Dean and I went out for dinner at Ray's Boathouse last night. We sat in a window seat and watched the boats putt-putting through the ship canal and out to Puget Sound, probably heading out to the San Juans for the 4th of July weekend. It must be fun to have a boat, especially this time of year, or to be able to "summer" in the San Juan Islands. We will never be rich enough to have a summer house, so I guess the best we can hope for is friends with summer houses (*wink*).

After dinner we drove out to Golden Gardens. The beach was packed! Families having picnics, kids playing volleyball, kids being drunk and disorderly, lovers holding hands and walking the beach. The sun was setting still well past 9pm (or so it seemed) and the light was glorious. We walked up to the railroad tracks and watched a train go by through the canopy of forest, then drove back home through Ballard, which has really changed a lot in the past 5-10 years: a brand new high school building, numerous low-rise condos, lots of new shops and restaurants. We want to try this new Spanish tapas place called Matador, decorated with a bullfight theme (it sounds hokey, but it's really cool), and wrought iron railings and candles and outdoor seating close to the street.

This morning we put in several hours on the yard. We pruned wisteria, trimmed back tomato leaves to get air to the fruit, dug up nasturtiums that were crowding the Walla Walla onions, staked up the huge and leaning towers of crocosmia lucifer, filled the stone bird bath, watered and weeded. It's hot enough for sunstroke! Looking forward to having some friends over for dinner tonight, one of the docs I work with and his wife. We're gonna grill something and eat outside. Fun fun!