This weekend Silverdale will host the Silverdale Thunder Hydroplane Races on August 8-10th.

Racing begins Saturday morning with qualifying runs. Preliminary heats will follow the qualifying runs and will determine which teams will be “seeded” into the final heat, eligible to win the Silverdale Thunder Trophy.

Even though the racing doesn’t start until Saturday, visitors are welcome to come Friday evening to join the festivities, because there’s more than just racing going on. There will also be a carnival, live music, a beer garden, and local groups performing on a “Family Stage” (Saturday afternoon). You can get more information, including a schedule of events, at the Silverdale Thunder Hydroplane Races website.

And if you’re curious about what the view from the cockpit is like during one of these races, check out this video on YouTube:

If hydroplane racing isn’t your cup of tea, you might enjoy stopping by the 7th annual “Taste of Hood Canal” in downtown Belfair (on Clifton Lane) on Saturday, August 9th, instead. The day kicks off with the Mason County Fire District 2 Pancake Breakfast, served from 8-11:30 a.m., with the rest of the events beginning at 10 a.m. (The pancake breakfast will be served at Station 21, 460 NE Old Belfair Highway.)

The Taste of Hood Canal, sponsored by the North Mason Rotary Club, features a custom and classic car show, microbreweries, wine tasting, specialties from local restaurants, family entertainment and live music all day, arts and crafts, antique fire engines, local artists, and food booths featuring local delicacies like grilled oysters.

You can park on the Old Belfair Highway, just 500 feet from the event, or take the free shuttle from Sandhill Elementary School.

Of course, if you can’t make up your mind, you could always spend Saturday at the “Taste of Hood Canal” and Friday night and Sunday at the races!

Here’s a round-up of some of the fun things to do on the Peninsula this weekend:

A Midsummer Night’s Dream – 1950’s Rock & Roll: Shakespeare meets “Happy Days” in this adaptation of Shakespeare’s comedy of mistaken identities set in the Athens High School gym on Prom Night in 1957. Presented by The Mountaineers Players at the Kitsap Forest Theater near Bremerton, shows happen every Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m. from Saturday, 8/2 through Sunday, 8/24. You can find more information at the Forest Theater web site.

The Naval Undersea Museum: This Keyport, WA museum — a joint project between the U.S. Navy and the local Museum Foundation — will be showing the film, “The Death of the Edmund Fitzgerald” at 2 p.m. on Saturday, August 2nd. This film explores the fate of this legendary shipwreck, and includes footage from more than 20 years of dives, as well as interviews with relatives of the victims. To get in the mood, you can watch a video tribute to the 29 men who lost their lives in this shipwreck.

Paddle Kitsap: This 2-day event (Friday and Saturday) is sponsored by local paddlers and volunteers with the North Kitsap Trails Association. Although registration to participate in this year’s event is closed, you might want to give a little wave of encouragement to any paddlers you see along the trail, which runs along the coast from Port Gamble to Poulsbo’s waterfront park. And if you’re a paddling enthusiast, mark this event on your calendar so you can register for next year’s event. You can find more information on this event here.

My image of kayaking has always been one of conditioned athletes shoehorned into a small opening in a long, narrow boat which is prone to tip over. And to be honest, there’s not much in that image to entice me to try it. But I have it on good authority that kayaking is not just for those trim of build and athletic in spirit … at least, that’s what the owners of Kayak Hood Canal believe.

Just a few minutes down the hill from Alderbrook Properties lays the Hood Canal Marina and Alderbrook Resort. There you will also find Kayak Hood Canal, a family business begun back in 2003. They believe everyone should “Get Off Shore” (their motto) and that “everyone, regardless of size, fitness level, or experience, can get in a kayak and start paddling.” They emphasize safety for renters of their kayaks, purchasing wider kayaks which don’t tip over easily, and giving everyone a briefing on safety which includes paddling techniques, landing safely, climbing in and out of a kayak, and getting back into the kayak if it tips over. They also insist that every renter wears a life vest. In fact, if you don’t wear one, they won’t rent to you.

The relatively peaceful waters of Hood Canal offer wonderful opportunities to learn kayaking, and Kayak Hood Canal stands ready to help you experience this wonderful sport. Why don’t you check it out? Who knows, maybe you’ll even see me out there!

Did you know that Hood Canal is a fjord? A fjord is a “long, narrow inlet with steep sides, created in a valley carved by glacial activity” (hat tip: Wikipedia).

Most people think of places like Norway or New Zealand when they hear of fjords, but residents of the Pacific Northwest only need travel to Hood Canal to enjoy the beauty of this unique geographical feature.

Hood Canal separates the Kitsap Peninsula from the Olympic Peninsula, and averages 1.5 miles wide and 177 feet deep. It’s long, extending for about 50 miles from its entrance between Foulweather Bluff and Tala Point down to Union, Washington, (just down the road from Alderbrook Properties) where it makes a sharp turn, known as The Great Bend. It continues for 15 miles to the northeast, ending in the shallow tidelands of Lynch Cove, near Belfair.

Hood Canal got its name from Captain George Vancouver, who named it for Admiral Lord Samuel Hood, on May 13, 1792. It boasts the world’s third longest floating bridge, the Hood Canal Bridge, which spans 6,521 feet. (Information and statistics courtesy of Wikipedia, here.)

Hood Canal is a great place for all kinds of water activities: kayaking, boating, fishing, whale-watching, shellfishing, and scuba diving, to name just a few. It features many state parks along its coastline, such as Belfair, Twanoh, and Potlatch, where you can swim, fly kites, picnic, camp overnight, and generally enjoy the beauty of Hood Canal. Or, if you prefer, you can enjoy the beauty of Hood Canal from your automobile on the Hood Canal Scenic Drive.

Now is the time to plan ahead for the next several weeks of family activity. Not only will pre-planning help you find the right facilities to support what you enjoy, but it will also help the experience be as stress-free as possible.

Camping-I highly recommend camping along the Hood Canal at the various State parks available. In particular, Twanoh State Park and Potlatch State Park have many amenities and beautiful nature settings for the whole family. Along with camping, there are rivers, beachfront, hiking, bike trails, sail boarding, boating, crabbing and more.  

Directions to Potlatch

Directions to Twanoh

Fishing- Check out Maggie Lake near Belfair for a good fishing area, as well as a boat launch. To get there, take SR 3 in Belfair and turn west onto SR 300 (name changes to North Shore Rd). Follow to Belfair Tahuya Rd. Turn right and go 2.5 miles to site. Parking is available.

Fishing is also available closer to Shelton at Limerick Lake. To find Limerick Lake, go east from Shelton for 4.2 miles on SR 3, then north on Mason Lake Road for 2.2 miles. Go west on St Andres Dr for 0.5 mile to site. Parking and an undeveloped grass bank are available.

Sunday Brunch- Every Sunday in May from 10 AM-1:30 PM, you can take advantage of a Sunday Brunch at Fort Worden in the Commons. Area residents voted it as the Best Brunch on the Peninsula in 2006. It costs $16.95 per person and reservations are required. Make sure to check out the historic buildings while you are there. For more information and directions, call (360) 344-4441.

I don’t know about you, but I love boats … speed boats, cruisers, sailboats … I love them all. I love the way they look on Puget Sound (you should see it on the first day of boating season!) and some of my fondest memories are of time spent with friends sailing on Puget Sound waters.

Boat lovers in Alderbrook and the surrounding communities have reason to rejoice with the arrival of a new dock at the Hood Canal Marina in Union, purchased last year by the owners of the Alderbrook Resort.

This is the first of many improvements scheduled for the marina. Installation of the new dock, along with new dock floats, a fuel dock, sewer pump-out facilities, and moorage facilities will both improve and expand local services to boat owners.

The new facility, which will reopen on May 1^st, will also offer year-round and seasonal moorage for boats up to 40 feet, side-tie moorage for boats up to 80 feet, along with dry boat storage for more than 30 boats, plus boat trailer storage and a new fire protection system.

Best of all, the marina is just 10 minutes down the hill from the Alderbrook community.

Boating is a way of life for many people here on Hood Canal, and in fact, in all of western Washington. Puget Sound offers lots of interesting destinations for boaters, and gunkholing in the San Juan Islands is an annual pursuit for many residents of western Washington.

Are you a boat person? What’s your favorite boating memory or destination? Join in the conversation and leave a comment in our comments section!