The further we rode, the better the weather became, and 101 north soon became 101 east. By the time we reached Crescent Lake it had pretty much stopped raining and we could actually see the lake.
We were shown around Cynthia's studio, and gave her a detailed run-down on our itinerary.
John was out on errands, and when he got home, took me on a tour of his workshops.
John and Cynthia had arranged for us to stay at a B&B two blocks away that is owned by their friends Crystal and Grey Wolf, who had been invited to dinner with us that night.
We had fresh seafood for dinner. The food, wine and company was most enjoyable, and the time passed so quickly. We rode over to Crystal's B&B where we enjoyed our most comfortable night in quite a while.
From left to right: Chris, Cynthia, Crystal, Grey Wolf and John
The next morning we had the opportunity to see Cynthia's solo exhibition briefly before helping take it down. Cynthia is a most prolific and talented artist, working with pastels, mixed media and bronze. To have a look at her work, see http://www.cynthiathomasdesigns.com/Welcome.html. Her superior work and presentation shows how the human soul is connected to, and inseparable from everything around it. The Indian culture that Grey Wolf is connected to is highly aware of this. We had a small inkling of how some of the processes he used understood this philosophy well.
John's knowledge of metal casting and spraying is encyclopedic and he has the skills to match. After returning from the gallery, he gave us a demonstration of metal spraying, and both Wanda and I had the opportunity to try our hands at it. It is, as John describes, just like spray painting with metal. Two wires of the metal to be sprayed are automatically fed into a hand piece that angles them together. An arc is struck between them and 3 nozzles of compressed air blow the fine particles of molten metal out in a fan.
After trying our hands at metal spraying, John tempted me into playing with his TIG welder. I started out using mild steel, then graduated to stainless steel and aluminium. Wow! I have to have one of those, so I've put a TIG welder on my Christmas list and promised to be a good boy for the rest of the year.
We had a second dinner with John and Cynthia, with more wine and more enjoyable conversation. We said our farewells as we left for the B&B. John and Cynthia have a busy schedule with an exhibition to set up this week in California, and the wedding of John's daughter to attend in California next weekend. We have no idea how they managed to find time to host our visit, but we are very grateful they could manage it.
We left this morning under heavy cloud, and it was soon raining as we headed east but the day did improve. The road turned south, as we made for Hoodsport where we stopped for coffee. We met a lovely couple at the shop and spent some time chatting to them. They have been to Australia twice and have visited Canberra and the Snowy Mountains, even climbing our highest mountain, Mt Kosciuszko.
A few miles south of Hoodsport we turned north on 106 to Bremmerton, Poulson and ultimately Bainbridge Island, from where we caught the ferry into Seattle. By taking this devious (literally and figuratively) route we avoided riding for miles through the urban sprawl that stretches south to Tacoma, and were rewarded with stunning views of Seattle from Puget Sound.
We found some crab legs for dinner. They are huge. We hope our family back home read this. And weep.
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