THE ANNUAL BEACH RETREAT

Here is a shot of our 2007 humble cottage for twelve. And there was room for a few more!

One of our favorite Vancouver traditions is the Annual Beach Retreat of our Wednesday evening Bible Study group. this event began long ago in a year when almost every individual attending had a major medical condition within the same few months, and many were struggling with ongoing conditions. Cancers, back and facial surgeries, illness, ongoing vision loss, nerve damage, heart valve replacement, and more: as a group we were hammered and as weary souls fighting our individual maladies and medical woes, we were exhausted physically and spiritually.

We formed a united front, rented a beach house, went to "escape, and to pray. It was a wonderful weekend, and we have gone again every year to recapture the effect.

Well, the group membership has changed some over the years, the purpose has become more recreational than remedial, and the location has started to move around a bit. Nevertheless, we are still committed to a weekend of fun and fellowship together celebrating our friendships and mutual blessings. There is always time allowed to go "antiquing" or hunting local garage sales, bookstores, curiosity shoppes, or such. But some of the tradition has remained constant: Great food, a variety of games and activities, and the Saturday night Balderdash Tournament we wouldn't dare to miss. In the picture below/right, our aeyrie is front and center on the bay.

Whether we were playing games or napping on the couches, we were relaxing and enjoying a trip-out-of-town, and some (mostly) phone-free vacation. An afternoon of strolling the little fishing port of Garabaldi and Sunday morning worship with the tiny congregation in Tillamook all made for a wonderful get-away weekend. Come join our group and qualify for next year, OK?

HARBINGERS OF SPRING

Signs of spring are always welcome around here, and although there are earlier indicators, my favorite is the row of trees along the edge of the lawn on our north side. Originally formed of widely spaced dogwoods, the composition now alternates white or red dogwoods with flowering crabapple. The neat thing to me is that I raised these trees from tiny 2" or 3" shoots for several years before planting them in the row. The blossoms tend to peak about a week apart, but this year with warm weather somewhat delayed, the whole row is at prime all at once.

There are a host of other blooms in various colors, but I've chosen to feature the white flowers because they seem to stand out so strongly against the multitude of new greens, especially against the bright hues of the newly-fed lawn. Dogwood and lilac are popular and these draw much comment from visitors. Enjoy!

A DAY IN SEATTLE

It's usually fun to visit selected portions of downtown Seattle, and yesterday was no exception. After we left the train, Patty and I and the girls walked through the Pioneer Square area, crossed over to Alaskan Way near the Ferries, and eventually made our way up to the Seattle Aquarium. This is a must-see-at-least-once feature for everyone and a longtime favorite for me. The admission price is a bit steep, but for the occasional visit, "go for it". I would suggest you plan for three hours, and remember there are no food booths inside, so maybe you should have a snack in your pocket.

First we saw the mammals section with the huge hair seals and busy otters, but the special attraction this trip was being in the underwater dome with its dozens of windows giving close-up views of hundreds of fish and fishes. The highlight was feeding time when a couple of dry-suited divers fed the denizens, attracting scores of hungry fish of many local sorts to their hands and feed bags. The divers were able to speak to the crowd via mask-mikes, and gave interesting talks and features some remarkable individual fish, including a "wolf-eel" and an enormous sturgeon.

A while later, up the hill in Pike Place Market, we viewed the action at the famous fish stand where impressive displays of fish and seafoods always attracts enough crowd for the vendors to present some street-theater and good-natured jesting with customers. As you can guess from the display shots, I am in many ways more closely drawn to these kings and crabs than to the tropicals and displays down in the aquarium.

Salmon and halibut and crab and such are on my mind anyway as these will be the main offerings at Geoffrey and Dana's wedding rehersal dinner next month. I must remember to provide plenty of lemon slices and tarter sauce that night!