Cama Beach

I hadn't been up to Cama Beach (previous posts) in a while but word of a landslide up at the north end brought me back, first a week and half ago, then again on Saturday morning (Gravel Beach).

The weather was miserable when I left Seattle and was even worse driving north, but by the time I got to Cama it had started to dry out and within a few hours the sun even came out.

The new retreat center is now open and this was my first chance to check it out.  I would like Cama Beach even in the worst conditions, but being able to enjoy a nice cup of coffee and a scone while watching the light on the beach cabins makes it all the better.

Whidbey Island

Everyone says that February weekends in western Washington are bleak and depressing.  People can't wait for spring (then they complain about that, too).  Saturday might have been just another cold, dark, drizzly northwest winter day.  Conventional wisdom be damned.

The first Saturday of February always brings me up to Whidbey Island for Sound Waters.  I watched the sun rise from Possession Point, then headed to Langley to listen to Joe Gaydos talk about the role of science in Puget Sound restoration.  I spent the rest of the morning entertaining (I hope) a small classroom with pictures and explanations of local beaches.

Sometimes I stay for the afternoon sessions, sometimes I don't.  This year, the remarkably pleasant weather was too much to resist and I headed off in search of new and interesting beaches.   I probably logged three or four miles of sand and cobble before ending up at West Beach to watch the sun set over the Olympics.

Volunteer Park

We woke to off and on wet snow this morning.  Ironically, we probably now have more snow on the ground than D does in Minnesota, but at least we don't have to worry about dipping into the single digits later this week!

M & I headed over to Capitol Hill, hoping for deeper and less slushy snow.  I was also eager to introduce my new Subaru to challenging conditions. We parked at the bottom of the hill, since the streets going up were snarled, and climbed up to Volunteer Park, where kids were sledding and large snowmen were coming to life.  There were at least 4 inches of snow and it was still falling heavily.

Seattle

Christmas fell in the midst of Chanukah this year, which made the season both more efficient and more confusing than those years in which they maintain their distance.  We kept the menorahs and the Christmas tree far enough apart to maintain some religious and cultural identity, while also preventing the candles from igniting the tree.

But unlike last year, when the three of us were split up over the holidays, this year we were all home together.  As usual, we spent Christmas Day at A&B's with the whole family.

Seattle

We hosted Thanksgiving again this year, although our numbers were down a little from some years.  That does make the whole thing a bit more manageable, since we can all fit around one table and we don't need quite so large a turkey.   We had a 19 lb bird for 11 people this year -- which would have worked better if the proportion of dark meat had been higher!

We rarely entertain, so Thanksgiving is our annual opportunity to actually host something.  It's an excuse to clean the house. It's my annual deadline for wrapping up house projects.  And I'm finally figuring out how turkeys are put together - although I still make a mess of taking it apart.

I think we can call the kitchen officially done, after a year and a half (more actually) of cabinets and floors and paint and appliances.  I finished a shoji shade for the south window and installed it Thursday morning after the bird went into the oven.  And I just finished the pot-hanging rack over the stove a few days earlier.  For years we have said that the only reason we really needed a dishwasher was Thanksgiving.  And this year  we finally had one.  What a great idea!

Denny Creek

A sunny, brisk Sunday morning and fresh snow in the mountains, and M grading papers all day, so I headed for the foothills hoping to catch sun reflecting off of ice on the edges of Franklin Falls or on the waterfalls up Denny Creek.  But the road got snowier and snowier and by the time I realized I should turn back, it was awfully hard to figure out how to do so without getting stuck.  The Denny Creek road (old highway 202) was beautiful in the  snow, but just as I approached the top (about to pass beneath the westbound lanes of I-90 near the summit), the snow got too thick and icy and I slid to a stop, high-centered between deep ruts.

All I could think was that M would see this as just one more of my excuses to replace my 235,000 mile Outback with a new one.  If I could have just gotten 50 more feet, I could have parked it beneath the overpass for the winter.  I called AAA, but realized they might be of limited use up here.  What could have been a very long and complicated day was saved by three guys in two jeeps that showed up before AAA could even find me.  They ignored my pleas of gross stupidity and clearly thought that getting stuck in the snow was what made a day like this fun!  They put their jeeps to work, pulled me to solid ground, where I could finally get the chains on and turn the car around.  So I could head back down.  I had realized that there was no way I could make the last 400 feet up to the Alpental Road, but with the jeeps standing by and chains on the rear wheels, I could probably make it back the way I came up.

It was a very pretty drive back down and I even made it back to town to see most of the Seahawks game.  The adventure cost me a breakfast sandwich and a burger on the way back down, but no expensive tow back to the city.  It looks like I did break a torsion bar, but maybe that's just a down payment on the new car.

Speaking of breaking things, these pictures were taken with my new SX150, which replaces the SX130 that I filled up with salt water a week ago Friday (Whidbey Storm).  I wonder what expensive thing I'll break next week?

English Bay

Vancouver's West End is one of the densest residential neighborhoods on the west coast - although in the last twenty years some of the city's other districts may have pulled ahead.  There's a remarkable combination of old and new, of houses and apartment buildings, of tree-lined streets and commercial strips.  And then there's English Bay and Stanley Park.

I took a quick lunchtime walk down to the Hotel Sylvia and the beach.  I bought a latte at Delaney's and sat on a bench in the rain.  It was very pleasant and very different than those summer weekends when we've stayed at the Sylvia and watched the fireworks with 300,000 other people.

Previous posts:  English Bay 2008, English Bay 2006

West Vancouver

We've come up to Vancouver many times over the years, but I'd never seen much of West Vancouver - except looking across from Stanley Park or looking down from the Lion's Gate Bridge.  What a great place for a late afternoon walk and a sunset.  I took the bus from downtown to Dundarave, then walked back to Ambleside Park before catching the bus back for the rest of the poster session.

As usual, there is a slightly more shoreline-oriented version of the Vancouver trip over at Gravel Beach.

False Creek

The conference took up most of the days, but there was still time to get away now and then.  I guess ultimately I'd still rather walk and ponder a shoreline, than talk it to death in a downtown hotel.

We actually had a planned field trip Monday afternoon to the Olympic Village site on False Creek, but I also made a point of walking down to the water in Yaletown a couple of other times during the meeting - one of them for sunrise, one at lunchtime.  There are lots of interesting stories and lessons about urban estuaries, coastal management, public access, and shoreline development here, but there are also just lots of cool things to look at.


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Amtrak Cascades

On the trip from Seattle to Vancouver, it's important to be on the left side of the train, since that's where the water is.  Wander down to the cafe car for coffee while the train inches through Everett, since the switchyard scenery isn't as interesting.  Ideally, plan your trip for a season when the sun has already risen while you roll along the Sound between Seattle and Everett -- it was pretty gray on this trip until we got north of Marysville.

Don't miss Shipwreck Point between Edmonds and Mukilteo (not in these pictures), Rock Point Oyster along Chuckanut Drive, or the white rock in White Rock, BC.  Look for eagles near Crescent Beach - not many today.

It takes four hours or more on the train, less than three in the car (even if border is slow), but the train is just plain more relaxing.