Down to the desert

Part of our leave-taking included a trip to visit family in AZ over the last few days.

Bulldog Canyon in Usury Pass is beautiful. It would be a good place for a hike–it was a great spot for family pics at sunset.

Here’s D and B.

And Grandma K and Grandpa D.

Tasha seemed to do okay in the heat. She’s not eating very much and barking a lot more, and I’m pretty sure she ate a dead scorpion, but she’s going to be just fine with all the cousins, aunts and uncles, and grandparents to take care of her. Thank you ever so much!

K helping J remember that she knows how to float.

Cousin time in Nana’s pool.

My sis and me.

She gave us travel games to take us through the long stretches of down time ahead. Our favorite so far is the story cubes.

A and D harvesting oranges and grapefruit from Nana’s trees. I had never seen a citrus harvesting tool before, and when I first saw the boys brandishing them, I asked them if they were fishing something out of the pool. They peered into the pool, scanning for oranges at the bottom. No oranges in the pool. “We’re picking oranges off the trees, Mama. See?”
(Notice the oranges on the ground? Oh well.)

Watching A. reach the top of a mature orange tree with a tool that grabs a super-sweet orange tickled me to no end. When you’re eight the world can be wonderful in long stretches. When you’re the parent of an eight-year-old, the world can be wonderful in tiny windows that suddenly fly open. I love those moments of newness and wonder, especially when we’re out of our routine and there’s some sleep-deprivation and vacation fatigue going on.

K and I made fresh-squeezed grapefruit juice from Nana’s white and red grapefruit, which was the biggest treat of all the treats on this trip. Besides seeing AZ family members and saying our goodbyes, of course!

Guest Post: Introducing Myself

I get to be a guest blogger at Island Ashley now! Let me tell you, I find this PRETTY exciting.

The plan is for me to “chime in” from time to time with my own photos or thoughts (or both).

So without further ado, here are some pictures I’ve taken in the last several months.

Visiting the Japanese Exclusion Memorial on the South side of Eagle Harbor, A. felt compelled to sit and reflect a bit — which is exactly what this space was meant for, I believe.

I’ve also got some pictures to add from our trip to Victoria this last weekend.

Fernwood Square, even on a drowsy Sunday afternoon, had the feel of being a community gathering place.

You could see the BC Parliament building from our hotel window!

We had no idea that Sunday morning was the TC10K – we heard the start signal go off, and looked out the window to see ALL THESE PEOPLE RUNNING.

Lastly, this was the set for God of Carnage. Projected over the furniture was a looped video of children fighting on a playground — a pretty good way to foreshadow the play.

– B

Fifteen and change

Victoria Harbour B.C., taken upon waking really early.

Last week marked 15 years of marriage for us. There haven’t been many quiet years during that decade and a half!

Over the weekend, we reprised a trip to Victoria, B.C. that we took 10 years ago. This time we discovered another section of Victoria, Fernwood Square, 20 minutes of brisk walking from the tourist action. There’s a lovely converted church now in use as a playhouse:

The Belfry Theatre put on a really good production of The God of Carnage. The barfing was truly spectacular.

So traveling and finding food I could eat proved to be a little tricky. But for the most part, it worked. Sushi! Salad nicoise! Steak frites! Dark chocolate and strawberries!

Back on the home front, Auntie M and J were incarnations of Mary Poppins while we were gone–caring for the kiddos, taking them on outings, cooking, cleaning up for an open house, and all-around anxiety busters!

Spring Break Staycation, Part II

Day Four (Tuesday)

Swimming at the B.I. aquatic center, making a giant pb cookie
Favorite moment: I’ll be honest here, a moment of peace in the adults-only hot tub!

Day Five (Wednesday)

The foothills of Mt Rainier! The Altimeter Cabin is tiny and very inspiring.
Favorite moment: hot tub in the snow

Day Six (Thursday)
Foothills of Mt Rainier!
Favorite moment: leaving a note in the cabin guestbook saying just how much we enjoyed our stay. Putting words to things crystallizes emotions, and writing words down does so even more.

Day Seven (Friday)
K’s 14th birthday!
Favorite moment: twofold this time: making K’s birthday dinner with B, and getting a good hug from K. Relationships take work, and we’re putting in the hours.

Day Eight (Saturday)
UW meeting, choir practice
Favorite moment: walking out of my seminar and finding the quad at UW positively alive with photographers and happy people amidst the sunshine and blossoming cherry trees.

Day Nine (Sunday)
Easter nests, socks
Favorite moment: Sophie coming home again!
I didn’t take any pics this time (Easter morning was extremely busy for me, no time for such things as cameras), but we’ve found that lovely, good-quality socks are far more beloved than Easter finery.

And there we have the bare bones of our successful staycation! More travels coming up later on the calendar…

Spring Break Staycation, Part I

Day One (Saturday)

1. Trip to Seattle to apply for the kids’ passports (we haven’t had to get them before)
2. Kabab Palace in Redmond for Indian
3. Star Anna at the IMC (favorite song: the Lucinda Williams cover “Joy”).
Favorite moment: dancing with S. and A. right by the stage.

Day Two (Sunday)

1. Trip to Seattle for an evening outing. Dinner at Long Provincial (Vietnamese)–definitely the very best pho I’ve had.
2. Egyptian Theatre to see Jiro Dreams of Sushi. You must see this film!
Favorite moment: walking into the beautiful Egyptian Theatre after running for blocks and realizing we weren’t late!

Day Three (Monday)

1. Cleaning and sorting books, clothes, dishes, fabric, etc. to give away
2. Doughnuts and sushi as a reward
3. Playing with Tasha and gardening
Favorite moment: weeding in the sunshine, feeling that there is enough time to do everything. There are changes on the horizon, as there always are–but right now, the to-do list is mighty long.

Here’s a fitting sentiment for today:

Do not mourn for the past, do not worry about the future, do not anticipate troubles, but live the present moment wisely and earnestly. –The Buddha

18 hours and Alain de Botton

This is the essayist I saw tonight. In person, he’s witty, polished, and has great presence. I was so excited to see him on the schedule for Seattle Arts and Lectures, and he didn’t disappoint. His 50-minute talk went by like 5. I would seriously listen to his accent and ideas for 5 hours.

But before that happened, this happened:

6:30am Wake up
7:30am Take A to school
8:30am Teach at the intermediate school (easy day, didn’t embarrass S too much)
3:30pm Pick up A
4:00pm Take kids to S’s guitar recital (fun times, she did great)
5:30pm Go home, finish making dinner, pack dinner for B and me
6:00pm Leave for the 6:30 ferry
7:30pm Attend Alain de Botton’s lecture at UW
10:05pm Get the ferry back home
10:40pm Run home alone along dark pathways, get scared silly and arrive home breathless, sweaty and with seared lungs.
11:30pm Cuddle up in bed and let my mind churn and churn and churn:

So many frogs at night
It feels like everything’s been done before
Maybe some mint tea would be nice
Up too late again
But look, we’re one of the first generations to navigate non-religious life
Smartphone flashlights are not bright enough
There are definitely gaps in the secular world

The path along the harbor is beautiful and weirdly frightening at night
There’s so much that we mean to do, but we just don’t get around to it
Things jump and quiver in the dark
That’s what religions do well; they infuse life with ritual
Running must kill hunger, motion being its own food
Actually it was all the chocolate

Food, drink, music, art, these are all important aspects of religion
It’s late and getting later
The kids are all asleep now
All the major faiths structure time
An outer structure for an inner phenomenon

Tree Envy and an Icarus Complex

Fiber artist Suzanne Tidwell created this whimsical public art installation called “Artificial Light”– you can see it at City Hall Park for another few days. Just be sure to pull on your coziest, stripiest, most colorful winter socks before you set out, or you just might be beset by treesock envy.

How does she do it? She uses a knitting machine for the most part, then clambers up lifts and ladders to hand-stitch them onto the trunks and limbs.

It’s easy to see why peoples and their stories have long imbued trees with human qualities: their tall, sturdy frames and skyward reaching limbs remind us of us.

Our Seattle outing yesterday included the Museum of Flight.

Il Cigno, or The Swan, is based on Leonardo da Vinci’s drawings.

My favorite part of the museum is the early aircraft display hanging in the front foyer. The luminous materials look like deconstructed and reconfigured Japanese lanterns that talented sailmakers got their hands on.

My next favorite part was sinking into the first-class seat of a modern airplane. With just a little suspension of disbelief, I was really taking a trip, flying over the Atlantic, going to visit London in particular. A little flutter of anticipation made me smile. Funny, because flying scares me sick in reality. Only in a museum would I feel happy to be flying in a jet. And only on paper did Icarus survive his flight from the isle of Crete.

Sunday hike: Indian Island

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After an afternoon prowl through Port Gamble, we tramped around the Olympic Peninsula’s Indian Island, picking ripe blackberries and picking our way along the shoreline. There are apple trees, but you have to either be a giant or bring quite a ladder to reach what’s left by now.

Don’t the little unripe drupelets look like green eggs in a nest?

My favorite tree, Pacific Madrone, or arbutus menziesii.

bashful flimsy compromise

A couple of days ago, I chaperoned A. and the rest of the 2nd graders on their field trip to the Pacific Science Center. The butterfly house was the focus of the outing, the 2nd graders just having cared for their own Painted Lady caterpillars. We also saw the 3-D IMAX movie Born to be Wild. It’s quite good, even more so if you’ve got a 2nd grade hand to hold during the show.

This one rode around on A’s head like a living crown.

One of the kids in my little group was a natural with my camera–she got this shot of a butterfly hanging out on my sweater.

A’s 2nd grade vocab papers are cracking me up:

My akschage student mgiht be bashful. That’s right, we’re hosting an exchange student from China, who arrives in less than a week! I guess A. was listening when the coordinator met with us and explained that she might be shy at first because everything would be so new.

I had a flimsy balloon. The little “pop” is my favorite part. It’s brilliant to have students draw pictures of their new vocab words.

Sometimes my parents compromise. Best one yet: the dialogue balloons of me and B saying, “Aa!” and “Aag!” Nice to know we’re modeling mature, evolved methods of compromise.

Cannon Beach reunion

Earlier this month, 17 members of my extended family got together for a 3-day camping reunion at Cannon Beach, OR. I can heartily recommend Wright’s for Camping, close enough to walk to the town and beach.

Cold water still doesn’t stop the kiddos. B and I thought about renting wetsuits and skim boards, then decided nahh.

K and me.

Miss S.