San Juan Islands by Bike adventure, part II

Sunday night, Friday Harbor: 
I pedaled down the dirt road in the dark to the farm house rented for the next two weeks by Teresa and Christof. He's lecturing and leading a two week course of the brain in partnership with his work (the Paul Allen Brain Institute) and UW. Thus, the course is stationed at the Friday Harbor UW Labs. Teresa and their Bernese mountain dog, Ruby came out to the front to meet me.

We had a late dinner of tapas and grilled yummies--Teresa is back with my CSA, Helsing Junction, and I recognized this week's produce!  

Monday, August 24: 8 miles, paddling + 4 miles pedaling. Alphabet soup: J, K, L, A and H
T and I took tea by the pond on the property and planned out our day. We had time to make a fritata, and bike into town to meet our kayak guide. I thought Will looked about 27 or so, but it turns out that he's only going to be a junior at Western in the Huxley School of Environmental Sciences. Ah. We were joined by a couple in their late 60's from Florida who were vacationing in the PNW. Will drove the van to the county park on the West side of San Juan island and we got the kayaks dressed and decorated for the day's adventure. We pushed off and immediately out of the cove we saw them. 

We rafted up and stopped in awe. Beautiful day, bright colors, and a pod of orca whales. check. check. check. I've been lucky to see many Orcas in the San Juan islands over the years as a science teacher, naturalist, and educator/adventurer. The time I saw an entire pod pass Goose Point on Lopez, standing in awe with Janet Charnley is the most memorable. I remember emerging from the teepee with Janet, and following the sound of the fin slapping, and the pstsht sound of the blow hole in the morning twilight, and as day broke we could see them.  Yet, this trip is the closest I've ever seen them from a human powered boat. I was in humbled awe.  

We continued to paddle out along San Juan Island, in the current. Murre birds danced like little penguins on the water, dove, and occasionally sounded like feral cats. We continued to Henry Island. Again, memories from many years ago, this time two decades, flooded in. An Oberlin friend, Diane, grew up in Seattle, and has a family A-frame cabin on Henry Island, right across Mosquito Pass from Roche Harbor. I remember taking the canoe across one time with her dog, and walking around the H-shaped island to near we landed for lunch this time. Coastlines were captivating. Rocks full of goose neck barnacles, feeding with their feelers out. Cliffs with Adirondack chairs perched above the crashing waves. Nearly always a pair, the chairs made me wistful, and wondering. Bull kelp, the fastest growing plant, making mats of floating bobble heads and ambered curls. I've got a secret design idea with my self portrait plant--hold fast (to dreams) to fronds. 

There was a serious headwind upon our return to San Juan. To stop paddling meant to be blown a boat length backwards. We were fierce and determined. Later, Irena wrote, "I hope you had a good recovery day." I returned the text with, "ha. recovery? headwinds. push it real good."  We surfed to the shore, sun drunk, salty, and tired. 

I prepped dinner veggies while T and Christof went to a TRX class. When they returned we cooked together and ate outside. Christof is always up for dessert, and he walked the farm and returned with apples and Italian plums that I whipped up into two separate baked desserts. 

When women were birds flapped across my face as I fell asleep reading. 

Tuesday, August 25: 2 miles hiking + 2 miles to the ferry + 4 miles to York family+ 2 miles home

I had a lazy morning reading and having tea. Teresa returned from a morning workout, and we gathered up Ruby for a hike at San Juan National Historic Park (American Camp). She's a funny dog--doesn't like going for a walk, and so after trying to get this 85 pound bear to budge, Teresa left her with the sun roof open. We headed out to the prairie zone of the park, past the laundry house, to Grandma's Cove. 

The water looked so inviting, but so so cold. I do miss New England's swim-able salt water. We scrambled over the lower tide rocks around the bend and up through the grassy knolls. 

I took Teresa out to lunch at the Bakery in Friday Harbor, and then we returned to the farm house to get my bike. I headed down the gravel road to make the late afternoon ferry to Anacortes. 

Thankfully I woke up in time to catch a great view of Mt. Baker. This was the first sighting of it, due to the fire haze, my entire trip. I was stunned at how bald and dry it is. I climbed Baker (via Coleman Demming) last September. This summer's heat and winter's reduced snowpack was starring me in the face. 

  I rode off the ferry into Anacortes. Following "the lady in my phone's" directions, I soon pulled along the curb of Sandi and Tom's house. Sandi is one of those marvelously serendipitous friends. I sublet a room in Wallingford from her in the summer of 2005, where I met Jenn as my roommate. Later, when Sandi met Tom, she asked me to photograph their wedding. It was at the center for wooden boats and was simply wonderful. So how delightful, as a friend, and photographer, to see their family in their home! Their two boys are adorable, 

and all the York smiles are inspirational. Take this, on their kitchen wall, for example.  

Tom had found the bike rack in the man cave (his words, not mine) which allowed us to extend our visit, and Sandi drove me to the train station in Mt. Vernon. I love this "almost European" lifestyle, putting the bike on the train. 

 An hour and half or so later, I was back in Seattle, at the historic King Street Station. And the moon sailed right along with me.