Whidbey Island

After Denver we visited  Washington state for about 36 hours.  It was extravagent, but it was so that we could go to the memorial for our friend John Vanderslice. John and his wife Sharon have lived on Whidbey Island, which is just north of Seattle, for about 25 years. We were glad to get to go and it was an absolutely lovely day. Practically perfect. The memorial felt just right, and it was great to get to see Sharon and some other old friends there. Everything was informal - a gathering of friends and family on the back deck of their home overlooking Useless Bay in Puget Sound. Before the memorial Brad and I had some time so we did some exploring, as he'd not been to Whidbey before. I took him to a town called Coupeville, which has a bunch of touristy shops and is the home to Penn Cove where mussels are farmed. In the above picture, taken on the Coupeville wharf, you can see Mount Baker behind us.

One of the highlights of visiting Whidbey in the summer is the blackberries. We found this bush that had blackberries in all stages of production.

This picture is also in Coupeville, looking onto the island from the wharf.

Still in Coupeville, here's another view of Mount Baker. Fun fact: Mount Baker has the second heaviest glacier cover in the Cascade volcanic range. (The first heaviest: Mount Rainier.) At 10,781 feet, Mount Baker is the third highest mountain in Washington state.

In our meanderings around the island we came to the Admiralty Head Lighthouse, built in 1903. (The lighthouse is the white building in the background.) In the foreground is an old gun battery from Fort Ebey, which was part of the Puget Sound harbor defense system until it was decommissioned in the late 1940s.

Here's a better view of more of the batteries. They were positioned with a view straight out to the open ocean through the Strait of Juan de Fuca. It always seems surreal that Japan was a threat not all that long ago.

But enough about war. Here's a better picture of the lighthouse. We got lucky and happened upon a lighthouse festival and there was even a band to entertain us while we wandered around.

This is Brad on our ferry ride back to our hotel on the mainland. And that's all I have from our beautiful day on Whidbey Island.

May the 4th be with U ..... tah

Brad and I spent a long Fourth of July weekend with family in Utah. We stayed with Geneva and Chuck in Logan (90 minutes north of Salt Lake City), and John drove over for the weekend from Colorado. Other treats were getting to see Brad's brother Boyd and wife Karen, as well as their daughter Sarah and her husband Clayton, and also our niece Annie and her boyfriend Ben representing the extended Poss family.

Boyd and Karen had us all to their house near Salt Lake City for the Fourth. From left to right: me, Brad, John, Annie, Chuck, Geneva, Boyd, Karen, Sarah, and Clayton.

Chuck and Annie got to know each other at John and Troy's wedding, and they caught up again in Utah!

It's always fun to hang out with Uncle Boyd!

On our first morning in Logan, this foursome went for a walk around town.

It was the weekend of so many selfies. But I appreciated that everybody was very accommodating.

On our second morning in Logan, John and I went to a track at Utah State and had a workout.

On Saturday we took a beautiful drive from Logan to a place called Bear Lake. And we took some detours along the way. Our first detour was a place called Rick's Spring.

Our second detour was Tony Grove Lake. The setting was as serene and beautiful as it looks.

Then finally our destination: Bear Lake. It's a huge natural freshwater lake.

But wait, there's more! Bear Lake is just a few miles from the Idaho border and neither John nor I had ever been to Idaho. Now we have, and there's proof!

On John's last night in town we went to a diner and shared the largest banana split you can imagine. We managed to finish it—which was no small task—so we took a picture to celebrate!

On John's last morning he and I went to a canyon trail. It was so pretty (and in parts so windy). He ran and I hiked, so we weren't always together. And only after we were both done did we tell each other that we were looking over our shoulders for mountain lions during part of the route. Great minds think alike, and fortunately no four-legged wildlife was spotted.

It was a safe, fun, and successful mom and son outing. John ran over ten miles and I hiked five.

After John left to drive home, Annie and her boyfriend Ben drove up from Salt Lake City to spend the afternoon with us. It was great to see her again, and also great to meet Ben.

On the way home, we flew over the same solar power station on the California/Nevada border that I posted about last seek. So I thought I'd share it with you again because I think those three solar gizmos look so cool.

And again flew over this too. Last week I told you I thought it was the Colorado River. It is, kind of. My sister Kathy pointed out that it looks like Lake Powell, which is a reservoir on the Colorado River, and I think she's right!

Whidbey Island

Recently I spent a few days visiting our friends John and Sharon in Washington State. On the flight up I flew over Crater Lake. Although I've never seen it before, from above it's abundantly clear how it got its name.

John and Sharon live on Whidbey Island, which is in the Puget Sound. To get there I take a shuttle from the Seattle airport for about an hour to the north, and the shuttle drives onto a ferry. The ferry ride across the Puget Sound is about fifteen minutes, and then the shuttle drives onto the island for about ten minutes to a pickup spot near their house, which is above. As you can see, garden flowers are in full bloom.

Sharon took me on a hike to South Whidbey State Park. We hiked about three miles. The woods was thick with foliage. I had a hard time capturing the beauty of the woods in a picture so you'll have to trust me when I say it was gorgeous.

Every morning I'd go on a walk in their neighborhood. The blackberry bushes are in bloom, and the berries should be out in full force soon.

In the cloudy Pacific Northwest the colors pop, making even ordinary plants look amazing.

Even though I enjoyed the scenery on my long morning walks, I didn't have to venture far for splendid views. This is the view from John and Sharon's back deck looking at the tidal flats in Useless Bay. When the tide comes in the bay fills completely with water. When the tide is at its lowest, the tidal flats can extend much farther than even in this photo.

One day we went for a drive around the southern portion of the island. The island's pretty big—about 60 miles from end to end. Just staying on the southern side we traveled about 25 miles north. This is a place called  Ebey's Landing.

We went to a town called Coupville and had mussels for lunch. This pier is adjacent to a place called Penn Cove, which is known for its mussels. The mussels were tasty. I also got to see a mussel farm, which is basically a series of rafts in the cove with ropes extending down from the rafts into the water.

Sharon keeps a couple of horses across the street from their house. They're both very sweet.

It might be hard to see in this photo, but what look like clouds in the background are also the Olympic Mountains. The mountains have snow and are visible left of center in the photo.

The sky there is large and always changing, with interesting clouds.

As always it was great to catch up with these dear friends.

On the way home we flew over the Sierras, which still have quite a bit of snow.

But of course the best sight to see was home. I flew into Long Beach and somewhere down there is our house!

Far-Flung Harrisons

After spending the past week in Iceland with a group of friends, Peter and Jessa are now in Amsterdam for a couple of days. They'll be back home in Casablanca in time to spend the weekend with Peaches, which I know will warm my mother's heart. (It warms mine too.) We can't wait to talk to them about their trip, as the pictures are fantastic. (Exhibit A: see above!)

The eight of them rented two campers and explored the countryside. If the sampling of pictures I saw on Instagram are any indication, they saw some gorgeous places.

Like this.

I think I count all eight of them in this one—what a great group shot! My thanks to Peter and Jessa and their friend Evan for sharing pictures on Instagram!

Next up, it's not nearly as exciting as Iceland, but last weekend Brad and I traveled about 200 miles north to the town of Paso Robles to do some wine (and beer) tasting. We rented a cute little house in town and had a fun getaway.

We met up with our friends Krista and Todd, two people I've known since I was a girl. It was a tough job but all four of us managed to find some wine and beer that we each liked.

A couple of the wineries we visited had stunning views, like this one. This winery is called Daou and, fun fact, at 2200 feet it's the highest peak in Paso Robles. And on that educational note, I'm calling it a wrap!

CaCaCatalina (Etc.)

We just finished a wonderful week long visit from Mary. To start off, it's us at dinner on her first night here. Imagine this scene, almost each night, for one week. It was a lot of eating out but it was also yummy.

While Mary was in town she wanted to visit some college friends in LA, which was perfect because Brad had a high school reunion so, we divided and we conquered. This is me and Brad and some high schoolers at the reunion.

Onto Catalina. Mary and Brad had never been, and I had not been since the 1970s. For those not familiar, Catalina is one of the Channel Islands, 22 miles off the coast of Long Beach. It's 26 miles long, 8 miles wide at the widest, and there is only one real town (Avalon). Most of the island is a nature preserve, and at an elevation of just over 1600 feet it goes up almost immediately from the shoreline. (More on that later.) Most importantly, it's beautiful. This is Mary as our ferry approaches Avalon harbor. (The round building on the far right was built as a casino by the Wrigleys of chewing gum fame in 1929. Now it's a movie theatre and event space.)

Avalon harbor has a beach and that's what's behind us. It's small and so very pretty.

We did a bit of walking around town and quickly figured out that the most common direction to travel is: up.

I've said this to many of you who are reading this blog but I'll say it again: I think this was the prettiest day I've ever seen in Southern California.

That's our girl.

When we were out on this little dock, we saw lots of bat rays swimming in the shallow water.

We walked down the length of the harbor and found this public beach club to stop at and have a drink. It could not have been lovelier.

Next was the best/worst decision we made all day. Best: because the views were spectacular. Worst: because I was terrified. We traveled in a large ex-military vehicle up the narrow and winding road to the top of the island (did I mention sheer dropoffs?) for stunning views (that is, if you were able to look off the side toward the views, which I found hard to do). It was ten miles each way and it took one hour to go up and one hour to come down. Inbetween we got to spend a half an hour at the top for what I was convinced were likely our last minutes on earth before we plunged over the cliff.

This is just the beginning of our climb, but you start to get the idea.

 That's the mainland of California off in the distance.

And that's Mary looking at the mainland. There aren't more stunning photos of the sheer dropoffs because I was, honestly, too terrified to look, let alone snap a photo. What I did see out of the corner of my eye was breathtaking, though.

And this is Brad and Mary, on terra firma at the Catalina Airport, our stop at the top before we headed back down the mountain.

Near the bottom we got to see this, which was the kind of thing that made all my visions of our certain demise well worth it.

The next day Mary and I drove to Temecula for a visit with my mom where we accidentally chose to wear match-ish clothes. (Because wouldn't you?)

No visit to Temecula is complete without a picture of Simba.

Back at home, we celebrated Mary's 26th birthday a month early with cake and presents.

And a final picture before putting her on a plane back to DC after a fantastic time together.