Evan goes to Kyoto, Japan, for a ten day class on mathematical modeling for epidemilogy. It’s broiling hot in Kyoto, but the class is interesting. He says maybe 70% of the attendees are from Japan’s equivalent of the U.S. CDC, with most of the rest coming from Korea, Taiwan, and China.
Bree and Angela snap a photo with E-moon and Cheng-nan outside their new condo in Rolling Hills Estates, CA.
There are many forest fires in Eastern Washington right now. The wind shifts and covers the Puget Sound area in smoke.
Jan and Liya had planned to go backpacking next week, but the portion of the Pacific Northwest Trail in the North Cascades that Jan had been hoping to hike is now closed because of a fire. He investigates numerous alternate hikes — but pretty much everything is covered by smoke. The two decide to abandon hiking altogether, and will instead visit one of the Gulf Islands near Vancouver.
Bree’s friend Chaleen comes to visit for a couple of days. They both lived in the same dorm at Choate this past year; Chaleen is a year behind Bree and will be returning as a senior in the fall. Chaleen likes trains so is coming from Chicago to Seattle via Amtrak’s Empire Builder.
Bree takes Chaleen on a hike to Talapus and Ollalie Lakes in Alpine Lakes Wilderness. There’s some smoke in the air, but it’s still a pretty hike. On the way back, they stop at Snoqualmie Falls.
A good day for a canoe paddle by the University of Washington and the Arboretum wetlands.
Liya and Jan trip to Salt Spring Island. Jan drives up to the Tsawwassen Ferry Terminal just over the U.S.–Canada border. It’s the first time he’s taking his electric car on a longer trip so he’s a little uncertain how it will go. Driving through Seattle, the “Estimated Range” mileage on the dashboard is dropping faster than the “Miles to Destination” number, which is concerning — but once he’s on the highway the car is happy and there’s nothing to worry about.
Liya meanwhile gets a ride down to the ferry terminal from her apartment in Vancouver’s Kitsilano neighborhood. We meet up at a gas station just outside the terminal, then drive into our appointed lane and get a snack while we wait for the ferry. It’s a pretty day, with just a bit of forest fire smoke lingering in the air.
From Long Harbor on Salt Spring Island, it’s a short drive to our hotel in the little town of Ganges. We walk from the hotel into the business district. It’s almost dinnertime, and both bookstores should be closed, but one has elected to remain open late today so we spend a while inside. We get a tasty dinner from an Indian food from food truck in the town’s food truck “garden”.
In the evening, a power crew has to cut power to the area. A little after 10:00 pm all the power goes off — and all the smoke alarms begin to make plaintive beeps. This does not bode well. Happily, after a few beeps they all go quiet.
Liya and Jan trip to Salt Spring Island, Day 2. We have breakfast at a charming cafe by the harbor that’s constructed around a tree, then set out for the first activity of the day: a short hike up Mt. Erskine. This park is known for it’s “fairy doors” set into rocks and stumps throughout the park, but we’re not paying attention to them and only notice two.
There’s a great view from the top, along with a small, interesting memorial to someone’s dog. The marble includes a hemispheric depression that’s intended for use as a water dish. A man walks up with his dog, and is happy to accept the offer of some water in the dish for their dog. On the walk back, we stop to listen to a raven making a very loud call. Jan makes a loud call back, and the raven immediately replies in kind.
We have a decent lunch of fish and chips by the Ganges harbor, followed by activity #2: a kayak paddle in the harbor. It’s pretty out on the water, and there’s lots to look at, but we’re happy we opted for the shorter 2-hour rental; kayaking is a lot of work for muscles we rarely use. A highlight is seeing some lumps on a small rock at the south end of Goat Island. The lumps prove to be six sleepy seals.
For dinner we make a short drive out of town to the Salt Spring Wild cidery. We try their “Full Flight” of five traditional ciders and five modern ciders. Favorites: the semi-dry cider and the Saskatoon berry.
Liya and Jan trip to Salt Spring Island, Day 3. We have a quick breakfast at a coffeehouse and then hustle to a boat dock to make our 9:00 am departure of a whale watching trip. We’ve done various whale watching expeditions over the years, but this it the first one in a large Zodiac-style boat. We’re asked to don bulky, warm, waterproof red suits. “How wet are we going to get?” we wonder, but the answer is: not at all. Still, it’s breezy out there when the boat is at full speed, so we’re thankful to be warm. We’re also happy to be sitting in the last and least-bouncy row.
The boat captain, Sam, drives us for an hour over the north end of Galliano Island and out in the Strait of Georgia between the Gulf Islands and Vancouver. A ferry has reported seeing some transient orca whales, and sure enough, as we approach the area, we can see three other whale-watching boats slowly traveling south. We join them and watch a group of six orcas slowly swimming along. There’s a big male, four medium-sized females, and a small calf.
Sam takes us back along the southern edge of Galliano where some humpback whales have been hanging out this week. We spot one whale swimming towards our boat, so Sam cuts the engine and we wait. The humpback swims straight towards us, then sounds. We can see a large trail of water bubbles up out of the deep towards our boat. The whale pops its head out on the far side of our boat, directly next to Liya. It appears to consider us for a bit, then resumes swimming away. It sounds again, with a display of its tail flukes, then disappears. (They can stay underwater for a very long time.)
Sam says that, in the few years he’s been leading whale tours, he’s had a whale get that close only once before. He may be motivated to say something like that, but he does seem genuinely excited by the encounter.
Back in Ganges, we have street tacos in a small park by the harbor. Afterwards we drive to Mt. Maxwell Provincial Park for another hike. The driving directions take us to a trailhead down by the water, but we recheck the map and decide to drive to the nearby Armand Way Trailhead to cut out 1000’ of climbing. From there it’s a pleasant through a lush forest with lots of moss — this area must get a great deal of rain in the winter months. We eventually reach the summit with sweeping views to the south.
We end the day with a nice dinner at Hastings House looking out over the harbor. We keep seeing an adolescent harbor seal swimming around; apparently he’s made the harbor his home for the summer.
Liya and Jan trip to Salt Spring Island, return home. We drive back to Long Harbor for the ferry back to Tsawwassen. During the drive back to Liya’s place in Kitsilano, we stop in Richmond for lunch at a dumpling restaurant. Sadly, the “restaurant” turns out to be a storefront selling frozen dumplings, not an actual place to eat. We make do with an okay Chinese restaurant across the parking lot.
We arrive at the apartment Liya moved into this past Spring, and Liya shows Jan around. We take a little walk around the nearby streets, which are lined with huge trees. Finally it’s time for goodbye, and Jan heads back on the road to Seattle.
After working on a project on the back deck, Bree folds up a drop cloth and prepares to roll it up. As soon as she does, Moxie runs over and lies down on the cloth. She starts rolling it up, and Moxie keeps moving a little further, staying on it as long as he can.
Bree heads to freshman year at Boston University. Bree gives Moxie a final hug goodbye before the three of us drive to the airport for our flight to Boston. A student storage service has been holding onto a number of boxes of Bree’s belongings over the summer and will deliver them straight to her dorm, so we have only a modest set of bags to bring with us.
We’re staying at a nice hotel on Commonwealth Avenue. Note to our future selves: Bree’s room on the Comm Ave side was quiet; our room on the Massachusetts Turnpike side was not.
Bree checks in at the Kilachand building to receive her student ID and other materials, then we walk to her nearby dorm building. Bree has won the lottery: she’s in a beautiful converted brick townhouse building.
Our friend Evrim comes up on the train from Brown so we can spend the day together and she can help us move Bree in. Bree has a roommate (who moved in early a few days ago) but the roommate’s away for the day. The room is easily the biggest dorm room we’ve ever seen — the photo shows roughly a quarter of it.
The storage company drops off Bree’s boxes and we spend the rest of the morning unpacking, setting things up, and putting up wall decorations. We make visits to Target and Muji for various household goods — everywhere we go, there are family groups with parents and a kid picking up the things they’ll need.
In the evening we walk to Newbury Street, a nice street with shops and restaurants, to have a dinner on an outdoor patio. Evrim’s friend, Rose, joins us; Rose recently moved to Cambridge across the river.
We spend the day doing some more shopping. Bree’s dorm comes with a decent kitchen, so we pick up some pots and other cooking tools. We also stop at H Mart for ingredients for the kinds of meals Bree’s likely to make for herself.
Liya turns 23! She celebrates with two gatherings of friends: one with all her grad student friends from UBC, and another out dancing with the friends she’s made at dance nights.