Harstene Island

We spent our weekend at the Harstene Island cabin with my in-laws. The cabin is a wonderful place (we spent our honeymoon there). It belongs to Ariel's cousin, who inherited from his parents - he maintains it and doesn't want to get rid of it, but almost never uses it himself. He makes it available for us to use. It's like a vacation home with all of the benefits and none of the hassles. Harstene Island is located about an hour south of Olympia on Puget Sound - there is basically nothing there except for a handful of houses and a small marina. I think it is just as beautiful as the San Juans, although it is completely under the radar. The cabin is in a small gated community with beaches, nature trails, a pool, and tennis courts. The cabin itself is a small A-frame built in the early 1970's and nothing has changed since then. There is three inch orange shag carpet and a woodstove and stuff (like magazines, random taxidermy animals, and fishing poles) that hasn't been moved in thirty years. I really love it just the way it is. We all sleep upstairs in the sleeping loft.
The cabin is especially great in the winter; the island is pretty deserted and things to do are limited to; eating, reading, walking in rain gear, watching movies and playing games. Oh, and the kids spend endless hours sliding down the shag carpted stairs in their sleeping bags. We watched Pirates of the Carribean 3 and I spent some time studying and reading two really good books, The Secret History of the War and Cancer and a biography of Tolstoy by A.N. Wilson. On Sunday there was enough sun to walk Chester for two miles. We had a fantastic time and I came back pretty ready to start tackling normal life again.