Anya attends her high school’s prom. It’s meant for seniors and juniors — but Kenta, a junior she knows, asks her to go with him. Few of Anya’s sophomore friends are going.
Angela’s sad that Anya doesn’t want her help preparing for the event. Anya goes dress shopping with her friends instead of Angela. In the afternoon, Anya only reluctantly accepts Angela’s help with her makeup.
Angela: “She doesn’t want my help!”
Jan: “When you went to prom, did you want your mom’s help?”
Angela: “Er… No.”
The meeting place for Anya’s group is the Japanese Garden near our house. As Jan’s driving her to the meeting point, Anya says that they’ll get there too early — that is, on time. She makes Jan pull over and wait for twenty minutes, so she can be sure that her date is there before her. At the entrance to the Japanese Garden, a number of people are waiting around in tuxes and pretty dresses — more people waiting to meet up to go to the prom.
Anya has a good evening. Sign of the times: Kenta rides home with Anya in an Uber, then continues on in the Uber to his own home.
Jan’s friend Bruce has an extra ticket for this evening’s Steely Dan concert at Key Arena, which sounds like a fun time. Their friends Chris and Laura join as well, and the four of them have dinner beforehand in Queen Anne.
The opening act is The Doobie Brothers, making for a concert of two rock groups that have both been around for decades and which both peaked sometime between 1975–85. Jan was never a devoted listener of either group, but they’ve both had many hits, and Jan’s pleasantly surprised to recognize half of what The Doobie Brothers play and nearly all of what Steely Dan plays.
Last day of school for Anya and Liya. In the morning, Anya asks Jan if he can give her (and Liya) a ride to school. It’s not that far to walk, so Jan rarely gives them rides, but Anya plays her trump card: “This is the last chance you’ll ever have to drive me to school.” This ploy works.
Bree’s last day of 4th grade!
Anya performs at her last piano recital for students of her teacher, Sandra Labadie. Anya will continue her lessons with Sandy through the summer, but this is her last public performance. Anya plans to continue studying piano at Choate.
In a week and a half, we’ll leave for a family vacation to the Galapagos. In preparation, all five of us go to a Travel Clinic for vaccinations. It’s probably the only time all five of us have ever gone to a medical office to be seen at the same time. We all get shots. We all feel like someone’s punched us in the arm.
Bree is spending the week at a one-week art camp at her school, taught by Miss Meg, the art teacher, and Miss P., one of the science teachers.
Jan takes his friend Tony on a backpacking trip to Baker Lake. In January this year, Tony said he’d be interested in trying backpacking sometime, so the two put a date on the calendar in June — and now’s the time.
They have a quick lunch at Annie’s Pizza in the small town of Concrete, then drive to the trailhead. It’s an easy 5 miles to the Maple Grove campground. An early start means they’re the first to arrive for weekend camping, so they get a nice spot by the lake.
Jan and Tony continue hiking north along the east bank of Baker Lake. They hike 4~5 miles to Noisy Creek, but the campground is already completely packed with people that arrived last night. So Jan and Tony head back south a bit to a smaller campground at Silver Creek. They get a nice spot overlooking the lake just before a number of other hikers walk in.
Jan sets up a hammock, but lets Tony try it out. Tony immediately passes out for 1½ hours.
In the late afternoon, the sun is suddenly covered by gray clouds, the temperature drops, the wind picks up, and Jan and Tony see rain coming across the lake from the west. Thankfully, the rain shower is light and passes quickly. The clouds eventually clear again, giving nice views of Mt. Baker across the lake.
Jan and Tony pack up and hike south all the way along Baker Lake to the trailhead.
When Jan gets home, Liya and Bree give him a Father’s Day puzzlehunt.
Most of the clues provide coordinates on a meticulous map Liya’s drawn of our house. The room labels reflect Liya’s opinions: the master bathroom is labeled, “Clean Bathroom”, while Anya and Bree’s bathroom is labeled, “Messy Bathroom”. Bree’s bedroom is labeled, “Hurricane Destruction Zone”.
Some of the clues provide coordinates in Whale langauge. The 1st floor is indicated by the Whale word ahwooaooOoaAah, while the 2nd floor is AwoOOoooaaAA, and the basement is OOooaaaoOa.
Family trip to Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands. Today we’re heading to Quito, Ecuador, eventually heading to the Galapagos, where we’ll do a 6-day family cruise organized by Angela’s alumni association.
We all get up at 4:00 am for a flight to Atlanta. We have an evening flight out of Atlanta to Quito, but a massive thunderstorm rolls in. There are sheets of water against the terminal windows, and eventually we hear an announcement for some other flight that says that the plane on the tarmac has been hit by lightning. The airport shuts down all incoming and outgoing flights until the storm abates.
We go and get a sit-down dinner at an airport restaurant named Ecco. When we come back, we find our gate area complete empty. Did the flight leave? No — whew — it just moved to a different gate. We go there. They move the gate again. There are more delays. Around 9:00 pm, they airport gives the airlines permission to start flight operations again. Now, however, there’s a huge service backlog: all the flights need cleaning crews, security inspections, etc., at the same time. After a couple more hours, our aircraft is finally ready and the airline begins boarding. Halfway through the boarding process, a computer decides some of the flight crew have been working too long, and shuts down the boarding process. There are more delays while that’s sorted out and new crew members are obtained. Our 6:30 pm flight finally leaves around 11:00 pm.
Most of us don’t get a great sleep on the flight. Angela and Jan are woken up by woman who falls to her knees in the aisle between us. She stands, then falls again. We talk to her, help lay her down in the recovery position (on her side) until attendant asks if there’s a doctor on board; one is and eventually takes over. It seems she just hasn’t eaten anything in hours, and after being given food and water, she recovers.
We finally arrive in Quito 3:00 am. We’d arranged with the tour company for a driver, and wonder if they’ll still be at the airport. They are, in fact, still there; they’ve been waiting for hours with no news of our ETA. There are actually two people: a guide named Jonathan and the driver. Jonathan does his best to share tourist factoids on the 45 minute ride into the city.
We arrive at the Hotel Hilton Colon around 4:30 am. The receptions helpfully points out that the restaurant is now serving breakfast.
We were supposed to take a tour of Quito’s Old Town at 9:00 am, but are in no shape to do that. Jan can’t find any good way to contact the tour company, until he notices they accept text messages via WhatsApp. Jan has to install the app to send them a message, and crosses his fingers that the tour company can reschedule the tour for the afternoon.
Quito, Day 1. The tour company gets our text message and is thankfully able to reschedule our tour of Quito’s Old Town in the afternoon, so we’re able to sleep in. We have a late breakfast at 11:00, then meet our guide Eduardo and driver Oliver.
Our first stop is a large church, the Basílica del Voto Nacional. We don’t go inside, but it’s still interesting to look at the exterior. Instead of gargoyles, the church has grotesques in the form of Ecuadorian animals, including penguins, tortoises, iguanas, and condors.
Our next stop is the Old Town proper. We visit another church, La Iglesia de la Compañía de Jesús, and this time go inside for a tour of the ornate interior.
We’re a little hungry afterwards, so Eduardo takes us inside a tiny little pub and orders empanadas verde: empanadas filled with green bananas. The FIFA World Cup is going on right now, and as far as we can tell, everyone in Ecuador is watching it. This pub is now exception. There’s a match playing between Nigeria and Argentina, and when Argentina scores a goal, everyone cheers. A woman who works in a little nook next door selling tourist trinkets runs in to see the reply. She squeals excitedly, then goes back to tending her store. Angela’s not feeling 100% — a combination of lack of sleep and Quito’s high altitude (9000’). She follows Eduardo’s recommendation to try coca tea, which is said to help with altitude sickness.
Our tour of the Old Town ends at La Ronda street, where we stop in a small toy store that makes and sells small tops and other wooden toys. As we walk along, Anya and Bree take turns taking pictures with the one large camera we’ve brought on this trip. (The rest of us are using our phones’ cameras.)
On the way back to the hotel, we stop at El Panecillo, a hill with a good view of the city. The hill is dominated by a large statue of a winged madonna. From a distance, we thought it was an angel with octopus legs, but up close it turns out to be a woman standing on a dragon. Near the statue, an old shepherdess is grazing some sheep. Bree takes a photo of her sheep, at which point the shepherdess talks to Eduardo. He says she wants a tip in exchange (which we pay).
Back at the hotel, we collapse. As per usual on family trips, Anya says she doesn’t want to go out to dinner. She says she’s just going to fall asleep in the middle of the meal. We give in and end up eating at the hotel restaurant. Jan had asked Eduardo to name some local dishes, and one of the dishes is on the menu: locro, a thick Ecuadorian potato and cheese soup. After the waiter sets down the bowl of soup, he says, “I’ll be right back with your avocado”. Apparently the soup isn’t complete without avocado on top.
Quito, Day 2. The five of us cram into a small taxi for a short ride to Teleferico Quito, a cable car that goes about ¾ of the way up of Pichincha, an active (but, for now, quiet) volcano. The top station is almost at 13,000 feet of elevation, so the air’s pretty thin. Unfortunately, it’s not particularly clear today, but we can still get a decent perspective on city of Quito sprawling below us.
Towards the end of the cable car ride, we noticed an unusual amenity a short walk above the cable car station: a big swing set. We decide to walk to that, although the high altitude makes the short climb a little challenging. The swing set turns out to be even bigger than it appeared, and perched at the top of a steep grassy slope.
We have lunch at the top of the teleferico. The girls eat hot dogs, but Jan and Angela opt for instant cup noodles that turn out to be pretty good. There are a number of small shopping stalls, one of which is selling Ecuadorian chocolate. Liya picks out a few flavors, including a tasty passion fruit chocolate.
We walk across a major thoroughfare to a large city park. The park has many pieces of playground equipment scattered throughout. We take a turn on an old see-saw.
When we get back to the hotel, Anya and Bree want to hole up in the room, but the rest of us make a short walk to the Mercado Artesanal, a small tourist market. It’s quite colorful, although it quickly becomes apparent that there’s only four or five different kinds of stalls. Once you decide you don’t need a woven blanket or vivid painting, it’s more fun to just look than try to shop. Jan and Liya find a small stall where two women are making gelato by hand. We try the maracuyá (passion fruit), and it’s amazing.
We eat dinner at an Ecuadorian restaurant called Miskay. Everything is quite good.
Quito, Day 3. Our trip to the Galapagos is organized by Stanford’s travel/study program, and this morning the tour group has assembled for an introductory briefing. Our tour leader from the travel/study program is Patty, who gives an overview of the trip, then introduces the faculty member that’s accompanying our trip, Dr. Robert Siegel, a.k.a. Dr. Bob. His focus is infectious diseases, but he also travels extensively and devotes substantial time to photography. Dr. Bob will give several lectures over the course of the trip, and starts with a lecture providing an overview of Galapagos geological, biological, and human history. We all read a fairly good book about the Galapagos before the trip (the travel/study program had sent us several), so there’s little in the lecture we don’t already know, but Dr. Bob’s an entertaining speaker regardless.
Following the lecture, the travel/study tour heads out on a tour of Quito. Since much of it will cover ground we’ve already seen, we’ve made separate arrangements for a trip out of town. A guide named Fernando and a driver named Johnny pick us up for the drive to Papallacta, a hot spring area about 1½ hours away. The drive crosses over a high mountain pass. We arrive at Termas Papallacta, a hot spring resort, and have a nice lunch. Liya and Jan get some grilled chicken that’s quite good.
After lunch, we head to the hot springs. The resort has a series of 6 or 7 hot spring-fed outdoor pools of varying temperature. We try them all to find the hottest.
A sign by each pool gives its depth: e.g., “Profundidad 1.1m”.
Jan: “That sign tells you how profound each pool is.”
Anya: “What’s the ‘m’ for?”
Jan: “‘Meaning’. This pool has 1.1 meanings, so it’s only a little profound.”
The weather is misty and a little rainy, but it’s warm enough in the water that it doesn’t matter. There’s a nice view of the lush green hills surrounding the town, and we can see some cows grazing on steep meadows high on the hillside.
After returning to Quito, Angela, Liya, Jan go to a small bakery/deli around the corner from the hotel entrance to buy food for tomorrow’s lunch on the plane. We fill a big bag with rolls, croissants, and a loaf of bread with ham and cheese baked inside. Total cost: less than $5.
In the evening, the travel/study program hosts a group dinner, and we meet some of our fellow travelers. Following dinner, we all pack up for a very early departure tomorrow morning.
Galapagos, Day 1 — Mosquera Islet. We wake up at the crazy early time of 4:40 am, drop our bags off in the hotel lobby, and grab a quick breakfast. Our group travels en masse to the Quito airport, and then flies via Guayaquil to Baltra Island in the Galapagos. Although it’s almost on the equator, the weather’s not too hot, a little overcast.
We board a bus that takes us to a dock, where we wait for zodiac boats to take us out to the ship. We’ve just gotten off the bus, and already can see a large iguana, a sea lion, pelicans, a frigate bird, and bright red crabs (called Sally Lightfoot crabs).
A zodiac (“panga”) takes us out to our ship for the next 6 days, the Santa Cruz II. We’re on the middle Expedition Deck, in staterooms 212, 214, and 216. The first two rooms connect; by prior agreement among the girls, Anya gets the third room to herself.
We explore the ship a bit before lunchtime. It’s a big ship for the Galapagos (they no longer allow large cruise ships), carrying something like 90 people right now.
After lunch, we gather in the ship’s library for our first shore excursion. Our naturalist guide for the trip is named Maricarmen, who leads us back on to a zodiac for the short trip to Mosquera Islet. It’s a “wet landing” — we get our feet wet — on a white sand beach. Our group is the only group on the islet. (The Galapagos national park requires tour operators to spread out their visits so that no one spot gets overcrowded.) There are some sea lions lounging on the beach. Some are rolling in the sand, some are pups that are nursing, most are just asleep. Like most of the Galapagos wildlife, the sea lions ignore or tolerate the presence of people. Everyone takes tons of photos.
We also see small lizards called lava lizards, then a group of black marine iguanas. They’re smaller than we’d expected (based on a video we’d watched before coming); apparently other islands have larger marine iguanas. Hiding among some nearby rocks we can see a heron. Maricarmen identifies it as a yellow-crowned night heron. Pelicans are flying by as well. Towards the end of our walk, we see a small whale skeleton.
Back on board the ship we have dinner. While attending an evening briefing about the next day’s outings, Liya comes in from the back deck to say that there are sharks visible in the water. We go outside, and there are indeed a few sharks slowly swimming around the ship. The guides later explain that the sharks are Galapagos sharks, and they’re there to eat flying fish. Sometimes flying fish are confused by the ship’s lights, and will fly straight into the side of the ship. The sharks snap up the stunned fish. We see the sharks every night.
Galapagos, Day 2 — San Cristóbal Island. We make an early morning trip to a giant tortoise sanctuary and breeding center. Immediately upon entering, we see a modest sized tortoise by the side of path munching on greens. We eventually see a total of 20 tortoises of all sizes, from juveniles to a huge one. The last stop is the best: baby giant tortoises, which are raised at the center for 8 years or so until they’re no longer prey for the Galapagos hawk. Baby tortoises are really, really cute.
It’s back to the boat, lunch, then a second lecture from Dr. Bob presenting stories about a few specific Galapagos species. In the afternoon, the ship stops at Punta Pitt, a point at the easternmost end of San Cristóbal. We go ashore and hike up some headlands. The highlight of this area are the boobies: blue-footed boobies, red-footed boobies, and Nazca boobies. There are tons of birds nesting near the trail. In one case, a booby and her check are nesting directly on the trail.
We get to witness some natural bird behavior as well. We see a male red-footed booby bring nesting material to his mate, who immediately adds the vegetation to her nest. We watch a mother blue-footed booby regurgitate food for her chick — whereupon a large frigate bird dives in to try and steal the food.
When we return to the landing beach, a number of people take advantage of the opportunity to go for a swim. Several sea lions are swimming around and through the crowd.
Sometime during our first day or two of the trip, Bree befriends a girl named Sidney, and the two spend much of the rest of the trip doing things together. For their part, Anya and Liya make friends with Sidney’s older sister, Janae, and another girl named Erika.
In the evening, we listen to another lecture by Dr. Bob, this one focusing on nature photography. Best tip for us wildlife photography noobies: above all else, make sure the animal’s eyes are in focus.