Making Friends and traveling: The Northern Cascades into the San Juan Islands

Somewhere along the way I'd heard of the Cascades, but it never really registered. Until I was in them. The Cascades of Northern Washington are to me, both incredible and unusual. Markos described the mountain peaks as "shark teeth". What appeared to be mini glaciers clung the sides of the rock peaks. The forests below are lush and deep green with rich reddish brown trunks. Once over Rainy Pass the vegetation turned ultra lush. Thick moss and ferns grew everywhere. Tree trunks were green with growth and supported tons of life.

We rode on to Anacortes and boarded the ferry to San Juan Island. Rob and his family had hosted us for some good times in Mazama and were now sending us on to his uncle John who lives in Friday Harbor. Here the kids are showing a musical side beyond what I've seen before. Between the drums, the piano, the trumpet and the shakers, Sampson, Markos and Tarn spent over an hour sounding amazingly good - and switching up the instruments in concordance too!

A power packed "homeschool" day included this musical session, several hours at the whale museum and an afternoon at the county fair. Tonight we go whale watching.

"PLAY"
So fun to watch
it's golden time.
Three great boys feeling fine.

The thrill of a ferry ride, who some might just take in stride.
Right from the start, when the day was fresh
"Today's the day, we're going on the ferry."
Check it out - each deck is new
The cormorants sat, the seagulls flew.

Another moment equally cool, this time in a living room.
A coronet, a drum, a shaker too.
The piano was opened, each boy knew what was best to do.

Markos at coronet
Samps at the keys
Tarn on percussion - drum then shaker as he pleased.

How long did it go on? It's enough to say
I watched from the side to prolong what may.

We're relaxed, we've time
To play and watch
For this years just begun, more moments to be caught.



Aug 13 Sampson writes: Today we woke up and had KIX cereal for breakfast. Then we packed up and rode on some side roads and a big, long trestle bridge where we saw sea lions. In Anacortes we biked to the bike store and fixed Dad's back spoke. After that we went to Safeway. Later we went the the Rock Fish Brewery for lunch and had fish and chips. Later we went to the ferry. It was two hours long. Then we went to San Juan Island - Friday Harbour and went to John's house.

Aug 14 Some thoughts from Tarn: We played with a yellow slug and a brown slug. We tried to fish for fish but we didn't catch any fish. I found a quarter at the pizza restaurant. I found a penny too.

Aug 14 Markos painted some wild flowers a few weeks ago and decided to write about them today: we saw some flowers and I liked the orange one and mom liked the little yellow ones. they were on the roadside.