Psalm 124:8 Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.
Two of the Ten take place tonight at 7pm PST.
Have yourself a Blessed Day 🙌😇🙏
Day 7 of 8 on Island 🏝 Time is set to begin with our Thursday edition of our Morning 🌄 Brew !
Here is your Big Chance to be a Celebrity Prognosticator ! 10 games to be played across four days to pick, and whoever gets the most correct answers wins 🏆a prize! Get them ALL right and the prize quadruples…
Each game will either be attended or watched 👀 very closely in the next 96 hours ! 8 in the United States 🇺🇸 and two in Canada 🇨🇦.
Each contest is relevant to the cause, and here are the sports being played.
High School Football 🏈🏈🏈- 3
High School Volleyball 🏐 – 1
High School Soccer ⚽️ – 1
Canadian Football 🏈 – 1
Western Hockey 🏒 League – 1
NCAA Women’s Basketball 🏀 – 2
NCAA Football 🏈 – 1
5 football, 5 others
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Prizes for the winner 🏆 :
Tickets 🎟 for next Tuesday night in Bellingham as Western Washington University hosts Northwest Indian College in Men’s Basketball and Wednesday night in Everett, Washington, it will be Wazzu versus Hawaii, also in Men’s Basketball 🏀.
Go 10 for 10, and the bonus is round trip airfare to both games !
Each of the five high school games are State Playoff contests. The home team is the one on the right.
The Canadian Football League game is the Grey Cup, their version of the Super Bowl 🏈 so it’s being played on a neutral site
The Western Hockey 🏒 League is a step or two below the NHL and is based in Washington state and Canada 🇨🇦. Yes, I have been to each place because I can’t help myself. The Vancouver Giants play their home games in Langley, a suburb of the Big City.
We care about Furman University Women’s Basketball because of Alyssa Ervin.
We care about Duke football 🏈 because it’s Duke football !
We care about Lake Stevens because two of our kiddos went to school there.
Anacortes because Fidalgo Island 🏝 is where Crystal Clear Delivery was founded.
UW Women because of Kelsey Plum
Fife at Lynden is being played a few miles from the place in Blaine, which will be home 🏡 for the next week.
Orcas Island Vikings soccer ⚽️ because it was home for 7 years.
I’m not sure what it is about the WHL game other than fond memories….
The Grey Cup because it is the Grey Cup !!!!!!!
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Here are my sentimental picks – Home team in all five high school games, UW and Furman women, Montreal in the Grey Cup, Vancouver in the hockey 🏒 and sadly, the Miami Hurricanes 🌀 over the Duke Blue Devils – man I would love to get that one wrong…..
2 on Thursday, 2 on Friday, 5 on Saturday, and the Big One on Sunday…
Bonus will be the college hoops on both Tuesday and Wednesday before flying back across the country on Thursday.
If you have five minutes and feel smart….
Some insight about Friday Night on The Hill from the other side…
You can not tell the story without a chunk of space being blocked off for Justin Taylor and his Orcas Island Golf experience !
Justin has been very busy !
When we packed up and left Orcas Island for Carroll County, Virginia, at the end of 2020, Justin Taylor had a notebook and a vision. Now he has a completed second jewel to go along with his golf course layout.
The number of conversations we had between 2014 and 2020 would be beyond anything you could possibly count, but the fun ones were about the desire to design and then build yourself a San Juan Islands 🏝 themed miniature golf course.
Fast forward to November 2026, and I am now walking through said course, which by the way was recently voted 🗳 the #1 course in the state of Washington !
The Ferryboat hole 🕳
On this hole, you are actually stepping into a floating ship, and the direction that your putt will break is dependent upon your movement.
Great memories from seven years of this patch of land being my third home, behind our Cottage and the Ferry ⛴️
I would like to think that any conversation with another person might one day lead towards something actually happening, and this is certainly the case !
The third leg of Justin and his Triple Crown 👑 is currently being built as well. It will be a 12 hole putting course that by the sound of things will be magnificent.
Third Jewel is in the works !!!
12 hole 🕳 putting course that will have one hole that is 100 yards in length ! Golf carts will be available for play and look for another ship 🚢 hole and a waterfall !
Coming soon to an Island 🏝 near you !
Veterans Day provided a terrific opportunity to knock out the entire 10,000 steps 🚶♂️by 9am
The goal for the eight days back in the Islands 🏝 was something I labeled 🏷 10+, 100K+ & 100-. What can I say, I like numbers !
10+ = make sure you get a minimum of 10,000 steps on all eight days.
100K+ = make sure that the eight day total crosses 100,000 steps
100- = see about recording a Blood Sugar reading of sub 100…
That third one happened this morning, for the first time in probably 5+ years !
The 5:40 ferry ⛴️ boat to Lopez Island, then doing the Lopez Loop before boarding the Inner – Island ferry for the trek back to Friday Harbor. We pulled in at 8:40, and I was able to keep moving for exactly 2 of the 3 hours !
There was plenty of reflection on the holiday as I come from a family full of veterans ➕️ folks like Vickey Ritchie and Kevin Burress back home on The Hill.
The next problem is what to do for the remainder of the day ?????
