Bainbridge Island to Seattle: most beautiful ferry ride in the US~

Budget Travel magazine has just listed the most beautiful ferry rides in the United States, and the 35-minute ride from Seattle to Bainbridge Island was prominently featured. (We who live on "the rock" tend to think of it as the Bainbridge to Seattle ferry.) Here's the link to the article: http://www.budgettravel.com/bt-dyn/content/article/2009/04/23/AR2009042301954.html

You'll find four pictures featuring the Seattle skyline and the beautiful Puget Sound. They recommend spending time shopping, dining and hiking the trails on Bainbridge. Finally, they recommend staying long enough to make a sunset crossing back to the city, which made me smile since the sun sets around 10 p.m. in the summer! That would make for a great day on the Island.

The grammar of Bainbridge Island real estate~

Today's blog is all about grammar, which seems like an unlikely subject for real estate. Yet, one of an agent's many duties is writing those all-important descriptions of properties, the ones where we're supposed to both accurately describe the premises and capture the imaginations of potential buyers. Clichés abound, and originality can have its problems. Errors slip in more often than not.

I'm a former English teacher raised in a family of English teachers, so I'm hard-wired to be picky. My own pet peeves are the word "separate" spelled "seperate" and the modifier "unique" itself modified. We see the phrase "truly unique" used frequently, as if some property is more than one-of-a-kind.

The Bainbridge Review famously ran an ad for a beach-side property that featured "all day sun on a south-facing dick," which makes you wonder what the neighbors thought, and if the feature would stay with the house--hopefully, not. I've seen ads for mini-tutors, teachers short on patience, no doubt. And, one home was listed as having "gentile" style, much to the agent's chagrin.

The National Association of Realtors insists that the word "realtors" should be both capitalized and followed by a trademark symbol, which usually doesn't happen. Furthermore, many realtors pronounce the word "real-a-tors," which seems wrong on many levels. But the issue I can't get around is whether we should hyphenate "real estate agents." The standard journalistic style books, including those of the venerable New York Times, require compound modifiers to be hyphenated. Ergo, it should be "real-estate agents." I suspect none of us uses that form.

Clearly it's a slow day in real estate, and this Realtor®, looking at the rain, is glad to be a real-estate agent who's staying indoors today.

Harbour Public House on Bainbridge Island named a great seafood dive~

May "Coastal Living Magazine has named our "Pub"--Harbour Public House--as one of America's best seafood dives. Best, yes. But, dive...? In an article called, "America's Best Seafood Dives," they call out two places in Seattle (Lowell's in Pike Place and Spud Fish & Chips in Alki) and one in Gig Harbor (The Tides Tavern), but they recognized our Pub's "seasonal menu...including top-rated fish-and-chips.

My soon-to-be-son-in-law from England, deemed the Harbour Public House "a proper pub," and so it is. From there on a clear day the views of the harbor and marina can stretch all the way to the Seattle skyline and beyond to the Cascades. It's the place our out-of-town visitors always insist on visiting. The beers are cold and on tap, the company is great, and it's almost time for mojitos on the patio. More than one client thinking about moving to Bainbridge Island has "sealed the deal," at the Pub and decided to make Bainbridge home. I'll see you there soon.

Spring comes to Bainbridge Island (finally!)~

I was walking into town on the trail that skips along Eagle Harbor and deposits you at the western-most edge of Winslow Way. The cherry trees on the grounds of Sun Day Cove condominiums are in bloom right now, and I wanted my fill of their beauty.

What I didn't anticipate was a poem carefully printed out in a rosy font and secured to one of the branches in a mostly watertight plastic sleeve.

If you have a chance, stop by to stand under the blossoms and read what's there for yourself. If that's not possible, here it is, a lovely poem by AE Housman:

Loveliest of Trees

Loveliest of trees, the cherry now

Is hung with bloom along the bough,

And stands about the woodland ride

Wearing white for Eastertide.

Now of my threescore years and ten,

Twenty will not come again,

And take from seventy springs a score,

It only leaves me fifty more.

And since to look at things in bloom

Fifty springs are little room,

About the woodlands I will go

To see the cherry hung with snow.

Since I am closer to "threescore years and ten" than to the poet's "twenty score," I certainly can't count on another fifty springs. I'm glad I used one day this spring to enjoy the view, the sunshine and a lovely walk with family members, and that I stopped, not to smell the roses, but to read a poem hanging like ripe fruit for the reading. I want to thank whoever planted it there for me and other passers-by. Imagine if we found poems wherever we travelled!