventually the little man got hungry, so we found a picnic bench and enjoyed lunch together - cereal, fruits (fresh and dried), some pita, and of course cheese. He was happy and active, and enjoyed watching all of the activity from his stroller. He also took a sippy cup of water and successfully held it and drank from it as we walked around the fair a bit more. Next we stopped off at the town's bakery to catch up with his little friend R, the son of the two owners of the bakery. Again, such a difference - during the off-season, it was always just the two owners, R's grandmother, and maybe one other staff member. This time, we didn't even see R's parents -- I finally spotted his dad on the way out, intently working in the back on some pretty impressive-looking wedding cake designs. But we did visit with R and his grandma, and the two boys vaguely showed interest in each other in between climbing and cruising around the bakery's tables and chairs.

We still had some free time before Meh's recording session was due to wrap up, so the two of us went to check out a county park that we'd seen signs for on previous visits to the city. Little man was making the whimpering I'm-close-to-asleep sound, so I put him in the ergo and walked around down to the lake. The weather had cleared and we had beautiful views of the beach, so we hung out for about an hour.

Back at the recording facility, we played outside in a giant grass lawn. He was obsessively grabbing at and pulling up the grass, then focusing in on a single blade and trying to grab it. When I and the engineer's wife scattered grass on our laps, he brushed it all off. Oh, and we found a pine cone, which he picked up and almost put in his mouth before switching to more standard swinging and batting of it. We headed back home on the ferry, where he was active and smiley the entire trip. And we finally caught the faces that he makes when you first pull out the camera and point it at him - squinting smiles, upturned chin, and all! Such a good little man.