Back To School

We ended the summer off with a trip up north to see Collyn's sisters. It was a nice trip full of the kind of weather that makes you think the Washington Coast would be a great place to move to. We had one morning of light rain, but aside from that it was beautiful. We camped for a couple of days in the Northern Cascades National Park. It was camping like I remember. There were no defined camp areas and there was a stream running by the campground. We set up a fire pit in the rocks along the bed of stream and hung out by the water. We took a short little hike into a mountain pond that was formed from snow melt down the mountain next to it. There were quite a few mosquitoes buzzing around and Collyn and I managed to get bit several times. It's been a while since I've had mosquito bites as there are so few of them around where we live.

We took the Anacortes ferry out to Friday Harbor and spent the day wandering around. We walked to a great driftwood beach just outside of town. I'm surprised that I had never been there before as given the number of times we stayed in the harbor on our boat I would have thought we would have walked out to it at some point. There were a few teenage boys building themselves a driftwood cabin. I took some batting practice, hitting rocks into the water. Let me just say that it is obvious I didn't play baseball as a kid. The road there was lined with blackberries, so we had plenty to eat. We had picked huckleberries a few days early. Those things are so small you have to pick forever to get a decent amount. With the blackberries you could get a handful in a few seconds.

We were hoping to do a little sailing in Bellingham harbor, but the community boat center was closed Monday and Tuesday, both days we were in town. We did manage to get together with Shawn and his family. Keith and Julie drove over as well and we had a great salmon dinner. Keith is admittedly turning into an old curmudgeon. He may seem too young for this, but since his kids are grown and moved out he has reached the point in his life where it is acceptable, I guess. We took an afternoon trip to a tide pool area and spent some time poking sea anemones and bothering sea stars.

So here are some pictures: